December 3rd, 2006

After another night’s hellish sleep, I’m ready to tackle a new day. Even if this day does start with me waking up early, then no getting back to sleep until I get up. Too bad I woke up at five in the morning. I hate that.

After a quick breakfast, I had an entire day to kill. I’d finished my Christmas jobs, and I had nothing to do. So I watched Ghost In The Shell until I understood it. It’s one of those movies where the plot happens in a few minutes, all packed into one little conversation.

Then, for no reason other than boredom, I started a new novel. It’s a continuation of The Elder Scrolls called Gems. The name actually comes from the fact that my two main characters names are Diamond and Ruby. Since nothing else really interesting happened today, I might as well post a preview. See you all later!

Chapter One – Friends In Unlikely Places

Just like any other night, Diamond J. was sitting in his living area, drinking a bottle of Tamika’s Vintage 299 and reading A Dance In The Fire. It wasn’t much to read when you were drunk, but he always liked to have something with ink on it in his hand. He couldn’t help but think that the rumours spreading around Cheydinhal were true. After all, alcohol was one of the most powerful weapons against your mind, and Diamond did drink an awful lot of wine. Still, it seemed so unlike him to do something like this. He would be more likely to worship Daedric gods and kill innocents, even though he visited the Chapel Of Zenthar every morning. But Diamond was not one to trust what others say about him, and once someone like that can’t remember something, it might as well be written for a Moth Priest, or in Daedric letters.

After his bottle was as empty as a Dark Brother’s conscience, and knowing that nothing would come about just sitting around his house, Diamond donned his robes, strapped his dagger, as silver as the goblets sitting on his table, into his belt, safely fastened underneath the soft silk of his robe. Pulling the hood over his blond hair, he stepped into the raining streets. Cheydinhal was always under rainfall, with Lake Arrius so close by. He could have sworn that a mage was freezing the clouds above and melting them, pelting the roofs and cobbled pathways with cold water. But this made Cheydinhal Diamond’s perfect home. He always walked in the rain… if his face was wet enough, nobody would know he was crying.

On the other side of town, Ruby was walking towards the Mages Guild. She had ordered a new mortar and pestle, and she was hours late on picking it up. She prayed the doors hadn’t been locked yet, even though Mage Codes state that doors may not be opened for non-guildmembers, and the penalty was more than she earned in a month. Still, she could hope for the best. She sprinted the final few feet towards the door, and pulled the handle. The door glided open, and she stepped inside.

Ruby had seen gruesome sights in her lifetime, just like any normal man, woman or child would. She had been a treeclimber in her youth, and was always in bed after yet another bone-breaking fall, but nothing would prepare her for what she saw. Every single guildmember was slain, their innards strewn around the halls and over the cupboards holding alchemical tools that would never be used by their rightful owners again. Only two people were left standing, holding shortswords turned from Daedric black to crimson, dripping the blood of the innocent mages. Ruby screamed at all that she had taken in, and even what she had not seen… over the black robes the two Nords were wearing was a blood-red skull embroidered into the fabric, dripping its own colour down the cloth. They were necromancers.

Ruby could not stop herself from screaming. She ran as fast as she could, faster than she had ever ran before in the twenty-six years she had been alive. Luckily, she didn’t need to run very far. Only a few buildings away, Diamond was leaning against a wall, watching the rainfall. Once he had heard the screaming, he looked away from the droplets of water and toward the guild district on the east side of town. He saw only a dim silhouette of a woman in the doorway, and the light that illuminated her was eerily familiar. Diamond had seen this illumination years ago, but could not place where. It was almost as if he couldn’t remember because he didn’t want himself to. Before he could think about this, the woman had run to only a few feet away from him. He stepped from the shadows into the middle of the street to stop her, but she only ran faster. Diamond’s eyes opened wide, and saw what she was running from. One of the necromancers had stepped outside to track down and kill the girl before she could tell her friends at Newman’s Lodge. Diamond had not a slice of a second to waste, and he screamed at the girl to get down. She dropped to her knees and covered her head with her hands and sleeves, just in time to avoid getting fried by the bolt of lightning passing out of his hands and into the necromancer. He fell to a pile of charcoal and ash on the ground, and his partner ran out to the same fate.

The two necromancers were gone. Ruby was on the ground, still with her hands over her head. She arched her back so she was sitting up on her knees. She threw her face towards the ground, and threw up. Her mind could not cope with all that she had seen. Diamond approached her and whispered into her ear “It’s not safe here. Come with me, and we’ll talk.” He strode off, leaving Ruby wondering whether to trust him or not. But she thought of the advice her grandmother had once given her. The enemy of her enemy is her friend. She got up, her legs shaking beneath her. She left what she had seen behind her, and ran in the direction of Diamond’s estate.