I would like to invite you to a living ceremony.
Lost in a dream... On an exceptionally dark, chilly, and heavily overcast Saturday evening in an early November, a crime is committed.
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​In the early hours of the evening, a robbery is reported on the outskirts of a large village near to the foothills of a vast mountain range.
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In the village of Alas, the overall mood throughout the land is one of confusion, disharmony, and mistrust.
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An eyewitness, one of the villagers, sees someone run from a burglarized home and provides a description to neighbors.
Word spreads.
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A couple of hours later, around 9:00 pm, a group of vigilante thugs cruising about, spot what appears to be a vagrant wandering the streets by themself, loosely fitting the thief's description.
The person is leisurely walking about, perhaps looking for something to eat. They are clasping a small thin envelope in their right hand. Maybe they have plans to deliver a note of some kind.
To the self-appointed street justice, the targeted individual doesn’t appear to belong. They look like they might be from a few villages over, maybe from the town of At Last.
Out of the truck, gangsters jump.
Without a single question, the drifter is restrained, mouth-taped, blind-folded, thrown in the back, and delivered across town.
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The new detainee is terrified as this group of thugs isn't known for their reasoning, and they have a reputation for doling out mob justice.
Restraints are removed as the prisoner is pushed into some shed-like structure for temporary keeping.
Only moments are left to attempt to flee or make a plea before the doors behind are shut.