Years of washing dirty dishes, mopping up floors and what do I get?... A death sentence.
I cleaned after all of you and wiped your fat posh ass all so you'll look down on me with a bit of grace and in the end I was no more than the crumbs you all left behind.
Well what can I do now?
The sound of clanging of chains filled the air as the soldier led the prisoners down to the gallows to be executed.
Dread was in all their faces. They wailed and murmured, the gloom was too much to bear, some had already broken down from the mental stress.
These ones couldn't keep still; they clamored and tried to escape, even though they were bound to thirty other men.
The soldiers had no choice but to knock them out. They left the responsibility of carrying these unconscious inmates to their counterparts in front of them.
They would drop them on the back of the prisoner in front and force them to move on with the weight.
Asher, a young boy of just sixteen years, sentenced to death for the highest offence in the state, the offence of murder.
Even now I'm still carrying loads for this state.. Why did this dope have to go mad?
Asher had been the spy of an aristocrat whose family had fallen on hard times; they had lost their lands and properties through their own vices.
They used Asher to steal from their enemies, to spy on their enemies and to kill their enemies.
They made him their ears and their eyes and through Asher they were able to maneuver their way back into power and obtain even greater power.
Watch your step, watch your step! The guard yelled at him as he struggled to claim the ladder, his legs were creaking and his whole body was covered in wounds.
When I was a lot younger, I mopped floors and cleaned the streets for pay. I saved every dime I could, just so I'll get a taste of elixium.
Things got better when I went to work for the Foudians. I made for money, I quickly had earned enough to afford my first shot of elixium.
I waited till I was alone, popped the vial open and tipped it over my mouth, I drank the whole thing in one swing.
The soldiers poked him with the tip of their spears, spitefully trying to urge him up onto the gallows
Move on! They screamed
He had gone two steps, he could see the ropes, he could see others standing atop the gallows with noose around their necks.
Tears filled in his eyes as he pushed himself to get to the top.
Almost instantly, I was covered in a thick fog, like any darkness I've ever seen or felt, I had an affinity for the shadow.
With it was a great ability, with it one could be an expert in espionage and theft and even manipulate or puppetry.
But I wanted to steal.
So I began stealing from my master. My master was a rich aristocrat by birth, he owned seven dungeons, and each was well furnished with rewards that could change a life in an instant.
He charged dungeon parties for going in and when they came out he'd split their rewards, him taking the larger share, it was a shady business but no one would dare speak up against him.
I stole from every one I could but mostly my master, I had a deep hate for him, he despised anyone different and he despised anyone lower than him.
I stole enough, enough to buy a small dungeon in the peach. It was small but deadly and nobody cared for it. It had a small deposit of elixium but it was guarded by a great dragon and nobody wanted that kind of trouble.
The chains clenched against his throat and the last man fell from his back. He was beyond exhausted. In a fit of rage the soldiers stabbed him in the lung with a spare.
Oh no what have I done!? He's going to dirty this place up, hurry, we gotta hang him now, let him bleed onto the sand.
I'm on cleaning duty today, I don't want to be here all night.
The Shadow's past
Asher felt dizzy and couldn't stand legs anymore, he couldn't even feel the stab wound.
Then I got caught, caught by my master's son, a devil of human being, the worst of the worst,
He had used expensive magic to force himself from a seven to a nine and with his dad money had purchased the services of a well revered ten, which boosted his powers.
When they caught me, they saw an opportunity in me to acquire more wealth and power and they made me into a killer.
I was forced to kill so many, all to protect people I barely know as they threatened me with the life of other slaves.
When I got caught again this time by the authorities, I realized I couldn't say a single word against them, not one, they had put a spell on me and I was left to take the blame all alone.
They unshackled him and dragged him off to a noose, they put the rope around his neck. He was fading in and out of consciousness every now and then.
He saw flashes of him being by a blue river. It seemed like a memory. He was bleeding to death while waiting to be hung to death.
There's no escaping this.
I thought I could fight, I thought I could win against them! I thought I could kill them.
How could I, I can't even speak or act against them.
His final tears drip out from his eyes, he fades in and out of consciousness,he sees the blue river again.
Where I'm I
He's back at the gallows again, the burning yellow sand, he can barely stand on his feet now,
Drop the hatch already! The guardsman screamed
There's a little problem with it
Asher look up, his vision was blurry but he could sense, a foul energy, one so familiar to him
Artemis, you bastard.
His eyes burned with rage and he glared at him, Artemis the son of his former master.
He was laughing amongst the aristocrats who had come to watch the hanging.
You bastards!
Asher screamed that crowd
You fat cows! Eating, partying while everyone else suffers, you made me your fodder, your rags, I'll come for everyone of you, every single one of you.
They all stopped and looked at Asher, they couldn't take their eyes off him. Their mood turns cold.
Artemis broke out a smile and burst out laughing, they all quickly joined him.
Hang him already, Artemis says. The rages swelled in his heart, with his free hand his grabs at his noose.
What!
Why is he not in cuffs? A aristocrat screamed at the soldiers
He was supposed to be hung by now.
Asher cut through the noose with his bare hands. He jumped into the crowd of aristocrats and they all began to scurry away like rats from a sinking ship.
In blind rage he ran at Artemis who was still seated with a twisted smile on his face. He lunged at him for the kill.
Then he felt his back ripping in two, a coldness filled his whole body. He looked down at his chest and saw a hand covered in blood, coming out of it.
It was the hand of fowler the number ten Artemis had hired. The man slowly pulled his hand out of Asher. Asher drops to the ground dying.
As his consciousness faded he could see Artemis, stumping on his head and jeering. He couldn't feel a thing as Artemis stumped his head into mush.
Everything went dark and in the darkness he could hear the faint sound of a rushing stream.