A fancy
decorated dark room is
altered by a the telephone ringing. It is late at night. Joseph Kreutz picks up and a
voice reports the stats of the recent confrontation. A woman is asleep at his side. Acknowledged of the unit’s failure he’s most interested
in the vulnerability of the Assassin rather than the dead squad. Kreutz orders to stop the
pursuit; he’ll challenge the intruder himself.
The
woman, disturbed by the call, asks about the nature of the matter. Kreutz reduces the answer to a simple concept:
‘business to take care of’. She’s clearly offended by his attitude and turn
her head back into the pillow. Kreutz, the man with a dim pickpocket past; the man
who’s been in jail and liberated by an anonymous benefactor with an unusual purpose;
the man who’s putting his gun in a holster and his expensive suit on, that man is
going to confront the Assassin.
A strange trio fills
the small upstairs room of the Mitcham’s bed & breakfast. The Assassin looks out
the window and also attends the situation, now evidently leaded by Michael’s words.
John is sat on a chair, waiting for the promised story. Michael sitting cross-legged on
the floor is about to start
explaining all about Amead.
John listens as Michael and
the Assassin begins to
explain to him what Amead is. The idea they attempt to relate is complicated, describing a
place that exists as an idea, a city, a world, a whole universe. Slowly John begins to
grasp the concept until he unwisely asks where Amead is and is told 'everywhere'.
John becomes angry at this point, viewing the Assassin's answer as being at best vague, and at worst facetious, he refuses
to believe that Amead is another reality, until he is faced with the hard painful reality
of the Assassin's hand, grabbing his face roughly.
Michael begins to explain about multiverse theory, the idea that every potential universe
exists. Every time a decision is made, all possible
decisions are played out somewhere. To
demonstrate, he gets John to flip a coin. It lands heads up.
[SUMMARY OF PAGES 37, 38, 39, AND
40] posted
08/18/00
Michael tells John that by his actions he has created another
universe. Somewhere out there is the world where the coin he flipped
landed tails up. Amead, which Michael had been talking about before, was the first place
to prove that this happened instead of just having it as a theory. It was also the first
place to develop the techniques that would allow a human being to travel between
universes, going from dimension to dimension.
John disbelieves Michael's claim,
until he looks out of the window and sees below him the landscape of Carillon, the city
Napoleon built on the ruins of London, and not the city he had entered the building from
at all.
John
is ready to believe now. Michael starts to explain
the Amead story from the beginning. He just starts with a ‘long ago’ when John
teases him about the vague commencement. He needs dates. The Assassin, in his usual rough
style, tells him about a time when this universe was young, and gases in our system were
too hot to cool into planets.
Long ago, the world Amead exists on was ripped apart by war between
Order and Chaos, devastating the surface of the planet for thousands of years. The only
city to survive was Amead, which
held fast under the banner of its monarch, King Nicholas
[SUMMARY OF PAGES 41, 42,
43, AND 44] posted 09/09/00
More of the history of Amead unfolds. Nicholas' reign is described as one of strength through
pragmatism, as he did not throw his lot in with either Order or Chaos, instead aligning
himself with Balance or Reason. His leadership of Amead meant that despite the constant
turbulence in the surrounding world, Amead was able to survive wars, destruction, famine
and death for thousands of years.
John interrupts at this point,
disputing Nicholas' thousand year reign, saying it is impossible for a man to live for
that long. The Assassin tells him that Nicholas and the people of Amead were not what
people would call 'human'', so the rules of man applied to them no more than they applied
to the occupants of Mount Olympus.
At the end of
the conflict, death
surrounded the world. The cities were destroyed, the livestock starving, the people dead.
The scene was the same all across the world. The last bastion of civilization was Amead,
city and kingdom of the balance.
The effects of
war on the morale of the people of Amead are severe. The people grow weak and tired, and
they lose sight of what they are working for. They need a
symbol of what they are living for. One night, such a symbol arrives with a scream and a
pant of exhausted breath, as
a baby is born in Amead.
