The Omen of Extinction
Arthous was born to be very poor in the built walls of the Toxian capital. His mother died in giving birth to him, leaving his father to raise him and his three sisters alone. They shared a breaking, crumbling almshouse with other families on it, living only with a diet of rainwater and some farm pest for food. Arthous was the best hunter of all the children, and regularly brought animal corpses for the cook-pot.
Dying was a common event in the overcrowded place of Toxus, and mornings were filled with the crying screams of parents who woke to discover their dead child beside them. Arthous learned to have an affection for these mourns, and would love to lookout as the tally-men of King Dread get their staffs and carry the bodies from the almshouse. When the night comes, little Arthous would sneak through the dark rooms, seeking those whose lives are clearly soon to end, hoping to sight the moment their soul passed from life to death. For years, his nightly travels were a waste of time, as it was very difficult to know exactly when a person would pass away. The chances denied him to witness the moment of death until he saw it to his own family.…show more content… While his father trying to lessen his unhappiness, Arthous was the ever obedient brother, caring for his sisters as the disease consumed their weakening body. He watched each of them as they died, and a linking connection reached into him as life washed-out from their eyes, a desire to see what lays beyond death and unlock the mysteries of eternity. Arthous followed them back to their temple as tally-men came for the bodies, he kept asking them question after question about King Dread’s commands and the workings of death. “Could a person exist at the moment where life ends? If such could be understood, might be the wisdom of life be combined with the secrets of