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[Thrax]

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The fact that the moongate no longer allowed entrance into Magincia had created great difficulties for the city. For one thing, the flow of trade had diminished considerably. The city was virtually surrounded by ships of all sizes, many merely riding at anchor, unable to manuever to the docks, their holds filled with rotting produce. Other ships seemed to be platforms for spectators waiting to see what might be happening. Like moths drawn to an open flame, they came hoping to be witnesses of something.

Was it the armor of evil that his liege, the Magnate Isk, now wore Scar wondered? If so it was living up to its dread name. Something had caused the animals to vanish all across the island. Perhaps they knew something humans did not know? Scar remembered how vast herds of creatures fled the forest for safety when lightning set fires to it. They sensed impeding danger much sooner than the humans, creatures of habit, could. Perhaps that was it.

As he made his daily rounds a growing dread gnawed at him but he tried to dismiss it. After all, he was a soldier, a veteran, and a skilled mercenary, quite used to danger's hair-raising chill. But this was different. There was something unnatural about everything---the buildings, the trees, even the ground beneath him. Even the winds that swept across the island had died completely. There was a surreal calm, a hushed whisper of impending doom, a pent-up scream awaiting release from an ever-widening mouth.

Trouble was brewing. He knew it, as surely as he knew his own name. A storm was coming---not a normal tempest of sea, winds, waves and floods, but something else, and something far, far worse. And he, like everyone else in the city, could only watch and wait for it to break upon them.