Prologue for upcoming novel...

A quiet, petite sliver of room hung in the sky that night. It didn't cast enough light to read by, as it did on a full moon, but it shown bright enough in the sky that you could move with little difficulty. The night was young-only an hour till midnight. There was the fresh dew smell in the air, only adding to the innocence in what is normally considered to be a sinister time. Then again, who can say that the darkness has ever been innocent, even for the blindest of seconds?

There's only one girl around the center of the village, a few men way on the edge just making their way in from a large job. The girl's young looking, only about thirteen or younger, but without seeing her face she could be up to fifteen. Her hair is lank, down to the middle of her back and she's twirling a small knife around on her finger. It's not exactly cocky, more unsure then anything because most likely she's on guard duty and that's her weapon. From the looks of her-although looks have always been deceiving, even to the best eyes-she's unsure of what to do with it, even though the answer is logical in the mind, in action it's a lot scarier.

The men all file into their respective houses, leaving the girl as the sole outsider in the village. Her coat is pulled tightly around her and the knife is all but forgotten. Even as she lies on a bench she keeps looking at it. It's not even a scary one-if she does face danger, it wouldn't be much help in any case, but she doesn't like the feel of it. It probably is a teenage girl, for all the boys would be thrilled with a new weapon and the older girls would disregard it. Then again, there are some people that just don't like sharp weapons.

Silence is like a cloth all over the whole entire village, not a twig snapping, not even dialogue from a house. It's not late, but it's illegal to help whoever this girl is. She's supposed to be spending the night guarding the village and she'll be the one to warn of trouble. Whenever someone ends you actually intruding, nine out of ten times it's the guard ends up dead, whether or not they warn everyone else or not. It's not a service; it's proof that you're willing to sacrifice your life for the village. The village is very big on the line, "death do us part."

There was a small cracking sound, like leaves being stepped on and the girl's head snapped to the left. The knife, formerly held so carefully in hand, fell to the ground with a clamor of rock and metal and the girl's face whitened to the shade of the moon.

Around the very edge of the village, a tall girl entered, her face covered by a sequined mask. The look on her face is confident, but not overly so-she knows too well what she's doing. As soon as she hears the knife, she freezes, eyes shifting stealthily until she focuses on the other girl. As she turns, they make eye contact for all of about a second. The second girl, the intruder, jumps, somehow strong enough to land on top of a building not five feet away, but twenty foot high. Her neck is covered by a thin scarf, which apparently contains a knife because that's where she procures it from...

Within seconds she's on the younger girl, knife held to throat, but the smaller girl makes no sound. "Sin," she says, quietly as not to be mistaken for a warning. "It's been a very long time since you've dared show your face in this village."

The other girl, Sin, smiles back. "Not as long as you'd think, Miz. But you seem rather anxious with your new toy. Did you not expect to be handed a knife?"

"Of course I did. I'm just wondering why this one has a diamond hilt."

"They they've figured it out, haven't they, Mizelle?"

"I'd expect so, Sin, as I'm not that great of an actress." Her features became sharper, much more threatening then before. "So what's the plan?"

"Same as always, Mizelle, I'm in your command, a loyal servant. And I know exactly what you'll want to do.'

"Pray tell what that is."

"You're going to want to find Ana, Hale, and Callowe."