The day seemed like it would be any other to Solar, soldier of the Holy Crystal Knights of San d'Oria. Merely another day battling the vast hordes of monsters and demons invading from the darker realms of Vana 'Diel. Having one of the temple's squires fit him into his standard set of armory, he went to his room to retrieve his shield and weapon of choice, Shai Hulud, an ancient blade handed down in his family for uncounted generations; for its design and ability to deal death, aided with the inherent skills of Solar, seemed the manifestation of Bahamut, the Godragon of War himself!
Thus Solar found himself standing at the doorway to his room, with the door cracked open, and the light of his torch illuminating something on his floor. Bracing himself for whatever may be lurking there, Solar kicked his door open, performed a diving roll and jumped in an arc of twists and twirls, his eyes everywhere, looking for any such foe to dare present himself. What he found however was a dead old man who looked like he might have come from the sort of slums of the trade city of Jueno.
Grimacing at the look of blatant agony on the old man’s corpse, Solar bent oer and pulled a colored dart from the side of his neck, guessing it to be a poison of some kind. The corpse spasmed, as dead bodies sometimes do, and the tattered sleeved arm of the man fell away allowing for a note of paper to fall out of his coat. Slowly considering the situation, Solar eventually bent down to pick up the piece of paper.
Suddenly, the corpse grabbed Solar’s arm and threw him across the room, the note still in hand and the torch ricocheting off the wall and landing on the bed. The corpse-turned-zombie jerkily stood up as it began to move its rotting and stiffened muscles. Grunting and snarling, spitting foam, the zombie started staggering towards Solar with cold, almost glass like eyes showing no emotion save for one - hunger!
Surmising that the dart in the man’s neck must’ve contained some sort of zombie inducing poison, Solar stuffed the unread note into the leg of his boots, and gathered his wits for battle. The torch had now started to engulf the bed, smoke filling the room, and clouding Solar’s vision. Solar grabbed is weapon from its mount, charged the zombie and swung his aquiline blade upward defending a falling fist, dropping nearly the whole arm flopping around on the floor. Being dead, the creature felt nothing, thus it swung its other arm instantly around and smote Solar a direct hit to the jaw, making Solar fall back against the wall, taken-aback at the speed and strength of this undead thing.
Trying to cough out the filth of the smoke, Solar advanced toward the zombie with more respect than before and jabbed at the zombie’s leg. The zombie seized the opportunity and dove forward in the attempt to bite Solar’s head, mouth drooling in the anticipation of the taste of blood and brains. Prepared for the reaction, Solar turned his jab into an uppercut, severing the zombie’s head from its neck, and spraying dark chunks of curdled blood all over the place.
Leaving the body writhing on the ground, Solar ran a few yards from his room before he collapsed in a coughing fit, with tears streaming out of his burning eyes. Swaying in and out of consciousness, he was aware of some of the temple priests taking care of him until he blacked out into sleep.
Awakening naked in quarters very similar to his own, Solar noticed all of his armor and clothes cleaned and polished as if they had never before been coated with the black ash and smoke from the night before. His head aching from the zombie blow, Solar got up and dressed, noticing that the note was nowhere to be found. Taking care to grab Shai Hulud, he inspected his armor for signs of damage or repairs, and upon finding none, set out to find the High Priest Zarech to investigate the reasons for last nights’ happenings. But more importantly to him, it was to inquire on the whereabouts of the note, which Solar’s instincts told him would reveal much more than Zarech would.
Leaving the barracks, and surprised at the apparent absence of any other of his fellow soldiers or guards in light of the previous night, Solar walked through the gardens and into the main halls of the Temple. There were very few people wandering around, and all who he came across avoided his eyes and turned away to finish other errands. Finally, Solar came to the doors of the High Priest’s chambers, and spending a moment to gather himself under the onslaught of the morning’s strangeness, he walked in.
The High Priest Zarech was sitting in his large oak chair at his desk looking very grim, tempered by the dark bags under his eyes, and Solar was sure he had been awake for many nights, the last not likely because of any worry over him.
Zarech looked up at him with the obvious expectation of his arrival and spoke dismally, “You look quite troubled, Solar.”
No more than you do, Zarach Solar wanted to say, but thought better of it. There was definitely something going on, and Solar was sure it wouldn’t go well for him. He decided to remain silent, since the tone of Zarech’s voice didn’t seem to be inquiring, rather postponing something else.
