The town of Dawnbell is a strange place. Every morning, the ringing of a giant bronze bell greets the sun as it peaks over the horizon. This can be jarring to outsiders, for when they would rather sleep, the rest of the town awakens. Peddlers fill the streets, selling all kinds of wares, from the mundane to the magical. Dawnbell prides itself on its collection of magical wares, despite having very few actual users of magic.

Dawnbell does not have a mayor, or even a city council. The closest thing they have is a town meeting, in which any may attend and state their issues, as well as vote on what must be done. These meeting are overseen by the oldest person in the town, referred to as “Eldest”. While they have no actual power, they are still treated with respect.

The system that Dawnbell uses to govern has brought about many strange laws and traditions. These include; no eating bread on Wednesdays, dogs must be kept indoors at all times, and all disputes between men must be settled by a fist fight. The town of Dawnbell is a strange place.

The strangeness of the town in turn attracts strange people, such as our two heroes. While Simon and Lucy may not have arrived at the town yet, there are two other strange people in Dawnbell who they are fated to cross paths with. One of these strange folks had a part to play in the events that transpired in Freemont.

Shawn “the Slicer” was walking down a dark alley late at night, whistling to himself. Today had been a good day. He had brought the goods to his contact without a hitch, and was promised that he would receive his letter of political immunity within the week. Once the letter came, he would never have to do anything like this ever again.  Not only that, but it would be impossible for him to be tried for any crime.

His fingers twitched and the edges of his mouth curled into a smile as he thought of all the things he could do. All the fun he could have. All the people he could kill. All he needed to do was control his urges until then.

As though thinking about it caused him to summon it, his urge to kill began to boil up inside of him. He couldn’t wait a week! Besides, what was one death anyway? Most lives were so small, so insignificant, nobody would care if one or two went missing, right?

Shawn reached inside of his coat and pulled out his knife. It was his baby, his pride and joy, and he had just given it some new style. He figured that the contact wouldn’t care if a little bit was missing, so he painstakingly carved a piece from the large gemstone and affixed it to the bottom of the handle.

He imagined somebody walking down the street, when suddenly they hear a noise behind them. They turn to find where it is coming from, but all they see is a pulsing green light coming from somewhere. They start running, not knowing where to go. They run for a long time, but the light always stays close enough for them to see it. They end up in a dead end, and that is when they will finally see the man of their demise.

He couldn’t help but laugh. It was all too perfect! All he had to do was find a victim. Someone who was all alone, wandering the streets at this unfortunate hour. He slipped his knife back into his coat to hide the light and slid into the shadows.

Shawn moved swiftly, sticking to the darkest patches, and making nary a sound. Eventually he found his victim. It was a large man in a trench coat, standing where the alley opened into the street. The man had his back to Shawn, and had a hood pulled up over his head. He looked strong, but that was part of the challenge.

Shawn stepped out of the darkness a few feet behind the man and struck an intimidating pose. His knife emerged, and began tapping on a nearby drainpipe. The large figure turned his head slowly, revealing one eye that peered at Shawn quizzically.

“I’m sorry, am I in your way?”

Shawn chuckled, “No, don’t trouble yourself. I just wanted to have a quick conversation with you.”

“Well I’m sorry to disappoint, but I’m in no mood for talking right now.”

The man turned back to face the street and Shawn began to feel anger boiling up inside of him. Didn’t this man know who he was?! He was wanted half the world over, and this man just blew him off like he was nothing!

“You son of a bitch, I refuse to be treated like this!”

Shawn raised his left arm and ran at the man, expecting him to turn around just in time to get a knife to the gut. What happened instead was a surprise. The man turned around faster than expected and grabbed Shawn’s arm before he could react.

“Gah!”

Something was wrong here. This man’s right arm was insanely strong. He had an iron grip, and his fingers dug into Shawn’s flesh painfully.

“You coward! How dare you try to strike someone who’s back is turned! Do you have no shame?!”

Shawn ignored the man’s questions and instead transferred his blade from his left hand to his right. He twirled the blade through the air and brought it down onto the man’s forearm, expecting to be able to cut it off and make his escape. Instead the blade bounced off harmlessly.

Shawn began to panic.  Who the hell was this guy?  The man glared down at Shawn squeezed harder.

“You will not get away! I don’t know who you are, but your wickedness will not go unpunished!”

Shawn took a deep breath. He had always been prepared to do something like this, but never thought it would happen so soon in his murdering career. He raised his knife for another strike, and brought it down. Blood sprayed into the air and Shawn fled into the night.

As he ran and looked behind him. He saw the man standing there, dumbstruck, and holding Shawn’s left arm.

* * *

Shawn collapsed into a pile of trash. He had wrapped his coat around the stump to try and stop the bleeding, but he might have already lost too much. His vision was swimming in and out as he lay there, staring at the sky.

He felt himself beginning to drift away, but was quickly brought back into reality by a growling noise. He tilted his head down and saw a pair of eyes. Then another. And another. Soon there was a small forest of eyes staring at him, growling. They were all green.

Shawn lifted his right hand, and stared at his knife, complete with the new green gem on the hilt. The creatures that the eyes were connected to began growling.

“Damn. Got too greedy, didn’t I?”

He laid his head back down and felt himself drift away again. It didn’t matter anyway. Either the blood loss would take him or the monsters would. He closed his eyes, and felt his mind fade into nothingness…

NO

His eyes snapped open.  Something was happening to him. He felt his very soul being forced back into his body. But he wasn’t alone. Something was coming with him. He felt it crawling into his body, coming from his right arm. More specifically, coming from the knife in his hand.

He felt the bloody stump of his left arm bulge, and he began to scream.