Role

Chapter 1

The band of young boys I had come to think of as kin had spent our days as
nuisance to the humble people of Balator. We came close and guarded eachother
as much for our own protection as for the group. We stole, we fought, we did
all that we had to do to ensure that we may yet live another day. It was in
that desperate ambition that the man we came to respect above all others saw
our potential. Cylin, a man who bore more resemblance to a rogue than a knight
he had come from the keep, that shining bastion of morality in a land overcast
with gray and black, and took us under his wing. We trained rigorously day
after day under his strict supervision for the sole purpose of cleansing this
world of the rot of mankind's callous hubris. Daily he spoke at length of the
importance of this mission and of our part in it. He spoke of that same
desperation that led my brothers and I to rob and oppress those around us so
that we could survive. In his vision if a perfect world for all was to be
achieved than a slight discomfort and suffering of the bystanders was a small
price to pay. He, as we, stood out among the righteouss and our difference was
noted. Our master was deemed a fanatic and exiled from the keep and we having
known no man that was greater in our eyes followed him.

Our training renewed with a new fervor and before long we were tested not in a
classroom nor a sparring room but far afield. We were not hardened warriors
hailing from the greatest armies of the strongest holds, we were a band of
teenage boys armed with knives and lacking clear supervision as he began to
give us discretion on our targets and you could argue that was far more
dangerous than any army in the extent of our brutality.

We grew complacement in our morality. Believing ourselves set firmly in moral
superiority as we further and further misinterpreted the radical regime of our
master. He had long since left us to our own judgment, his cause required many
men like us, lost boys in need of a father and purpose and in the intervening
years he had established many cells of similar cells of amateur assassins. We
longed for his return until the day he finally did. Despite our beliefs it
became clear we could not live up to his expectations.

He came in the night unannounced. As my brothers and I celebrated another
successful mission weary from battle and standing on the strength of our ale
alone we proved no match for him. I folded in fear as I watched him
effortlessly dispatch each of my brothers before they could even rise to face
him. I could not bring myself to move as he turned to face me.