Role

Chapter 1

There is a deep sense of longing within every man, if only he gives himself the
time to see it. Going beyond the want of shelter, food, and lust for the carnal.
There are those among us who do not choose. Set upon a path from the moment they
first draw breath to a calling far beyond their own limited perception. Going
through the motions of life, most without ever knowing why. And there are those still
who are aware of their path. To say that these men are enlightened or above their
peers would be to assume that the knowledge they possess could ever push them back
against the unyielding tides of fate.

To be alone in this world as a child is a fate not even the darkest hearts of man
could envision without the slightest pangs of regret, the unimaginble depths of
despair echoing throughout their lives devoid of purpose or belonging.

To then be salvaged from the refuse of fate and taken into the care of the righteous
is surely a blessing. On the outside it may seem so, a lifetime of hopelessness
exchanged in an instant for servitude and nascent indoctrination to an intangible idea
of purity. For some are too far gone for this offer to have any meaning. The far
reaching tendrils of human cruelty have rooted themselves deep into the essence of
their being, sinking them ever lower into the heart of the abyss. For Stahl this was
indeed his salvation. But not all who have a place truly belong.

A child of uncertain circumstance, his dearest friend. A young girl of mixed
blood, half human, half dark-elf. Lillya. In spite of the dull drumming lectures
of the elders, was regarded by the other children as merely the progeny of a mistake.
An act so irrefutably immoral that her very existence was a permanent reminder of the
horrid reality of life in a dimly lit world. All her peers saw her as such, save for Stahl.

An orphan wrought low by the absence of familial ties, invisible to an unsympathetic world.
This perspective is perhaps what lead him only to see her as only exactly what she was, a lost
lonely child. Like himself.

The years dragged on as they grew together and closer to one another. A bond not of convenience,
or physical desire. A compassionate love the likes of which only children are capable. But for that
same love that only a child can harbor, so too is the cruelty that only an immature heart can
inflict. The daily teasing and exclusion of Lillya by peers could only be eased so much. While
Stahl could always step in when the torments went too far or became physical, there was nothing
he could do to ease the emotional strain it caused her. Years upon years of constant reminders of
her being "inhuman" began to turn inward. There came the day that she began to believe their words.
The staunch defense of herself by Stahl no longer comforted her as an expression of their bond.
Tainted by her minds own twisted logic as pity for something lesser than himself.

(Continued)