Luck Weaver

Prologue

Prolouge

Rows of students, all ages, were sitting down in anticipation.  They buzzed with excitement and nervousness in the harsh light from the glass dome above.  Whispering to each other, they used a harsh competitive tone.  On the fringes of the room though, there were a couple of more serious looking students.  Silent and watching each other, tension in the air even gave the younger more carefree students nervous feelings.

Dressed in simple robes, they looked like monks from a distance, but as soon as a gazer drew close, it was obvious they weren’t.  It was just a look they had, a ruggedness and fierceness.  They seemed prepared to fight, for anything they wanted.  Also their stances projected confidence and authority, despite their nervous faces.  

Hearing loud footsteps in the hallway that vibrated from the floor, traveled through the mid-afternoon air, and floated to the room, instantly all whispering ceased, as all eyes snapped to the simple doorway.  It was just a frame of regular wood, light colored.

"Today is what you have all been waiting for," their instructor announced as he strolled in. "Today we choose the wielder of the Eclipse.  Today the chosen warrior will be found.  Today we will have a new Luck Weaver!"

The students all cheered, though most of them weren’t looking too happy.  Then they got in a line.  The youngest and least threatening students were sent to the front of the line, while the dedicated students met at the end of the line.  They were the ones with the actual chance.  Therefore, they got the hardest position.  The room's noise died down as they watched two confidant students square off.  It was a teenager, looking self-assured, and an adult, looking nervous.

"Do you accept?" the adult asked, while everyone else assessed the object of the question, the silent teenager.  

"Yes," the teenager stated impassively, aware that he was the object of everyone's attention.  He showed no emotions on the outside, though he squirmed on the inside just a bit, before he forced the nervousness out.

"Never again..." he thought. 

That one-worded statement sent a ripple of excitement through the room.  Money could be seen exchanging hands.  The teen went to the end of the line and stood there surveying the commotion he caused.  The door at the end of the classroom opened.  It led to a room occupied once every twenty years, a legendary room.  The first student went inside and the door closed.

Slowly the line inched forward as the less experienced students were taken inside the room.  No one came back out.

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A worried farmer ran to the king's council. Disheveled and dodging curious glances, all he could remember were the piercing gaze of the deep blue eyes, before they disappeared into the stormy night.   Running through the gilded bright hallway lit by everlasting torches, he collided several times with others.  He didn't even stop to help them up.  There was a report he had to give to the king. Normally, no ordinary citizen would even think about interrupting the king's meetings, but those eyes. Just thinking about the made the farming feel a sense of deep foreboding.

Worried citizens watched his careless sprint, and wondered at the safety of their king.  There were no guards present though.  Deciding to take matters in their own hands, a group of more heavyset townsmen tried to stop him.  They stepped in front of him, and the next instant he was gone.  Looking behind themselves, they saw him running full sprint toward the king’s chamber.  Shrugging their shoulders, they reasoned that the king’s guards should be able to handle it as soon as the man broke into the chamber.