The sky is dark. The deep inky void painted in deep thick black. To say there was no colour would be an understatement considering there were no glistening bright stars shining on the earth. There was no radiant light in the sky at all, no silvery moon reflecting light from the dim sun on the other side of the world. To say that there was in fact nothing in the sky would be an underestimate, the sheer nothingness drove that point home well. In that sense to say the sky is dark is a huge understatement when you picture the sheer hugeness of the universe and the amount of stuff that does not fill in that hugeness, nothing and empty feels like apt ways to describe the night sky, further enforcing the idea and concept that that sky was indeed dark.
Most people could not see though that nothingness, through the void, but Loid could. The sky may be dark but when Loid looked up at the sky, he saw nothing but endless possibility, for something so empty and devoid of light, Loid saw blazing light, the light of life, of truth and of the future. And yet the sky remains so incredibly dark, the wonders of the universe covered up with a thick black sheet. It's an objective fact the sky remains dark and lightless. Loid saw nothing but endless possibility.
You used to be able to see the stars, the beautiful night that could be brighter than the day's sun. It would be the most marvellous thing you could ever see; the shear wonder would entrance you for hours as you lay back against the moist grass and glare at the sky, you would start drawing lines in your mind joining the stars together to form pictures and images that you would later find out to be constellations after reading some books on ancient astrology. The legendary twelve zodiac signs and all the many other beautiful pictures in the sky.
It was a late Thursday night, loid gazed upon the empty sky, as usual. Even when there was nothing to see, he still found the night sky a truly beautiful sight. Even in its absolute blackness, to loid the emptiness was truly mesmerizing. How could something that looks so empty be so beautiful he would ask himself. He lifted his head and sat up straight. He stared at the small fire he had lit a few hours prior; it had died quite a bit in that time however the flame still fused chaotically like a dance in the darkness. It's pulsating, marbled light flickering all over the small camp he had constructed, with the blazing embers that had escaped the small inferno 1quietly dimming in the darkness with a faint crackle.
Loid rebled in the symbolism of such a thing, fire tells the story of humanity. The pure destructive force of the blazing red and orange inferno. Its destructive power is utilized all throughout history to dictate the will of humanity, the damage and the pain it causes. The sad truth of that matter is that the very thing used to bring so much suffering to others in the past is also the very thing required to ensure survival. There is a yin to every yang and fire is their perfect metaphor. The light and the head required to light and heat homes, to cook food and boil water. It is the light that provides sustenance to life and also the light that can end it in an instant. He found this amusing but couldn't quite tell why.
The charred black wood lay solid under the crackling fire. You could see the wrinkled texture on the worn, black wood surface like an aerial view of a desert on a sunny day. The wood, stacked in an unorthodox way, that still managed to hold itself up, even given the random assortment of logs piled up with seemingly random intent, even though no intent was intended. The 4 thick trunks lay around the now dimming blaze, lightly burned but intended on giving whoever was at the fire an idea of how close you could get before it would singe your fingertips. They were placed in an inefficient parallelogram that had the unintended side effect of dimly lighting the surrounding area, it was a small plane hidden in a miniature grove, you could tell this by the way the dim light from the fire bounded over the leaves and branches of the trees circling the fire, unfortunately It wasn't bright enough to see past the tree line, just enough to give them a pleasant warm glow.
Loid still at this fire pondering the original intent of his journey. When he left his small cottage in the far west without informing anyone where he was going, he knew exactly what he was doing, or at least he thought he did. Not so much anymore apparently. He knew he was looking for something, a deep desire or feeling guiding him. Unfortunately, Loid hadn't had much luck, and in his travels had forgotten exactly what he was looking for. After all he was probably more interested and transfixed in the gorgeous splendour of the beautiful yet cold south. He was also surprised at how little trouble he had gotten into in the three weeks he had been on the road. You see, the kingdom of Potentia had a bad habit of being full of dangerous beasts and mercenaries that would like nothing more than to hastily dispatch with you and steal everything of any value you may have had on you at the time. Or in the case of the beasts and monsters, which seemed to have fallen in a steep decline after the emperor's order to eradicate them all, they would typically gut you and enjoy you for a nice supper with its family. Service to say, it wasn't the best idea to travel alone. Somehow defeating the odds Loid managed to only anger a small group of passive aggressive bar folk in a town a couple miles back, which he thought was good fortune, and given the circumstances he wasn't far from that assumption.
The kingdom of Potentia of which Loid and many others called home, even in the state it was in, is split into five parts, north, south, east, west and central. All governed and ruled over the all-knowing Emperor and his eldest sons and daughters. They were all ordained in a thick, glossy, blond head of hair and deep piercing, golden yellow eyes. All around Potentia has the hallmark of royalty. Only the royal family had these distinct characteristics and that made them instantly recognizable by anyone in the empire. They didn't do much as you could probably guess, being the way, it was with all of the bandits and mercenaries there wasn't much in the way of law enforcement. This meant people would usually stick to where they were, never trailing far from their town or village, in fact most will have been born, live and die in the same small area. First of all, this would make Loid seem a bit strange to most people because moving such a distance was usually a very poor idea when alone. And second you must be wondering what could cause such a large and unsolvable problem for the empire so much trouble. This would be the Forty-seven wonders of man.
This would be the Forty-seven weapons and armour that had gotten everyone in a giant palaver in the last thousand odd years. These Forty-seven pieces of equipment all seemed to provide the user with great and terrifying abilities. And since the great war one thousand years ago, of which the Forty-seven was made for. People have feuded amongst themselves for the privilege of owning such a thing. And this is why the emperor can't do anything. Mostly because after the great battle one-thousand years ago a good amount of the Forty-seven when missing, probably stolen by the soldiers fighting in the war, transfixed by the power awarded to them. And now everyone is either fighting to get their hands on such power or using the power to steal and plunder across the empire for their own personal gain. This is what made it so dangerous for travellers and what made it so hard for the empire to do anything. Not that they would anyway, they were probably as much or more corrupt than the bandits looking to make a quick buck. With this given, the people who had the unfortunate luck to live in Potentia, were not very happy with the people currently in charge but wouldn't do anything because of the power of the Forty-seven used by the empire and those looking to cause trouble.
This made it all the stranger that Loid had not encountered any trouble in the last three weeks chasing something he had forgotten across a less than pleasant country to live in. He realized while gazing at the pretty looking embers from the fire that his pack, that he had stuffed full of provisions when he had left, was almost empty. No food, no water. In fact, the one thing left in his pack, was a rusty dagger he had stashed in there in case someone had attempted to attack him on his travels, a phew golden coins, the last of his savings and some stale bread, which he quickly gobbled as he hadn't eaten yet. Loid didn't realize when he left that a journey of this variety was going to take much longer than a couple days, and quite ignorantly did not pack the necessary provisions. It was evident that he was going to have to go to a nearby town for some work so he could continue his journey.
At that point, the luminous orange sun broke past the horizon shining fiery orange light all over the small woods Loid found himself in. The dim fire light now engulfed by the morning sunlight, the giant orange ball hovering just over the horizon so bright that you couldn't even look near it, still the way it coloured the sky in a deep orange-red glow was pretty mesmerizing. Loid thought it a good time to get going, after all he had a pretty long hike east and he was desperately low on provisions. He was heading to a small rural town of Norton, about a day's hike west. This small town from what Loid heard from some strangers he met a few towns over, was governed by a relatively wealthy family but unlike most wealthy families, who in Potentia were usually pompous and inapproachable by any definition of the word. This one was said to be really down to earth and supported itself and its townspeople. Which unsurprisingly made it much more successful than any other town. Even with its comparatively small size, it had a bustling market, happy citizens, and a capable defensive group that defended the town from bandits and monsters. This was good for Loid because most of the other people he had seen on his travels were one of three things, either they were entitled wealthy individuals that were just generally unpleasant and nasty on the best of days. Then you had the typical poor man, which was becoming more common given the current economy of Potentia, that couldn't afford a slice of bread. And finally you had the drunk middle class that could afford nice things and live a nice life, but unfortunately due to their work, either mining or farming, chose to drown their sorrows in alcohol, forsaking their family's if they had one.
Honestly Potentia was really not the best place to find yourself unless you were in the capital or in one of the more pleasant towns on the outskirts of Potentia. This is why Loid was more than happy to head to Norton, because of all the back alley communities and slums most people called home, this small town in the far west of Potentia's capital. It just seemed brilliant, especially for a traveller in need, like Loid. Of course he was drawn west anyway for one reason or another, so why not drop by Norton.