A Cruel Moon

It has been five years since the land of Virisana was first beset by the Dark Tide — the name inhabitants have given to the veil of darkness that washes over the continent with little warning, siphoning life away from the weak and weary and killing those who are unprepared for its deadly grip. Children are taught songs to ward away the tow of the darkness, and the hands of the elderly are clasped by a warm fire until the danger passes, but the Tide still leaves death in its wake.

Rein, an orphaned young man from a small mill town, thinks of the Tide as little as possible until he is offered a convenient betrothal to Fenna, a scholar-mage who means to join a caravan of scholars seeking to discover what is at the heart of the Tide and how it might be stopped. As a show of good faith to Fenna's family, Rein accompanies Fenna as a bodyguard, but the journey is cut short by tragedy: raiders attack the caravan, leaving no survivors but Rein.

Rein returns to his meager lodgings below his neighbors' home. Mired in guilt over the death of his betrothed, Rein befriends Fenna's grandmother, Old Elske, the town's herbalist and mystic. As Elske begins to entrust Rein with her secrets, Rein realizes that the old woman practices a form of magic much older and wilder than the scholar-mages. So when Elske claims she could prepare a ritual to bring Fenna back from death, Rein realizes he is entangling himself in magics that are nearly forgotten... and were perhaps forgotten for good reason.


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My submission for Boulevard of Broken 2k3 Dreams.
I intended to submit under 2k3's Realm, but due to some Life Stuff I only ended up putting in about 10 hours of dev time, which I realized was about the maximum number of hours I wanted to spend in an engine where I can't just... write code. In the absence of a demo, I guess I'll try for Vapor2k3ware.