The Soul And The Sword

Chapter 4

Carlos is sitting down in his chair infront of his hearth, relaxing and enjoying its warmth. Suddenly he hears a knock on his door.
"I wonder who that could be."
He opens the door.
"Ruther what are you doing here? You look worried sick about something. What's wrong?"
Ruther shows him the letter without a word.
"What?! They took you're wife... Oh no.... And it's The Dark Sickle."
"First off Carlos who are they besides a group of men?"
"The Dark Sickle is an elite organization of assassins, who target loved ones of the best of warriors. They kidnap them and take them to wherever their headquarters is. They have been around for centuries, but have never been taken down. Some of their members have been captured before, but they say nothing at all and only carry a piece of paper with them. Each paper is a clue that leads to their headquarters wherever they are, but nobody has ever been able to solve a Dark Sickle mystery. The quests have always ended in the death of the warrior, and upon his death poof... No more Dark Sickle members. They only show up when a warrior is targeted, and they have selected you."
"So.... What do we do Carlos?"
"Well all we can do is try to find their headquarters and rescue your wife. It won't be easy. The members are hard to kill. Difficult opponents as the books tell."
"How do we find them?"
"The first one, as it is written, will always be in the town nearby the warrior. Once killed their will be a note leading to the next member, and so on and so forth."
"Then I must go... Permission to go out on my own away from service?" "Permission granted. I wish the best of luck to you Ruther."
Ruther then walks towards the door, opens it, and looks back at Carlos. Their eyes lock and Ruther breaks the look and closes the door behind him and heads home.

Ruther enters his home and shuts the door behind him. He then cracks his fingers and begins to put his light armor on, since it will be a long journey and in case he needs extra speed and agility, but while being armored up for a fight. He then looks at his weapons rack and studies each weapon carefully, playing out scenarios and thinking of possibilities along his journey. After he is done thinking he grabs two daggers, a kite shield, and his favorite blade of all; a sword he calls Haruth, named after his father. Haruth is a dark folded-steel sword that is double edged. Its two hand guards have a curved part at the end that bends toward the hilt, parallel to the hand guards. The flat part of the blade has a single thin line of gold running up the middle of the blade from the bottom of the blade right to the tip. Tight straps of the finest leather are wrapped around tightly on the grip of the hilt. The bottom of the hilt has a small round section, which contained in the middle of the circle is a diamond, Ruther's birthstone. And in the middle of where the hilt, hand guards, and blade meet is an emerald, his father's birthstone. The sword is extremely sharp and light weight so it cuts through the air with little effort. Its sheath is made of steel, with two thin strips of gold running up from the bottom to the top while crossing each other over and over again. At each intersection of the strips there is either a diamond or an emerald and the other is at the intersection above as the pattern repeats on each side. The leather used to attach the hilt to his side is of the finest leather. At the tip of the sheath on one side the letter R is engraved and on the other side the letter H is engraved. The double edged sword is one of the hardest blades to learn how to use and it took Ruther years to master it. It was made in memory of his father and in him training him to become the warrior Ruther is today. He forged the blade by his own hand through many years and has always carried it with him in times of battle.
Ruther looks at Haruth and says "This is for you father. It's time to make you proud."
He slides Haruth into its hilt, heads out the door, and begins his quest for his wife Mallory.