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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Edward Kann@StoryART" data-source="post: 1780396" data-attributes="member: 23128">The Dread Legion Advances...The Dromite and I followed on the heals of Officer Sorrow who tred silently despite the breastplate and heavy armor.  There was a mystery there in that silence.  Very clearly Officer Sorrow employed a variety of subtle magic that silenced his movements selectively.We passed into the library and down a broad marble hall lined upon either side with sculpted shelves of stone that spanned from the ground all the way up, up to the ceiling far overhead.  A series of balconies allowed the Sorcerers and their assistants to gain access to the thousands, no; to the hundreds of thousands of books stored just in this one hallway.Five stone balconies tiered the hall on either side positioned one above the other with tall narrow ladders of polished rose wood gilt with brass fittings that rolled along the floor to allow a reader to climb four, five, seven as many as eight shelves up the stacks before reaching the bottom of the next balcony overhead.Officer Sorrow turned and set his palm onto the pommel of his thrusting sword.  Instantly I could hear the swish of his cloak and the step of his boot in the hall.  So the magic was on all the time unless Officer Sorrow placed his hand upon the sword.  Interesting."You two, are in quite a lot of trouble and you haven't even sworn the oath of brotherhood."The Dromite and I looked at one another.  The Dromite let out a low buzz that might have been a sigh.  Neither one of us said anything.  What could we say?  It was likely that Officer Sorrow had seen everything."The higher ranking officers in the Fleet will be looking to settle scores with the two of you I'm afraid.  That makes having you enter the roles of the Sixteenth quite impossible.  That is.  Not if you expect to live beyond the next moon.""But...I've GOT to join the Legion."  "Yeszzzz, what is there left for us if we are not to be allowed to swear the oath?"Officer Sorrow raised a hand.  "I said you couldn't swear to the Sixteenth.  There are other Legions.  There are even other posts that you likely are not aware of in the least."He turned and snatched a book out of the shelves at random and tucked it under his arm, striding silently again up the hall and deeper into the library.  The Dromite and I followed.  Officer Sorrow taking a book for us was a sign that we were indeed going to be sworn.  An Officer of the Legion would choose a book at random, open it and we would take the oath and point at the book with our gladius.  The magic of the gladius would choose a name for us out of the book that would be our name within the Legion.  After that point our old name and our past would no longer matter and we would be another brother in arms.  Officer Sorrow halted abruptly and pressed his hands against several stones set into the wall opening a concealed passage.  We entered and then followed him down a very narrow and increasingly dank set of stone stairs down below the library and even deeper.  I sensed that we were entering into the passages beneath the palace and the Order of Sorcery.  There were stories about these passages, none of them good ones.  They were said to extend for many miles and contain an entire variety of dangers and secrets best left alone.Officer Sorrow snatched up a torch and strode into the darkness leading us after a time to a small iron and wood door upon which he knocked.  The door opened and a stooped, old veteran with his left eye in a scar that had been stapled closed by a field surgeon long ago allowed us entry.  Officer Sorrow gestured at some tottering wooden chairs and we sat."I have two new volunteers for you."The grundgy old man gave a nod and walked slowly around us.  He reached out a yellow'd age spotted hand and grasped my chin with amazing strength for such an old timer, turning my head this way and that to have a look at me.  He did the same with the Dromite."They'd be better off if you just killed em now...they'd suffer less."  The old man coughed as he spoke and rummaged in a nearby cabinet for a kettle.  He began going about the process of making himself some tea."I know for a fact that you need more men.""Men?  You promise me men and you deliver this...my grandmother could kill these two puppies without even breaking a sweat...""Your grandmother could probably strangle half of the Black Fleet without much effort..am I right?"  Officer Sorrow countered.The old man cackled, banging the tea kettle down on the stove.He turned and became serious.  Both men fell silent looking at us.  The Dromite and I sat very still wondering if we were going to see daylight again.The old man turned and opened a shabby looking wooden crate, withdrawing two wrapped gladius from within.  They were both very old but the detail on their blades when drawn was striking.  I had never seen the blade of a Legion gladius before.  It was covered in so many glowing vermillion runes that the steel below was all but tracing and edge.The old man placed the twin swords on the table with pommels facing us.  "Pick them up if you mean to take the oath."We did so.  I immediately felt a hum and tingle in my hand that travelled up my arm and into my head.  It set my teeth on edge.Officer Sorrow did not remove his gladius to perform the oath instead the old man did so.  His gladius sparkled and sent motes of bloody light into the surrounding darkness of the chamber as he set it's edge across the edge of both my gladius and the Dromite's at the same time."Do you swear to serve the Dominion and the will of the one upon the Ivory Throne with your living and with your dying both now and in the world after for all time until the age ends or your soul expire and pass into the beyond."The old man's words hung in the air.  Something warned me that this was not the sort of oath to swear to without more thought.  Yet, what was I going to do.  If I refused now they would simply cut my throat.  "I so swear."  We both spoke together.There was a throbbing pain in my hand as the gladius began to grow hot.  Now was the time to receive my name and finish the oath.  Officer Sorrow placed the book on the table.  It was up to us to open it to a random place under the magical guidance of the blade to find our names.  When I reached for the book Officer Sorrow slammed his hand down on the cover refusing to allow me in a gesture to receive my Legion name.I felt pain and disorientation growing."Welcome to the First Dread Legion...Nameless."</blockquote>

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