[SUMMARY OF PAGES 45, 46, 47, AND
48] posted
09/15/00
Michael's narrative is interrupted by John,
who is incredulous that such fuss should be made about a baby being born. The Assassin
answers him by telling him that Amead's small population and low birthrate made any birth an event. More importantly, the birth of the child
signified the rebirth of their society. Michael's narrative continues, naming the child as
Adrian, son of the Smith's widow, a man who died in the defense of Amead. Sadly for
Adrian, after a few years of maternal love, his mother gave in to a sickness that had
weakened her and had strained her body too far with the ravages of childbirth. Still a
young boy, Adrian is orphaned.
The tale could turn
sour at this moment, and probably would have, were it not for Adian's benefactor, King
Nicholas, a man who became, while not a father, a mentor to the young Adrian. As Adrian grew, his life in the palace and his
natural inquisitiveness led him to pursue a number of disciplines, apprenticing himself as
warrior, academic and mage before discovering a place he had, in a way, been searching for
his entire life.
The Forge was Adrian's father's workplace for his
entire life, and in many ways it was inevitable that Adrian would feel a kinship with the
place, using tools his father had used before him, honing skills in the mold his father
had set. Adrian was happy in the heat of the forge, finding a contentedness he had never
felt before. This contentedness was however shattered by his dreams.
Adrian had previously been a heavy and contented sleeper, rarely if ever missing a night's
sleep, and never being troubled by bad dreams. Suddenly all this changed. Night by night
he began experiencing a dream world as real as anything in his head, seeing around him
gems of power and
brilliance, gems he knew he could sculpt, gems he somehow knew he had to make if his
sanity were to be saved. Each morning, as the dream ended, he rose and began work on the
gems, following patterns that appeared in his head as he moved his hands, springing unbidden into his sight.
[SUMMARY OF PAGES 49, 50, 51, AND
52] posted
09/29/00
Adrian's role in Amead as the smith is explained. The Smith encompassed
many trades, working iron,
gold, silver, even gems, with ease. This ease is transferred into his crafting of the
gems. Adrian is shown crafting the gems and imbuing them with his magic, learnt from the
castle seer, and finally inscribing the gems in a glowing serpentine language. However,
this is not entirely Adrian moving of his own free will, as each gem he crafts was first
seen in one of his lucid haunting dreams.
After long and strenuous periods of effort, Adrian seems near to collapse but finally
finishes the last of the gems. It is clear
that Adrian is drained by the effort he has put in, his face is unshaved, his posture
shows great fatigue. Nonetheless, he cannot help but admire what he has created. The gems
he has wrought are gems of great power and influence. However, no sooner had he finished
the last gem than the trance-state he had been unwittingly occupying for the last few
weeks dissolved. His eyes opened and saw for the first time since he began crafting the
gems. What he saw were gems of power, admittedly, but around each gem was the taint of
order, invisible to him when creating the gems, now as obvious as their shape and colour.
John interjects at this point to ask why order is a bad thing. Amead is a city built on
balance, so why would gems of order be bad. Michael tells him that the gems were objects of power, representing a concentration of
Order so great that its mere presence could destabilise the city of Amead. The power was
too much. Adrian knew that he couldn't let these gems exist. He picked up his toolbelt to
set to the task. Before he could even touch the gems, a sound of such pitch and frequency
that it made Adrian's entire body vibrate resounded from the gems, which resonated in
harmonics with each other.
Adrian awoke, stiff, sore, bleeding, and noticed straight away that the gems had gone,
vanished. His training as a seer told him that objects of such power appearing in the
universe unchecked could cause catastrophe on an unimaginable level. He also knew that
only he could avert such disaster. Although exhausted, tested almost to the limits of his
abilities, he had to try, to set right what had gone wrong. He set to work immediately,
crafting a gem that, on the outside, seemed crude, malformed, and yet contained not only
Adrian's skill and magic, but his own design, his soul, even his blood. The
stone, when finished was rough, uneven, but of immeasurable power. He had crafted the Assassin stone.
