A dense darkness covered everything. It was one of the coldest days of the fall. But the only source of light in this dense darkness was a relatively large fire, and the long-haired cloaked man at its head was throwing books into the fire as if he did not feel the cold. The man's long hair and beardless stern face was striking even in the darkness. After each book he threw, a look of relief and joy settled on his face. The books looked quite old. Many were dusty and worn, as if they had been forgotten for years. But the man continued to burn them, not caring about their age or their contents. Even though he didn't value the books, he took care to burn them as if it were an act of worship. Before throwing them away, he always put a bay leaf between each one. When he threw the last book away, he involuntarily let out a laugh that sounded quite ominous in the dark night. Then, as if speaking into the void, he said to himself in a whisper.
"The loot was pretty good, although I missed some. If I can get rid of at least ten more wizards and a few hundred books before they find out what I've done, that will be more than enough. My presence here will soon be discovered anyway. It would be foolish to stop."
The man's name was Hermed. His surname was unknown, but in the world of Sorcerra, one did not need it to recognize him. From the continent of Arcanoria to the continent of Vespera, Hermed's name was a source of terror for all wizards. The mere rumor of Hermed's appearance in a city was an excuse for some wizards to leave the continent in a hurry. Some occult organizations were even rumored to offer hundreds of aetherian bounties for a drop of his blood or a strand of his hair. Considering that one aetherian is enough for a month's stay in a farmhouse in a good city, the lure of the bounty can be better understood. Yet even for bounty hunters, following Hermed is often only a last resort. It is well known, especially among bounty hunters, that most of the bounty hunters who followed Hermed were never seen again, although even the church could not prove it. Since no bodies have ever been found, the Church is very reluctant to link Hermed to the missing bounty hunters.
The relationship between the Church and Hermed is a mystery not only to the common people, but even to some of the continent's leading figures. Some claimed that Hermed was in cahoots with the Church, but many priests confirmed that Hermed's actions were too much even for the Church. Unconfirmed stories from the outskirts of the city tell of Hermed hunting down many priests on the grounds that they were sorcerers, and the church even put a bounty on Hermed's head. It is still rumored that the size of the bounty caused many a desperate man's wife to become a widow.
One of these unlucky men was tied up, waiting in agony for Hermed to finish his ritual. Kael Rook, one of the Mystara continent's notorious bounty hunters and slavers, was tempted by the bounty on Hermed's head. With his twenty warrior slaves he was sure he could catch Hermed, but he was caught in Hermed's trap at the mouth of a narrow valley. As he was trapped, he saw a darkness darker than he had ever seen before and heard an ominous humming. When he woke up, all he saw was Hermed beheading his slaves and chaining him with a kind of steel he had never seen before. The worst part was that he never realized how he had been trapped and caught. What happened next was a long and painful interrogation into the identity of the sorcerers he had sold slaves to. Hermed's interrogations were never painless. As Kael Rook had heard, there was a well-known rumor in the underworld that if you were even remotely involved in magic, when Hermed released you, you could lose a limb, an eye or, depending on the severity of the offense, the chance to continue your lineage. Kael Rook lost everything this time, including his horse for which he paid 10 aetherians and 8 solari. Hermed didn't even spare the horse. Worst of all, Kael Rook had a feeling that Hermed was not finished with him. The laughter he heard after burning all those books he didn't know what they were made him even more sure of his bad luck.