[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt5Mxm7BPhM]((Suggested listening))[/url]

The predawn glow had scarcely dispelled the stars from the sky when the gates to Lord Octa's keep were cranked open. Like a mouth of fangs yawning wide, the metal porticulus of the dark lord's keep opened into the courtyard of the citadel. From within the courtyard five horsemen charged forth onto the road leading up to Lord Octa's keep. Only a few strides behind the horsemen was the dread knight Vatikar standing atop a chariot pulled by two muscled warhorses. At his side was the elf girl, with shackles around her feet that would impede her ability to run away.

Sir Vatikar, upon riding out of the gate, inspected his retinue of seasoned warriors. His subordinates were not dread knights like Vatikar was; instruments of death employed by Lord Octa to dispatch his most powerful enemies. His band of warriors were essentially men-at-arms, though they were several cuts above the kettle hat-wearing peasant boys who stood guard outside the keeps of Lord Octa's vassals, armed with pikes they barely knew how to wield. Vatikar's horsemen were what the peasant rabble called Black Hats - named for the wide-brimmed cavalier hats they wore. These professional soldiers who had proved their mettle time and time again on the field of battle. Clad in chainmail cuirasses, they thundered down the road with long, black capes fluttering in the frigid wind. Each carried a saber in belt-affixed scabbards, and each of them had heavy crossbows strapped directly behind their saddle. They carried the same weapons into battle, knowing precisely how to use them and how to work in tandem with their fellows. On their own, a cadre of Black Hats were a redoubtable force to be sure. But when led into the field by a dread knight of the likes of Sir Vatikar, they were truly a force to be reckoned with.

Agael watched from the window high in Lord Octa's keep as the chariot-borne Vatikar and Assallya thundered into the distance along with their cadre of Black Hats, down the road into the dark forests below the keep. Dawn was breaking over the dominion of Lord Octa. As the riders disappeared into the murky forests, Agael could only wonder why his master saw fit to go to such lengths to recover this single missing prisoner, to risk allowing a prisoner who had murdered one of the dark lord's own barons to escape just to have this missing prisoner back. Agael suspected that Lord Octa knew more about this prisoner than he was letting on. As the sun rose over the land, Agael withdrew from the window and made for the dungeons deep within Lord Octa's keep. Perhaps the Tobler boy knew more about this missing girl the dark lord wanted so dearly.