As dusk fell upon the city a plain man was on his way home from a lavish party. He decided to walk as the night was warm, but because of his excessive attention to ale earlier that night he soon became lost in the back alleys. The man heard a noise behind him, suddenly he felt a swift blow to his lower back, knocking him to the ground. Out of the shadows, slowly, silently, came a woman, wearing a black cloak and a black mask to cover the lower portion of her face. All you could see were her deep brown eyes. He quickly drew his sword from its sheath and pointed it at his attacker. "keep away!" he yelled as he scrambeled to his feet. she stopped, reached both of her hands over her head behind her back, slowly drawing two curved short swords; wasting no time, she charged at him. The red-faced man was no match for the thief, as she quickly disarmed him, sending his sword skittering out of his reach. Quickly replacing her swords in their sheaths she charged again, sending her foot to meet the side of his head. stunned, the man fell to the ground. she bent over him and took the pouch from around his neck and a bag of crowns from his belt, then was off into the shadows as quick as she came. Once she was far enough from the point of her successful robbery she stopped to check her earnings. The bag contained twenty gold crowns. "not bad." she wispered to herself as she removed the cloth covering her face. No older then 18 and alone, crime and beggery had been her only means of survival since she was a little girl. She then opened the pouch and shook its contents into the palm of her hand. confused she looked down at a shard of porcelin; from some broken pottery she guessed. It had an unusual gold pattern on one side. As she stared at it she rubbed her finger accross its edge. "ouch!" she whispered, the shard had cut her finger. Blood oozed out of her wound into the palm of her hand, mixing with the shard, which became very hot. She quickly dropped it, and upon hitting the ground, shattered into tiny pieces. Her head suddenly began to whirl, the stars overhead became intensly bright as she took two staggering steps then crumpeled to the ground.
Andimia awoke with a terrible headache. She pulled herself up on her hands and knees, then, slowly struggled to her feet. Disoriented, she looked around the corridor, unfamiliar with her surroundings. Placing one hand on the wall to steady herself she replaced the mask over her face upon the sound of swift footsteps ahead. [/i]