Shadow's First Rule

[Mr. Black]

Hundreds of chests heave and drop with each passing breath. The town pules and boils with life. As the sun sets behind the woodland a bluish tone covers the streets in a mystical gloom broken only by the occasional street lamp. Those who are not part of the norm stride out into the night. they hunt, they eek, they behave as they always have. As many begin to settle into their beds or eat a late meal two people do not do either. Instead they are awake. They sit in a small back room of tavern, filled with a layer of smoke and the smell of old alcohol. The two are sitting, silent, and looking each other. One is old. He has been to nearly every corner of the world. He is something nearly inhuman. he is a shadow now. Cast by the light of the world. He is a liar, he cases nothing for truth. The other is a man. He is solid and he is young. The shadow raised this man to be his ow shadow, to be greater than a man. Here they sit in the dark room of a tavern in silence, until that silence breaks.

"Revere." the shadow spoke in a low smokey tone as he reaches forward and grind out his cigarette on the wood table. "This town is interesting, don't you think?" he asked in a nearly rhetorical tone Black reached up and pulled his hat off revealing his black hair and setting the hat on the table, covering his cigarette butt. He levels his black eyes at the young man. "Who here is important?"

[Revere Alex von Helios]

Since the blinding light of the Sun burned its bright rays into the recitals of the young boy, Revere has always known that he would serve a higher purpose to those of the shadows. Pulled from one shroud of darkness and placed into another, one that was more warm and accepting of his nature, accepting the way he worked with the cold blackness of the night. Revere had come out to this town with his master, his ruler and Guildmaster, thinking that something was needing to be done in this small town. But the way he acted, how the both of them hide themselves in the back of this old, dusty tavern represented many things to him. What were they going to do? They would never come to this town, at least without a motive, but the motive was still hidden like Mr. Black's mysterious past. That was right...the man who sat across from him was nothing more but a legend to many people. A figure who people would have considered evil, where the Invisible Hand just consider misunderstood. This man, who many find cruel, also saved his live many years ago when the snow was falling from the sky.

Now it was Revere's turn to speak when he heard his Master talk at him. No, this was not a in the way as a Master speaks down to his Pupil, but one that made it sound like the both of them were equal. "Interesting...." He almost mimicked like a pirate, his eyes covered by the dark veil produced by the hood thrown over the top of his head. "I do not know. Its...different from what I am used too." Revere answered Mr. Black without looking him in the eyes, yet held a gaze down towards the table where Mr. Black had placed his hat. The darkness that was generated from the hood hid the fact that Revere did just this, his mind unable to accept the fact that Mr. Black even fathomed the possibilities that the two of them were 'equals'. But the continued council the two of them shared proved otherwise.

"Who? I presume any sort of Mayor or Lord...whatever they would call it here. Or perhaps the business owners are the masterminds behind the power? If it wasn't for there business...this town would be dead."

[Mr. Black]

Mr. Black snapped his fingers and pointed at Revere as he mentioned the business owners. "that is exactly what I was talking about." he moved his hand to the side and brushed a few small particles of dust from the table without taking his eyes off the young man. "It might not be the business owners either." the shadow slinked back and tucked his hands in his pocket with a deep sigh. "You see those who are in positions of power are often not truly the ones pulling the strings. Sometimes it's not even the businesses that own them. Sometimes it's something outside the town. Sometimes it's something devoted to controlling the situation." he withdrew his hands from his pockets and placed a cigarette in his lips. With a flick of his lighter the cancer stick sprang to life . He exhaled a cloud of smoke and shook his head to clear the air quickly. "Take for example us." he gestured to revere and then to himself. "we are devoted to taking anyone we meet under our teachings. We are here to remind these little people that they have a great power within them and that they need to throw off the shackles of society." The shadow paused just long enough to take a draw from his coffin nail. "We kill those who need to die and we take those who can not find their own way." Black reached out and slowly closed his hand into a fist, "So who controls this place?" Mr. Black paused for only a second. "No one, not yet anyway. There is so much waiting to be taken here."

[Revere Alex von Helios]

Revere watched in silence as his Master continued to speak about the business owners and how they were the ones who must pull the strings behind the curtains. Was it true? Seeking a more appropriate answer should be sufficient however his natural reaction was to just stay quiet while the one he saw as a leader spoke on. Once the speech was over, Revere found himself pondering a bit at the words, before finally speaking up once more. "In that sense, you could even go as far as saying that it truly isn't the business owners who have the power in this town. But instead, they get the power from the people who visit and partake in the hot springs..." Making sure what he said was not absurd or bizarre in any manner he thought about it before proceeding to engage in the conversation a bit more. "So do we wish to influence our grasp even the people of this town? We will need to make sure we do not spread ourselves so thin that the weakest of blows hinders our entire operation. Maybe somewhere closer, more secure to our Guild would be work?" Revere brought up an excellent point or at least what he thought was one. Looking up towards Mr. Black for the first time in the entire time they two of them sat at this table his emotionless, cold eyes met with his for just a moment before he cast his away. "So we spread that amongst the population...then what? Should we eliminate whatever big threats there are?"

[Mr. Black]

Black smiled as his young friend spoke words that melted his heart. He was growing so wise. He could take in everything around him and turn it to what it needed to be. He could listen to an old man speak and take the meaning well. He could look at a person and find their weaknesses to exploit. He was turning into something so special. Soon, soon he ,would need to make a powerful weapon of him. For now though... "A building does not start with the decoration my boy." Mr. Black said in between puffs, "You begin with the supports and the masonry." Black pointed over his shoulder with a cock of his thumb to nothing in particular, yet, the gesture was to every small person in the world. "The small people who have no true control are the ones who keep all things moving." The shadow rested his hand on the old table again and took a deep breath. 'It is a sad truth that the little unimportant ones are what keep the structure in place. So how do we bring the walls crashing down?" he pulled his cigarette back to his mouth with a long drag. "We undermine the supports." the smoke leaked from him like a mist from a swamp. "We make the people our's. We make them love and fear us. We make them our's and then we twist them to make the structure fall."

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