Notes: Formatting is evil. "To Initiate:" is the chapter headingish thing. This bit serves as a prologue.

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To Initiate:

It was a small boy that began to take notice of the wretch they kept in the back of the compound. A very small boy indeed, younger even than the freshest bloods in the newest broods, and yet the near century's future wisdom already marred his mechanical thoughts. But despite his age, he was undoubtedly the most feared of all of them.

Any sound that reverberated off in distant corridors instantly choked to silence to make the wake for naught but a fisherman's boat. Every sideways glance quickly righted itself to a bowing head, terrified of a reply to their sacrilege. Not a whisper, not a tremor nor vibration from a breath or movement dared chance the note of the arbiter.

He, of such admiration and good fortune, he was the one to take that careless step to a dusty staircase, through an empty hallway, past cities of cobwebs and finally to a crypt of a cage. He, of such measure and skillful calculations, he was the one to lock eyes on a rotting corpse and find it a far more fascinating piece of decay than any he'd yet laid eyes on. He, of such constitution and supremacy, he the majestic monarch fell to such an easy ploy as the rot in the corner spun twisted strings into blinding nets.