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Unified Under Sinister Bane

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Synopsis
A tale of struggle and adventure in low-fantasy dark world full of mysteries of civilizations, lost and undiscovered. One faithful day, after completing his last contract, protagonist, an young elf mercenary finds himself discovering something that he really wasn't meant to..
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Chapter 1 - Prologue

Last massacre of a job was nothing more than a fluke. He definitely tried to kill us!

I knew that anti-elvish incentive was strong up north, but not that strong! Dwarves and humans was always against our species, but who knew that felinids here are thinking the same? All too savage here, although payment is good, alas it's taken from cold and dismembered hands of my kin...

So, the job was about us, four elves, specifically elves, as I've discovered, to rob some poor soul of a trader - one faithful night he lost almost all his fortune cause of sudden appearance of blizzard, as it often is, but he did discovered something in there, something that can only be found in the rarest of occasions. We were told that was some kind of jewel, 'foul's eye' they said.

And so, shrouded in dark and affiliated by the drink, we: Mikael, young and foolish being with thin and fast fingers, always smirking and too foolish for his own good - our lockpicking expert, Aranis and Correl - gloomy and, surprisingly, even gloomier duo, always talking about a score, not a word of curiosity or concern from them. One of them was our guide, one of that who was unlucky to be born here, and the other was our 'expert' in such artifacts(up to you to decide who is who), and me, the odd in the bunch - it was obvious that this trader got no family or other loved ones who would care enough to visit him in a middle of a night, enforcers, to be sure, got no interest in visiting fellow either, but even so I was the one who should've been on a lookout; approached his house. It looked exactly as I imagined - simple two story building in the outskirts, all abandoned and untended, with a glimmer of it once comfy and caring outlook shown in flower beds with fading yet colorful shimmer of exotic flora, pedestals that surely carried the burden of excessively ludicrous busts that only inexpert eye might find fascinating, steel gates of fine dwarven craftsmanship and so on.. With one firm and silent motion, door into this tenement was opened, Mikael truly were talented in this regard, no wonder why he chose this occupation, and so we entered. Place was in ruins, to put it simply, all was in dust and little furnishing that still left was damaged by owner, detail only I paid enough attention, and so it began.

As being discussed, I was on a lookout and my only company now was violated front door, uncaring and cold gaze of a night street and irritating noise of crackling floor woodplanks produced by others.

'That would be another uneventful night..' - I thought to myself, fidgeting knife in one hand and fact of damaged furniture in my mind. That quickly come to an end when I heard a low grunt accompanied by three distinct screams a moment later. Sudden movements, gliding through this den of dust and misery, I approached the source of sound and saw that I wasn't expecting - some truly hideous monstrosity was tearing apart my associates, piece by piece, all clothed in typical for traders rags, all dusty and dirty, torn on edges and red spots all over collar, who knows of wine or of others unlucky one's blood. I had only a split second to pay it attention, but on a table behind him were sparkling of sinister purple, scattered all over - it can only be one thing. I knew that I had one chance at it - while the creature was in a middle of it carnivorous feast and still didn't detected me I rushed with reckless abandon, thinking only how I found myself in this mess. One clean hit straight into it's deformed forehead was enough to end this madness. Quickly gathering scattered pieces, I decided that foolish ambitions of my fallen kin deserve at least a minute of silence. After that I went ahead, to sell the spoils. My employers can rot in hell. That was, again, dwarf with manic mannerisms, quick fingers and shifting gaze.

"Fine piece of jewelry, elf-thing, eh? Wonder where one can find such..." - he said, grinning with his almost toothless mouth, reeking poison out it.

"All in a days work!" - I answered, wearing innocent smile on my face. "Well, eh..." - he stopped for a moment, squinting with his lively eye at devious shards. "Gold piece and a half, no more, lad." - he stated, crossing his arms.

I nodded slowly. He clearly robbed me blind, but I didn't had any choice.

And I still wanted to do one last thing while I was still in this frozen wasteland...