This short story is an entry into the Free Kingdom Lore Contest. The contest is sponsored by Jon Warren. The judges will be three monarch candidates from the Free Kingdom competition: NiHZ, Seele, and Jon Warren. An official list of the lore contest entries will be frequently updated on the Lore Contest thread

Gather round, gather round. Take a seat by the fire and hold your loved ones close. Tis time for this old bard to regale you with a tale of days long past and deeds most foul. When legends and monsters were being born in the crucible of chaos in the decades following the Mad King’s fall. Tonight, I will share with you the story of simple man who would one day became a creature most feared. A tale as tragic as it is horrifying! Tonight I share with you the story of how a monster was born…

This tale starts like all good stories: in a tavern, on a dark night, while the winds howled as a storm blew. And in this tavern, at a table in a shadowed corner, sat a very nervous man. This nervous man was waiting for someone. A very scary someone, to whom he unfortunately owed a not insignificant debt. After far too long a wait, the scary man arrived with a clap of thunder as the door slammed behind him. The scary man took one look around the room, glaring at anyone that dared to meet his gaze. Finally striding over to the booth occupied by our very nervous man. Who could now be called the very scared man, and took the seat across from him.

The scary man, who went only by Jack, did not look at the scared man nor exchange pleasantries. He was not that sort of man, even if he could see the scared man sitting across from him. Oh, did I forget to mention that? The scared man, who went by Nathaniel Thornwood or Nervous Nathan among his friends, had a mighty powerful knack. That knack was the very reason Jack had enthralled poor Nathan. For you see whenever Nathan was nervous or afraid a person’s eyes could slide right off him. The strength of the effect depended on how afraid Nathan’s was at that particular moment. If he was a little worried he could pass through the corner of a person’s vision without their notice. When he was downright terrified, as he was at this moment, a person could look him dead in the eyes and never so much as see his shadow.

Poor Nathan took a deep breath, and began counting to ten in attempt to calm himself. At twenty-three he finally managed to do so. Which of course surprised Jack, who of coursed yelped, and caused Nathan to wince and disappear once again. This time he managed to calm himself down by eight and reappeared. Jack glared one of his murderous glares as he retrieved a piece of paper from his pouch and slid it across the table. With a noticeable tremble Nathan picked up the piece of paper and read his fate. What he read caused him to disappear from Jack’s sight again.

Jack glared at Nathan’s previous position while growling, “This is it Nathan, the last job. You pull this one off and we’re done. Your debt will be settled”.

“Settled?” Nathan replied, unable to hide the surprise in his voice as he stared at the piece of paper. A piece of paper containing his freedom or his doom.

“The haul on this one is enough to cover what you still owe me” he said, before begrudgingly adding, “and letting you go was a stipulation of accepting it in the first place, so if you survive you're free”. Nathan could not help but notice the smallest hint of a smile on Jack’s face. He definitely did not think Nathan would live through this one. And on this rare occasion Nathan was in agreement. But...it may be the only chance Nathan would ever have. He raised the piece of paper to the candle before throwing it on the table, startling Jack as the flaming debris appeared from nowhere. “We’re done then”, Nathan said, managing to keep his voice from cracking as he fled the tavern, unseen.

As he wound his way through the streets that evening the words on that little piece of paper kept running through Nathan’s head: Enter the Prime Broker’s house, steal his ledger, kill the man in his bed, and return the ledger to the contract holder. Unseen and no other deaths. A fairly typical job for Nathan, aside from the murder bit. Nathan had never actually killed anyone, this would be his first. But tragically it would not be his last.

Eventually Nathan found himself standing before the looming and unfortunately closed gates of the Prime Broker’s estate. Nathan was very afraid, more afraid than when he had ever been of Jack. Jack was at least a known quantity, this job had too many unknowns. One rarely finds themselves breaking into the fortified home of the most powerful merchant in the city. But for Nervous Nathan and his knack, this job should be a piece of Kypiq cake. With his heart in the iron grip of completely rational fear, Nathan pulled himself to the top of the wall and unceremoniously dumped himself into the shrubbery on the other side.

While Nathan’s fear kept him same from casual observation, it did nothing to muffle the breaking of branches and rustling of leaves from his sudden descent. Luckily for him, the storm was making enough noise that the guards huddling at their posts remained blissfully unaware of poor Nathan’s less than professional entrance. They were so oblivious that they didn’t even look up as Nathan opened the front door enough to slip into the sprawling estate.

Calling it an estate did not do it justice, it was more of a palace. Decorated in rare art, antiquities, and gilding...well everywhere. To call the display of wealth ostentatious would be a downright understatement. After some reflection Nathan decided that might have very well been the point. But first things first, Nathan needed a knife. Barely controlling his shaking, he crept farther into the palace, searching for the kitchen which at this hour he hoped would be deserted. It was not.