John seems sceptical about how important a
handful of stones could be. The Assassin expresses surprise at his
scepticism. He reminds John that these are gems of power and that they would have a great
influence on the balance, destabilising its whole equilibrium. The balance would shift
from order to chaos and back to order, causing massive upheaval with each movement. Upheaval on this scale could destroy the
whole universe.
Acknowledged of the unit’s failure he’s most interested
in the vulnerability of the Assassin rather than the dead squad. Kreutz orders to stop the
pursuit; he’ll challenge the intruder himself.
Kreutz reduces the answer to a simple concept:
‘business to take care of’. She’s clearly offended by his attitude and turn
her head back into the pillow. Kreutz, the man with a dim pickpocket past; the man
who’s been in jail and liberated by an anonymous benefactor with an unusual purpose;
the man who’s putting his gun in a holster and his expensive suit on, that man is
going to confront the Assassin.
A strange trio fills
the small upstairs room of the Mitcham’s bed & breakfast. 
The Assassin looks out
the window and also attends the situation, now evidently leaded by Michael’s words.
John is sat on a chair, waiting for the promised story. Michael sitting cross-legged on
the floor is about to start
explaining all about Amead.
John listens as Michael and
the Assassin begins to
explain to him what Amead is. The idea they attempt to relate is complicated, describing a
place that exists as an idea, a city, a world, a whole universe. Slowly John begins to
grasp the concept until he unwisely asks where Amead is and is told 'everywhere'.
answer as being at best vague, and at worst facetious, he refuses
to believe that Amead is another reality, until he is faced with the hard painful reality
of the Assassin's hand, grabbing his face roughly.
Michael begins to explain about multiverse theory, the idea that every potential universe
exists. 
Every time a decision is made, all possible
decisions are played out somewhere. To
demonstrate, he gets John to flip a coin. It lands heads up.
the coin he flipped
landed tails up. Amead, which Michael had been talking about before, was the first place
to prove that this happened instead of just having it as a theory. It was also the first
place to develop the techniques that would allow a human being to travel between
universes, going from dimension to dimension.
John disbelieves Michael's claim,
until he looks out of the window and sees below him the landscape of Carillon, the city
Napoleon built on the ruins of London, and not the city he had entered the building from
at all.
John
is ready to believe now. 
Michael starts to explain
the Amead story from the beginning. He just starts with a ‘long ago’ when John
teases him about the vague commencement. He needs dates. The Assassin, in his usual rough
style, tells him about a time when this universe was young, and gases in our system were
too hot to cool into planets.
Long ago, the world 
Amead exists on was ripped apart by war between
Order and Chaos, devastating the surface of the planet for thousands of years. The only
city to survive was Amead, which
held fast under the banner of its monarch, King Nicholas
reign is described as one of strength through
pragmatism, as he did not throw his lot in with either Order or Chaos, instead aligning
himself with Balance or Reason. His leadership of Amead meant that despite the constant
turbulence in the surrounding world, Amead was able to survive wars, destruction, famine
and death for thousands of years.
John interrupts at this point,
disputing Nicholas' thousand year reign, saying it is impossible for a man to live for
that long. The Assassin tells him that Nicholas and the people of Amead were not what
people would call 'human'', so the rules of man applied to them no more than they applied
to the occupants of Mount Olympus.
At the end of
the conflict, 
death
surrounded the world. The cities were destroyed, the livestock starving, the people dead.
The scene was the same all across the world. The last bastion of civilization was Amead,
city and kingdom of the balance.
The effects of
war on the morale of the people of Amead are severe. The people grow weak and tired, and
they lose sight of what they are working for.
