The End of Eternity

An Uninvited Guest

A man walked slowly toward his hut situated in the slums of Castello di Montagne. His name was Feng Jian and he lived in a hut together with his brother Huan. They were immigrants, but lived in the city for a long time. They moved to the Imperium Argentum hoping for a better future, but they found nothing special. Now they were working in the city's warehouses, loading up wagons and unloading them every day. It was not a particularly good job, but still better than working in mines outside of the city.

Both brothers dreamed of becoming something better, but the chances were slim. His brother was a dreamer indeed; he wanted to become a runesmith, such a nonsense. He himself would be settled with a smith or a merchant, but the chances for any improvement were slim.

After some time, he realized he was lying on the street. His head ached and he wondered what had happened to him. Then he saw the condition of everyone around was similar, actually he was one of the first people to get up. He hurried to his home. Whatever was happening, it would be safer not to stay on the streets. He arrived to his hut in the middle of the night. Realizing he passed out for many hours, he cursed. He needed his sleep in order to function tomorrow; he noticed his brother was already sleeping, so he laid himself down next to him.

A hand shook with him violently.

"Feng, Feng wake up. "

"Huan? Sleep fool, we have to work tomorrow. " Feng mumbled sleepily. But his brother did not stop. Feng had no other choice, but to wake up fully and look around. Leaning against the wall of their hut, a man sat on the ground.

"Huh? What is he doing here? Get out man! " Feng was really irritated, but Huan calmed him down. When he looked again he saw the man was no ordinary person from slums. He wore a mage's robe, was filthy and smelled like a rat.

"We need to talk. " Said the man and his expression turned grim. "I will be honest with you. I am a runaway black magician. In fact, you have felt my spell already today. " The brothers looked at each other with unease. "You need only to hide me here for some time. If you don't I will kill you. Do not be stupid and play along. As you can imagine I have nothing to lose. "

They stared at him for a moment, unable to respond.

"W. . Wait a sec, we need to think . . "

"No you don't. Either you do as I say, or you die. " He lifted his hand ominously. "Choose now. " He intentionally started to heat the air around his hand.

"Stop it, we do whatever you want." The pair was scared more than Marius had intended.

"Ok, as long as you cooperate, there will be no problems." He relaxed his hand and tried a heartwarming smile. . . unsuccessfully. He did not want to scare them to death. If you want to rule people's hearts, you can choose a savior or a tyrant. He did not have the resources nor the information to be a saviour now, so his choice was clear. But event a scared beast will bite you, if you do not provide some basic sense of safety. He hoped he had just done that.

"Then good night boys. " He said and stretched on the ground like nothing had happened. The brothers, seeing there is no other option followed his example.

* * * *

Feng lifted a heavy crate and loaded it on a carriage. Today, it was a mess. He felt sleepy and his feet were heavy. The other workers were in a similar or even worse condition than him. And in addition to all this, there was an incredible chaos everywhere. People were changing their plans, unloading the luggage, bags and barrels they had loaded yesterday and loading something else, or adding stuff they decided to take with them. All this movement was due to the previous event. He did not hear much about it, but he planned to find out.