Darkin: A Journey East Read Online Free PDF Page A

that sat comfortably in the center of the room. The water shimmered with reflections of the surrounding crystals and rocks that draped the walls and ceiling. He had never seen anything so beautiful in his life. He had a sudden notion, almost gone the next second, to kill the old man and spend eternity alone and at peace within the cave. But that thought snapped away, and reality returned with the sound of the old man’s voice.
    “So what do you think of my pool? I think it should be called lovely by some, though I reckon not even this could be seen as beauty to Grelion and his kin,” muttered the old man, ending on an angrier tone.
    “This place is beautiful, I have never seen anything like it,” Adacon responded, still in awe. “This is your home?”
    “This old place has been my home now for many of your lives lad, and with the sort of evil folk running around in this age, I am glad it is so well hidden. Anyway…” he spoke gently. “I’ve not had one visitor in the past century, I suppose, though mind you I do travel out a lot myself. It’s a pleasant surprise for me to share this wonder with another—another like you.”
    “Like me?” Adacon recoiled, awed by the little man’s reference to his extreme age.
    “Sure you, lad” he retorted.
    “Why me?”
    “Because you are not one of them , and us who live apart from chaos and evil are as one,” the man replied. “Do you not rebel against your oppression now, where it drives to sting?”
    “I do, Though I don’t know much anything about the world… I was raised a slave on a farm, just a few miles west of here. I know so little, except that I am a murderer now, and without a reason to live, except maybe to find freedom.”
    “Ah Krem , he’s a good dreamer…” the old man muttered under his breath.  “You cannot learn to be free unless you can learn to love , and you cannot begin to love, young lad, until you have learned to love yourself,” said the old man, mystifying Adacon with the word Krem .
    “Krem? I do not quite follow you…” responded Adacon.
    “Oh, yes, of course—I am Krem, and it is the name I have known to be mine for as long as I can recall,” Krem responded, chuckling to himself.
    “And what is your stance on the oppression? Do you not feel the pain it has caused us all? I’m no longer a slave to the lords, and I don’t care if they seek to kill me or not… I only hope to find some free place to go, and live if I can in peace.”
    “Ah, you have gone into worries—too many, I think, for now. What is your name, young lad?” asked Krem.
    “My name is Adacon.”
    “Good Adacon, listen to me yet. A war has been spawned in you, I think. Never have I seen a slave so free from fear. And that quality in you I cherish. But this talk of oppression, what brings that?” spoke Krem.
    “What? You don’t know of the bondage, so close to your home? The controlling lords that use us as tools, and entitle us to no freedom? That is the oppression I have known for all my life,” Adacon said with fury.
    “If you have been treated poorly in the past, dear Adacon, I am deeply sorry for that. But it is now that a war seems to have risen in you, and we must focus upon the present. The lords , did you say? Hah, I marvel at that name you give him. Almost seems you think there to be more than one.”
    “I’ve always heard that there are a great many lords—the minority who rule the rest of the world.”
    “Partly you are correct young lad, as our country is controlled by a small group of people. But alas, there are no lords , as you propose. There is a Lord, whose name goes widely unknown in these times. It is Grelion. All the others whom you think to be the lords—they all work for Grelion.”
    “I can’t believe one man could be responsible for all of this, and that one man could have that much power? I cannot fathom it. I was always told there were many lords, hundreds…”
    “Hmmm… The lore in this age has run bleached,