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Numerous enemy warriors had found your razor-sharp sword always ready, your swordsmanship terrifyingly efficient. Never had you experienced uncertainty as to the outcome of such combat. Always your fighting spirit had seen you through these moments of blood and iron, and the fame of your martial exploits had already made you a well-known hero and legend in your time.

You are well known as a warrior who fears no man, and the reality of your being alive after more than a decade of fighting attests to the fact that you have never been defeated.

Tonight you are assigned guard duty at your lord's castle. Now, as you stand watch you are fully confident that you will be master of any emergency that might arise. It is your first duty to acquit yourself in such a way as to ensure the safety of your lord. You must also bring credit to him, for the warrior's code requires such loyalty and devotion to him. You are fully prepared to die if necessary to preserve his honor.

But somehow, tonight, your emotional mood is different. As you stand in the chilly blackness of the early spring night, atop the castle's outer rampart, you feel a certain brittle tenseness and a strange and indescribable uneasiness welling up within you.