Prologue

Knowledge is power. Power makes ideas. And ideas are immortal. Immortality, for some religious sect, is not sacred. It is an abomination to life, where life is supposed to live, and die either by natural causes or by the blade. Ideas drove men to fight in a cause they believe is just, but it was the same ideas that made them weak, and ideas had killed countless of men over the course of our human history. Power is only for the strong, and only the fittest can survive and rule over the less fortunate ones. Knowledge, according to the elders, will only blind you from the truth of the world.

                “But they were wrong,” Kyras told his men. “Knowledge will only drive you hungry for more knowledge. Knowledge is like puzzle pieces, once you get hold of one you will desire for more puzzle pieces to make it complete. Such is of human nature.”

                The party of eleven assassins sat in a circle as they listened to the Keeper, Kyras Deus of Opportunity giving his speech before they set their foot into a mission the elders somewhat presume as a suicide mission. Kyras was known as the last survivor of the battleship Opportunity which saved thousands of lives when the crews decided to burn the ship and crashed it into the enemy’s flying fortress, hence, earning him the title of Opportunity for he now carries the last will of the ashen battleship.

                He was a hero of his city, until the elders decided that his heroism could be used elsewhere – the Keeper’s League. It is a league that the elders set up to “maintain the balance and order of the world” by conducting assassinations and suicides. On the first day Kyras entered the League, one boy, whom he only know as Sid, assassinated the King of Lourdes while wearing the uniform of another kingdom’s soldier. It sparked off a 6 year war until Lourdes was decimated to nothing when the Keeper’s League levelled the entire city with a bomb.

                “When you know more than the other person, you gain leverage over the other. The more you know, the more powerful you get. Knowledge will be your source of power, given to you by people with lesser knowledge naturally. But knowing too much has its flaws. You begin to develop ideas. Ideas that can make a person willing to lay down their lives for you. Ideas can win you wealth and fortune, and they can even win you a kingdom. Ideas can kill and ideas can burn down a whole city,” continued Kyras.

                His senior Keepers were all dead, making him, once again, the last surviving and longest serving Keeper for 7 years. These hired mercenaries were cheap to come by, and money is all they can ever think of. Sometimes he wonder why is he even giving them this motivational talk despite the odds will never see these hired men see the next sunrise.

                “Immortality, the elders curse it,” said Kyras as he pitched more wood into the fire, “even speaking about it can make the elders spit on your feet, have your head impaled and your body fed to the crows.” The assassins however did not feel much fear for the elders, for these men had been living on killing and pillaging all their lives and beyond the jurisdiction of the elders. Least they know that Kyras is a Keeper and the last surviving member of the League is with them, and they certainly didn’t know they are going to be sacrificial pigs when they enter into the palace of Hort.

                “But one can always dream of being an immortal.”