Bandits

Prologue

It was dark. Not the faded colors of a muted blue sky, or the dark from gathering storm clouds, but truly dark. It was a rare occurrence for both of the two suns of Regius to be completely absent from the sky; normally their glow kept a warm orange fire burning on the horizon even in the deepest hours of the night. But today was different. Despite it being nearly midday the sky had been black for several hours with only the light of the stars to illuminate the village. The stars were always bright, near enough and vibrant enough to be seen at any time of the day, so their presence offered enough light now to allow the farmers to continue working in their fields.

Most men in the village went about their business as usual. They'd all seen this before, Dark Days were rare enough to pique interest but common enough that life hardly skipped a beat. "Usual business" in the town was mostly farming. Wheat, corn, potatoes, even cocoa beans were grown on Lentus. Farming was a lucrative trade, or at least it should have been. Food had become one of the most valuable and hard to attain commodities ever since the Rift Event. But most of the food grown on Lentus was sent straight to Palateo at prices that would have made even the poorest beggar turn his nose in offense. Had it not been for the might of Palateo's armada, Lentus and many of the other fragemns would have rebelled long ago. Few areas of the western edge of the Petra Field remained independent of Palateo, and Lentus was not one of them.

Life was hard for the farmers and craftsmen of the village. Fields that once grew endless rows of grain were now choked by dust as the surrounding desert encroached on the farmland. To make matters worse, many of the trade routes back to Palateo were plagued by bandits. Without trade, what little life existed on Lentus would soon be nothing more than a memory.