Orange Red

Prologue

"It is said that a story should start at the beginning and finish at the end. If you are looking for such an adventure, you have come to the wrong place. I promise you no cohesion of events, I offer no reading digest, I will begin where my memory lets me and I will end where my words leave me. There are maybe a few important things you should know before hearing me rabble on. This is not a story about splendor, there is no glory in what I am about to tell you, the world is not at risk in this tale, and no one is trying to save it. There is no grand epic, no great saga, this is a story about ordinary people. Ordinary people who have been pushed into extremely extraordinary situations. This is a story about peace, about hate, about risk, about care..." he paused with a concerned sigh, "...about pain. I guess you have already decided whether this is worth your time. I guess the last thing I will say for now is...we tried to be good, we really tried, forgive us, we were just humans..."

The recorder's screen went blank. Lyle fumbled with the device to see what was going on. It was hard to see in the darkened room. He was sitting on the floor, behind a dividing wall. He reckoned the recorder's battery had just died. He grabbed the recorder in his right hand and lifted his left one to look at the tarnished ring on it. "I don't even know who to blame. Is the person who makes the sword to blame? Or the one who sells it? Or the one who wields it?" he paused "...Or the sword itself?" He took a deep breath and extended his arm until his left palm was over the recorder's screen. He closed his eyes and focused. His palm began to glow a faint blue. Tiny sparks would form now and again across the glow. The recorder buzzed a tune and showed a battery charging symbol on it. "It is important that when the rest find out, that they also know our side", Lyle thought to himself.

"They will" whispered the ring.