2. Arcady: Do Not Fear These Bones

Summary

• The narrative is narrated by someone who had only prayed to the five dragon gods three times in their life, and always felt ignored by them. On the Night of Locked Tombs, they grudgingly decided to keep a promise made to their deceased mother.
• The narrator approached the Citadel in the City of Vatra, heading to the catacombs behind it on a mission to steal something.
• The Citadel was a seat of government and a university which the narrator seldom dared approach due to some penalty around their neck.
• Students usually visited the catacombs as part of a rite of passage designed to instill fear in them. On this night, however, only the narrator ventured into the caves.
• Wearing a dragon mask and pretending to be a priest, they were permitted entry to the catacombs by an inexperienced acolyte.
• In the midst of dead, the narrator sought the sealed tomb of Barrow Eremia, also known as the Plaguebringer – the most despised man in the world – to steal his magical seal.
• The narrator believed that the Plaguebringer, his grandfather, was unjustly accused and vilified. For years, they had nursed a bitter resentment against those who had destroyed their family's life and smeared their grandfather's reputation.
• Open the Plaguebringer's coffin led to an overwhelming stench of rotting bones and filth. Despite the horror of the situation, they succeeded in finding and retrieving the seal.
• While holding the seal, the narrator mourned his lost family and affirmed his record to find out the truth and clear his grandfather's name, even if that meant taking on a new identity.
• Multi-lingual incantations enabled a transition of magic between the narrator's current seal and the new one. In a powerful series of events, the essence of the old life was replaced with the hope of a new one.
• Finally, the intensity of the transformation caused the narrator to blackout, but not before seeing the shadowy vision of wings.