It seemed the Prime Broker preferred fresh bread as the baker was hard at work preparing the next day’s loaves. Luckily, the baker was rather occupied kneading his dough. Allowing Nathan to select a long carving knife from the counter and find his way back into the hallway without incident. The first step of his plan now complete, Nathan began searching for something resembling a study. Hoping beyond hope the ledger was as easy to find as the knife.

An hour later and after dodging several guards and staff, including a guard and maid he found in one of the spare bedrooms, our timid assassin finally found the study. The shelves lining the walls filled with carefully labeled and organized ledgers. The pit in Nathan’s stomach dropped much further than usual. He could spend the rest of the night there and barely make it through the first shelf!

Nathan may have been a coward, but he was not quite a fool. It dawned on him that the ledger in question would be hidden, nothing worth stealing was ever left out in the open. Nathan combed the room, inspecting every candlestick for disguised levers and checking behind every painting for a hidden safe, before finally arriving at a rather mundane locked drawer in the desk. A locked drawer that was shortly popped open by a kitchen knife and a little leverage. And in the drawer...were pens and inks. No ledger. Things were not looking good for Nathan. Doubly so when he heard the voices in the hallway discussing odd footprints leading into the study that Nathan now occupied. Glancing down Nathan discovered that he had been leaving lightly floured footprints all over the room and leading towards the door. Most likely down the hallway and back towards the kitchen too.

Cursing sloppy bakers everywhere, Nathan did the one and only thing that came to his terrified mind: he removed his shoes and placed them by the door before hiding behind a sofa and praying to the Queen that maybe just this once, the balance would work in his favor. And on that day, either through divine providence or more likely dumb luck, it actually worked.

The steward entered the room with an exaggerated sigh, and the guard chuckled behind him. “The master must pay more attention, last week he dripped ink all over the new Hrothi stonework in the library. He didn’t even mention it until it dried! Do you know how hard it is to get ink off of stone without scouring it? I do now! And now he’s ruined a perfectly good rug as well!” lamented the overworked steward.

A few minutes later the steward and guard were gone, taking the carpet and poor Nathan’s boots to be cleaned or possibly burned. The ordeal was not a complete loss. While Nathan was cowering behind the sofa, he remembered something his father once told him: “Every chest has a false bottom, them’s the rules.” Sure enough with some slight rummaging in the previously locked drawer Nathan found a hidden latch and pulled away the panel to reveal his prize. Or at least what he assumed had to be the Ledger: a leather bound tome covered in runes and with not one but three different locks. There was nothing else like it in the room, this had to be the only thing worth stealing.

Tucking the ledger into his pack Nathan, now barefoot, continued down the hallway in search of the master bedroom. For his task was only half done. As he drew deeper into the palace and closer to his ultimate goal, the weight of what he was about to do finally overcame him. Despite his people’s reputation, they were not all assassins. He had never done something like this before! Much less even contemplate it, well besides maybe killing Jack, but he deserved it.

His brooding and fear carried him to a pair of ornate doors and the final task of this trying night. With all the resolve Nathan could muster he slowly opened the door, straining to keep his trembling hands from making any sudden noise. After slipping through he just as slowly and carefully closed the door behind him. Now was not the time for amateurish mistakes. Creeping closer to the bed Nathan could make out the shape of the Prime Broker, fast asleep. Nathan froze, standing over a man that had done him no wrong, but poised to kill the man none the less, to set himself free.

Nathan stood there knife raised, time did not pass for him as he dwelt on what he was about to do. But it was long enough for the storm to die down and the morning light to start peeking through the windows. The dawn stirred Nathan from his inner turmoil, he was being a fool. It was now or never, freedom or bondage. With a heavy sigh and touch of sadness he drove the knife down into the figure’s back. Then a few more times just to be sure, this was his first murder after all. Staring at what he had done, Nathan slowly turned the man over, he thought he should at least look upon the face of the man he had killed. It was the least he could do. As the body slumped over Nathan was shocked to discover the face looking back up at him belonged to Jack. As he stood there dazed, he heard a chair scrape across the stone floor. Slowly turning, more fear now than man, he saw a previously unnoticed figure rise from the chair in question.

“Do you know the difference between a ghost and a wraith Mr.Thornwood?”, drawled the figure as it crossed the room towards the terrified Nathan. Nathan did not, nor did he possess enough wits at the moment to answer even if he did.

“A ghost is the poor trapped shadow of a creature, wandering the world and hoping to one day be set free. A wraith is will and power incarnate, a will so strong that even death could not claim it. When you entered my home this evening you were just another ghost, haunting the living. But today, you leave here a wraith, unbound.”, said the man as he turned his glowing eyes upon Nathan. Eyes that betrayed the nature of the middle aged gentleman they were set in. Eyes that not only saw him in his terrified state, but eyes that bore into his very soul and saw his deepest desires.

“But before we settle our contract and you take leave, I must admit I could use a man with your talents. I have been working on a new endeavor, a very complex and risky one. Your assistance would help insure my success. I’d be remiss if I didn't take this opportunity to at least discuss terms for retaining your services…”