They need a
symbol of what they are living for. One night, such a symbol arrives with a scream and a
pant of exhausted breath, as
a baby is born in Amead.
made any birth an event. More importantly, the birth of the child
signified the rebirth of their society. Michael's narrative continues, naming the child as
Adrian, son of the Smith's widow, a man who died in the defense of Amead. Sadly for
Adrian, after a few years of maternal love, his mother gave in to a sickness that had
weakened her and had strained her body too far with the ravages of childbirth. Still a
young boy, Adrian is orphaned.
The tale could turn
sour at this moment, and probably would have, were it not for Adian's benefactor, King
Nicholas, a man who became, while not a father, a mentor to the young Adrian. 
As Adrian grew, his life in the palace and his
natural inquisitiveness led him to pursue a number of disciplines, apprenticing himself as
warrior, academic and mage before discovering a place he had, in a way, been searching for
his entire life.
The Forge was Adrian's father's workplace for his
entire life, and in many ways it was inevitable that Adrian would feel a kinship with the
place, using tools his father had used before him, honing skills in the mold his father
had set. Adrian was happy in the heat of the forge, finding a contentedness he had never
felt before. This contentedness was however shattered by his dreams.
Adrian had previously been a heavy and contented sleeper, rarely if ever missing a night's
sleep, and never being troubled by bad dreams. Suddenly all this changed. Night by night
he began experiencing a dream world as real as anything in his head, seeing around him
gems of power
and
brilliance, gems he knew he could sculpt, gems he somehow knew he had to make if his
sanity were to be saved. Each morning, as the dream ended, he rose and began work on the
gems, following patterns that appeared in his head as he moved his hands, springing unbidden into his sight.
trades, working iron,
gold, silver, even gems, with ease. This ease is transferred into his crafting of the
gems. Adrian is shown crafting the gems and imbuing them with his magic, learnt from the
castle seer, and finally inscribing the gems in a glowing serpentine language. However,
this is not entirely Adrian moving of his own free will, as each gem he crafts was first
seen in one of his lucid haunting dreams.
After long and strenuous periods of effort, Adrian seems near to collapse but finally
finishes the last of the gems. 
It is clear
that Adrian is drained by the effort he has put in, his face is unshaved, his posture
shows great fatigue. Nonetheless, he cannot help but admire what he has created. The gems
he has wrought are gems of great power and influence. However, no sooner had he finished
the last gem than the trance-state he had been unwittingly occupying for the last few
weeks dissolved. His eyes opened and saw for the first time since he began crafting the
gems. What he saw were gems of power, admittedly, but around each gem was the taint of
order, invisible to him when creating the gems, now as obvious as their shape and colour.
John interjects at this point to ask why order is a bad thing. Amead is a city built on
balance, so why would gems of order be bad. Michael tells him that
the gems were objects of power, representing a concentration of
Order so great that its mere presence could destabilise the city of Amead. The power was
too much. Adrian knew that he couldn't let these gems exist. He picked up his toolbelt to
set to the task. Before he could even touch the gems, a sound of such pitch and frequency
that it made Adrian's entire body vibrate resounded from the gems, which resonated in
harmonics with each other.
Adrian awoke, stiff, sore, bleeding, and noticed straight away that the gems had gone,
vanished. His training as a seer told him that objects of such power appearing in the
universe unchecked could cause catastrophe on an unimaginable level. He also knew that
only he could avert such disaster. Although exhausted, tested almost to the limits of his
abilities, he had to try, to set right what had gone wrong. He set to work immediately,
crafting a gem that, on the outside, seemed crude, malformed, and yet contained not only
Adrian's skill and magic, but his own design, his soul, even his
blood. The
stone, when finished was rough, uneven, but of immeasurable power. He had crafted the Assassin stone.
The Assassin expresses surprise at his
scepticism. He reminds John that these are gems of power and that they would have a great
influence on the balance, destabilising its whole equilibrium. The balance would shift
from order to chaos and back to order, causing massive upheaval with each movement. Upheaval on this scale could destroy the
whole universe.