“Last night you dared to kill a man in cold blood under my holy temple! And then you set your room ablaze to destroy the evidence…” Zarech sharply accused, forcing the sentence to hang.
Taken by surprise Solar stumbled over his words, “Wha-what are you talking about! I never kill anybody…I f-found a dead old man laying murdered in my room from some sort of poison. He had been turned into a zombie, only I didn’t know at the moment so when I picked up a n-note…”
“Silence! you murderer. We both very well know what happened last night.” There was a mocking, knowing look in the High Priest’s eyes. “You’ve been working for the cursed demons, and have been using the man you killed as a courier for our local troop movements and likely other useful bits of information you deemed important. For all of your offenses, you shall be executed on the morrow! I grant you the mercy of being able to reflect on your…mistakes so you will not die with a wholly tainted soul.”
“The note, that's the cause of the whole thing, isn't it?! Your hiding something and I’m your scapegoat for your information leak aren’t I? Aren’t I?!” Solar yelled at him in the desperation of knowing he was to die.
“There was no note save for the one you wrote containing our secrets.” Zarech lied. “It is a shame, you showed so much potential since you came here as a young boy, only to sell yourself out to the enemy…"
Picking up a piece of paper, the very one that seemed to be causing all this trouble, he held it up to the flame of the candle on his desk. “GUARDS! Take this traitor to the dungeons and schedule for his execution as early tomorrow as possible.” He said as two guards Solar had never before seen emerged from the door.
“God help me!” Solar breathed to himself has he wielded his blade and ran for the High Priest amidst shouts of the surprised guards. Knowing that going all the way was really the only way, Solar spilled the entrails of his former master with his family's sword and grabbed the flaming piece of paper nearly simultaneously. Zarech dropped to his knees only to sob and wail in his death throes, hurling words a priest, and certainly not a High Priest, should ever hear, much less say themselves.
Quickly Solar patted out the flames and stuffed the remaining piece of parchment into his shirt. He grabbed up the brass candlestick with lightning speed and turned to throw it in the face of the closest guard who had his Broadsword raised to strike, saving Solar’s life and ending the guard's as he crumpled to the ground. Luckily the other guard tripped over the fallen one and Solar was able to leap upon him and sever the remaining guard’s spine with his blade, which easily pierced through the armor. Glancing around for anyone who witnessed his fury of survival, Solar ran out with his arm covered in blood.
Deciding that the slums were probably the best place to hide, Solar dodged and avoided everybody who happened by as he made his way out of the Temple grounds. He walked cautiously through the streets, whiched seemed an eternity for Solar, and paused at the town fountain to rinse off as much of the blood as he could, for many had noticed the crimson staining his sleeves... His destination was near, and when Solar finally reached the ghetto, he found a deserted ally he could rest, think, and finally read the note that had destroyed his life.
Solar pulled out the half of the note that remained and read:
Solar,
How great it feels to finally be able to write you, though I’m afraid this isn’t a happy matter. I’m going to get straight to the point and tell you - I am your uncle. There is much you do not know, about yourself, and your world. I’m sorry to hear that the Crystal Knights have ensnared you into its services, but that is another matter, and hopefully you haven’t been tainted by its dark origins, for that who you fight in the name of is truly the Blindless God Ulsheal, whom has been known by other names, all which have left dark stains of blood and death upon our world of Vana 'Diel. Natas and Pertasinen are his most known, but he has gone by many other in his dark plots to destroy the other Gods and shape the world in his own visage. What I need to tell you is that you are an Elvaan, born to the Orias family and sworn to defend the world against the Blindless One. It might all sound as too much to swallow, especially with the notions you’ve grown up with; but it’s the truth. I ask only one thing of you, which in itself is a very great undertaking, and I risk many lives by sending this letter to you. Travel to Selbina, a small town sitting along the border of Bastok. There you will me….
The rest of the letter had been burned away, and the few surviving words below told nothing else. Solar sat and thought for a moment. There was no other reason for him to stay, since he was most definitely a wanted man by this time, and nobody would even dare believe him. Even if they did, he had murdered a High Priest! There wasn’t a whole lot of choices for him. Solar wasn’t a very religious man to begin with, rather he had a passion for purging the land of only the evil that inhabited Vana 'Diel, never truly considering that which might be actually poisoning it. Oh well, Solar thought, I might as well finish whats already been started…
