Elydria,

Eastern Continent

2400 AA,

After the Great Ascension

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A gentle breeze stirred across the land. Sand shifted as the gale wafted across the empty beaches and across the rocky terrain that stood behind a great wide cliff. Across the moors and woodlands the wind drifted, stirring up moths and fireflies to dance among the long blades of grass and among the crowded flower patches.

It raffled up the foliage and stirred up the scents of the savannah. The fragrant aroma of blossoms, the rich smells of the earth and the warm grass that was mixed in with the smells of the ocean and a taste of salt that hang in the air long after the wind had blown by.

All in the peninsula was quiet. Still like the calm before a storm in the tiny seaport town of Bethesda.

The breeze continued to grow stronger carrying in with it small flocks of thick grey clouds from beneath sea. A chilliness that took away the heat of the humid air that had once scorched the land at midday began to settle in as well.

Another day was ending.

A half-turn of the globe and just like that, the light had faded away like the passing of the gentle wind. The day’s joys and its conquests soon be forgotten with the advent of night.

There was no way around it. There was no way to escape the dark curse.

This was a fact that the residents of Bethesda knew very well, and it was evident in the way they hurried along.  The merchants, swiftly packing away their wares even as they left behind an emptying town square. Everyone to his own house. To his own abode with just but a glimmer of hope that they would live to outwit the curse and wake up to see the light that was the herald of a new day.

Like the town square, the docks had also emptied out. The fishermen having hauled out their nets some hours before sunset, and now, all that was left was just the tethered boats that kept on swayed on deceivingly. For the gentleness of the rippling waves did not foretell of peace, but rather in this era, it was the tell-tale calm before the storm. A storm that would soon be upon them and only with the coming of morning would they finally be able to tell of all its ravages even as the salvaged whatever lives it had left behind.

The town square quickly emptied, and all that was left was a multitude of empty little sheds and wooden stalls. The noise of shutting windows and doors filled up the suburbs, even as the strong wind continued to howl. Growing stronger with every passage of time.

A woman was seen rushing out. A terrified expression marring her face and moments later, she came back holding a screaming toddler who seemed restless to leave her arms. Still, the woman’s mien was more relieved than before.

There were still some

signs of distress though, but she was happy she had made it. It would have been terrible if she had  been caught outside, but she had beat the dusk. They would be safe now, or at least she allowed herself to hope so.

Elsewhere, a little lamb bleated. It followed its mother and a large ram into a makeshift shed that had been erected inside a house's basement. No chances were being taken. Every pet was grabbed from the streets, and all the animals were also locked in. Did the darkness distinguish between animal or human? No and no one wanted to find out. The price of discovering things in this world was often too steep. For the many that had fewer animals and a humble background to return to, that was not a choice that they could afford to make with the way their lives now were. The dangerous stuff was always left to the military. Thus, this was the hassle that every living creature in the seaport town of Bethesda knew to abide by.  For the norm was to withdraw inside in order to survive. And as such, this was the curse of this world. To never see the stars as they twinkled in the heavens or the moon as it journeyed across a vast sky and to do otherwise would mean certain death.