Rrahzz lifted his gaze until he looked the man in the eyes, but found he couldn't hold that steel eyed gaze for long. Nervously he shifted his feet and looked around, finding himself automatically lowering his eyes. He shook his head and lifted it once more, determined to stand straight as the man told him. They began walking, and in answer to the mans question, he told him,

"Rrahzz, my name is..." he began, but his voice was raspy and weak. Clearing his throat he said in a louder and slightly more firm voice, "I am Rrahzz AlDaen, and I am..."

Now that he was here and it was time to say it, it sounded stupid. What man willingly walks his path to serve another, let alone to serve another on a path that leads to madness. He lowered his voice and head in shame and changed was he was going to say.

"I'm here to be trained." he said finally.

As they walked he looked around out of the corners of his eyes, noting the relentless black stonework, the scores of men walking around in completely unrelived black except for shining objects on their collars. As one man came close enough for Rrahzz to see what they were, he let out a small gasp. For men to openly wear these...these...pins, these badges, where anyone could see them and know them for what they were, was...astonishing...foolhardy...Brave.

A silver sword adorned one side of the mens collars, but not all. Some went without, some wore only the silver pin on their coats, but some that had it also wore another. Occasionally a man walked past bearing the sword and a burnished, red-gold serpentine figure of a dragon, The Dragon.

The man leading him heard his gasp of surprise and saw the understanding dawning on Rrahzz's face. His mouth quirked in a small smile, somewhat mocking in nature.

"What..." he began in a raspy voice. He cleared his throat again and said a little louder, "What do the pins mean, and what must I do to earn them?" for it was apparent to Rrahzz that they denoted some kind of acheivement or rank.

A vertical slit in appeared in the air, a bright paper thin slash of light, widening into a man sized rectangle, the woods south of Caemlyn on one side, the dark room of an inn on the other. Two men stared into the dawn light of the woods, their eyes drawn to a half finished wall, blacker than black, and made by no hands, running off on either side and into the distance. Frequent breaks in the wall showed where less progress had been made, and in some places you could step through to the city sized coumpound inside.

"Any one in black should be able to help you," the older man said. Tall and gaunt, gey beard trimmed and oiled in the Tearan fashion, but a face that said "Borderlands" a league away. The younger man was shorter, slack fleshed and sick looking with wide shoulders, long red hair and emerald green, downcast eyes. Without a word the younger man stepped through, nervously shifting his leather script and rough, worn woollens. The opening disappeared behind him without a sound, and with a glance at the wall, Rrahzz began walking around it in search of a gate. The woods were familiar to him, he had grown up in Caemlyn and spent much of his time hiding in the woods outside of the Far Madding gate, closer to this spot than he knew.

As the sky began to lighten, the noise from inside the wall began to increase. There was a low din like that of any city, but there were what seemed to be a series of thunder like rumblings, sometimes in the distance, sometimes closer. Eventually Rrahzz rounded a corner in the wall, and a couple hides later in the wall there was a gate.

As he approached the gate, two men in black stepped out, both imposing and intimidating. So much so in fact, that Rrahzz found he couldn't lift his head enough to look either in the eye. All he could do was say in a low, raspy voice, "I'm here to be trained." :oops: