text: [Themes: fantasy, fantasy]
  
  The sound of screams assault you as you wake.
  
  Though it is so fundamentally different, the screaming is in another way similar to the shouts of the cheering crowds that stood before you not too long ago, paying their due to the great hero Tainea.
  
  Paying homage to you.
  
  It takes about half a second before the screams truly register in your mind and you leap to your feet. The single, small window you have allowed yourself for this hiding place of yours confirms that it is daytime. You gaze through it, seeing nothing out of the ordinary until your eyes catch a glimpse of a sword blade. Turning your head, you see that two men stand in the village square, one of them cloaked with a hood over his head. The other, you take a moment to recognize.
  
  Then you realize that it is Ghall, the blacksmith here! He is -- was, judging by the weapon driven through his heart -- the most skilled at his art for miles around, the one who arms the town's guards. Without him, they will not have any weapons and therefore will be much less able to defend the village.
  
  Several others lie dead on the ground, you realize, and the sword was stained with blood even before it was buried up to the hilt in Ghall's flesh. The murderer pulls the blade out, turning towards a guard who wields a bow and is approaching him. He points his sword towards the guard and mutters a single word under his breath, you can tell by the movement of his lips. He isn't talking loudly enough for the guard to make out the word, you can tell.
  
  Even if he had, it wouldn't have mattered. The corpse slumps to the ground, its head completely incinerated. Your jaw drops and you take count of the weapons you hold. You haven't seen anything like this since the Dayel! There are a lot of daggers on you, hidden in every conceivable place. A wrist-bow on your left arm creates only a slight bulge in the sleeves of your robes. It is activated by a rather complicated mechanism of Ghall's own design. A vial of acid hangs from your belt, something that you have only ever used in last-ditch situations because you carry just one at a time. They are quite hard to come by, especially inside the Dayel's realm. You intend to save that one for the creature you detected which no doubt commands Ghall's murderer. Finally, there is a crossbow strapped to your right hip.
  
  You shed the robe that hid all of these weapons and rush out towards the village square. Yes, you're thought to be dead, but with the guard's death there will be no witnesses. As you come out of the door, the killer gets up from the corpse that he was bent over, the one of the guard. He (it?) looks towards you and points the sword at you. You estimate that you have about a second to live, unless you stop him, and quickly.
  
  [Author's Note: The first chapter of Celestial Lies, a series of interactive stories I have decided to create.Thousands of years ago, the world was at peace. The many nations coexisted without conflict, and war was something that had not yet been so much as thought of. There were relics of fighting, from a time long past, but these marks of the violence that shook the primordial, forming universe are things only mentioned in stories used to frighten children and keep them in line. Weapons were not forged; the closest thing to an instrument of death that the people created was a knife, and it was not used for that purpose.Then, a shadow fell over the world. First came the invention of murder. A bloody corpse was found, and there was no way that its owner could have died that anybody could find, other than the single, precise wound to its spine. When the injury was examined, it was found to be that of a knife. Suspicion abounded. Former friends turned on one another, and several more deaths followed. The knives were seen to be slightly ineffective; after all, now that the new purpose of steel was death, why not create a longer weapon, crafted to kill. The sword came into being. Bows were created to combat these weapons. Fighting sparked between nations once the entire community fell to a mysterious cause.Corrupt leaders took their people to their painful ends in battle against others, to kill or to be killed, and the ground was soaked with red. When the people of the world were at each other's throats, the Dayel revealed itself. It was a terrible monster, something that had never been seen before. Fire was at its commands, and the countless fatal wounds that the people dealt to it did not even slow it down. Its minions paled next to it, but were still terrible machines of destruction and misery. Thousands fell before an army of five hundred.It was then that a youth named Tainea found his powers, for he was the perfect assassin: the assassin of gods. He ambushed the Dayel, something many had tried. None before him had come close before the terrible creature had struck them down with his flames. Tainea, however, had buried his dagger in the Dayel's head.The corpse disappeared and Tainea thought himself victorious. He was hungry for glory, and he basked in the fame and the crowds of thankful peasants, wishing to pay homage to the one who had saved all of their lives.However, though the darkness had lifted, death continued. The Dayel's influence still worked at the world, and when an assassin came after Tainea in the same manner he had gone after the Dayel, he was forced into hiding. Thought dead, he was mourned, but his death was quickly overshadowed by the wars that returned among the still-recovering nations. Tainea knew that though the Dayel was forced out of the world, his influence still remained. That meant that his minions were still at work, sowing discord. He vowed to finish what he had started, and so he left his place of hiding, knowing that he could not kill the Dayel's servants by idly waiting for them to find him. I know that it's a bit short, but this is really more of a preview to the rest of the series, which is still in the works (the largest difference other than length being that the other storygames in this series are going to be Advanced).]
  
  > try to dodge the attack
  You ready your weapons, drawing two daggers out of their sheaths, but knowing that you don't have enough time to get over to him. At the same time, you're running to the side. The sword follows your movement, but you can see that your attacker's concentration is breaking. You are spiraling ever closer to him.
  
  That probably wasn't a very good idea. You see the steel flash, and instinctively drop to the ground in a roll. A searing pain hits you, but you quickly realize that you're still alive. The agony does not interfere with your roll as it's performed almost entirely on momentum and it's gone as abruptly as it came. Jumping to your feet, you stab at him.
  
  The attacker seems to have recovered quickly from his attack despite the concentration it took. You're now certain that he is under the command of the Dayel's minion. However, that knowledge is not much use when he knocks your dagger out of your hands, and, in the same fluid motion, twists his weapon, lunges forward, and strikes you on the forehead with the pommel of his weapon, causing you to drop your other dagger and shoot your wrist-bow into the ground.
  
  A sweeping foot brings you to the ground, and you lie there, groaning, for a few moments. The attack approaches you, changing his grip on his sword. It's two-handed, but also backhanded, and you can see he's preparing for the finishing blow. You try to roll to the side as the blade comes down towards you but his foot stops you partway and instead of hitting you in the chest he strikes your back.
  
  The blade pierces your heart, comes out of the front of you, and buries itself in the ground. The pain lasts an incredibly small amount of time, and then --