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The Second compilation of the Sword Keeper Omnibus.
Over a century has passed since the marriage of King Drakos and Queen Verana and though the time has been relatively short for the long-lived race...
Outside the family keep, the town of Keepsal was still celebrating the coronation of the new queen and the whispered promise that civil war had been averted. For the first time in a few generations, it seemed that their liege was not at a cool political distance from the regency and several plots aimed at destabilising their country had been thwarted. Down in the capitol, there was a new queen, and a Rakier was general of Clairval's armies and the world was at a ball to close the last day of the national celebrations.
In Morningside, in Keepsal, people danced in the town square and shared a feast amongst one another, allowing themselves to feel hope and joy. The sky was clear as the sun began to set and stars sparkled to life even as the blue canvas they were on darkened slowly.
The people of Morningside were drunk with happiness. They could worry about the mysterious threat that was far from their country's shores later.
If at all.
Maybe the enemy would take the hint and stay away from Clairval and its alliances.
Or so said some of the hopeful voices talking amongst groups of friends and family.
A lone guard of Morningside's first moved through the empty keep, ensuring the doors and windows were secured as they always were in the evening, grumbling to herself over the fact that she had drawn the short straw along with her platoon and was on duty during the night's celebrations.
Down a side hallway only used by those who worked in the keep or someone trying to stay out of sight, the guard stepped into the large receiving room and checked the locks on the main doors and windows, which showed a view out over the dark fields, lit only by the starlight above, the moon not yet visible.
Upon turning away from the window, the guard paused as she noted the room was filled with a flickering blue glow. Shadows moved oddly, setting her hackles up as she fought her mind's inclination to assign the shadows human shapes, as if there was a ballroom full of people moving silently around her.
With a muttered curse at her own overactive imagination, the guard began backing toward the door she had come through, hands on her sword hilts, heart racing in her throat. The silence of the room allowed for the echoes of the merriment from the town to filter to her ears, though the music and hum of human activity took on the same disjointed feeling of the shadows.
When her hand reached the door handle behind her, guided by the memory and repetition of duty over her years of service, the room went dark.
For a beat of several moments, the guard froze in the dark room, trying to make her eyes adjust to the light that had to be coming in through the window, even as a deafening silence rushed down upon her.
Behind her, the door didn't budge.
There was a crack of thunder so loud the windows exploded, and a brilliant blue light flashed across the room with the smell of magic, knocking the guard back through the door and into the hallway beyond.
Others came running, some stopping to help her to her feet and still more moving into the large room with lanterns, though they froze only a few steps in, upon seeing the warped metal of the Rakier longsword in two charred pieces, on the ground.
Word came from the capitol that morning.
And the Feysha came to the edge of the water the next evening, demanding the longsword be returned to them.
*****
End of Part 1.
Proposed Title and Cover of Part II :
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