Chapter I

A young man carrying a wooden box overlaid with gleaming bronze, and engraved with intricately carved silver symbols, dashed down a dusty dirt path. Swiftly he turned left around a corner, and skidded to an abrupt halt outside a large stone house, which was surrounded by a low stone wall. Slightly in front of the wall stood a tall post made of oak, with a wooden board of that same wood, fastened to it by two iron chains. The hot summer sun beat down on his back, causing his olive skin to sting beneath the crimson-red tunic.
As he slowly plodded up the hot cobblestone path leading to the arched doorway of the house, a slight breeze began to blow.
He slowly opened the wooden door and stepped inside the sun-lit filled shop. Inside, five young men clad in tan tunics and dirt stained cowhide aprons were busy at long tables, fitting numerous glittering jewels into golden bracelets, goblets and necklaces. There were also engravers dressed in fine ocean-blue robes, who were carefully engraving gold, bronze and silver letters and symbols into large copper vases, armbands and even elegant golden crowns. One tall, blonde-haired man was instructing a younger boy how to beat the orange-glowing metal into thin sheets, and then how to use the tongs to shape and form the precious metal once it had begun to cool. A short and large man with a long black beard put down his tongs and a small gold bracelet he was crafting, and came over to greet the traveler.
“Greetings Jesuan, I see that you have brought the bronze box, your father had sent for, safely from my friend Jacann the weaponsmith,” he exclaimed.
“Yes Hyaneen, where is my father this morning?” Jesuan replied.
“Your father, Yehwehenann, is in the storage room, and told me to tell you that he wanted you to speak with him when you returned!”
“Thank you Hyaneen, I will go and speak with him now,” Jesuan replied as he walked toward an archway, which led to a small room in the back of the shop.
“Father!” Jesuan called out as he entered the small room.
“I’m right here,” a sturdy-built man with a short gray beard answered as he wiped off his dirt-stained hands on a small piece of goatskin cloth.
“Did you bring the box like I asked for?”
“Yes father, but what is in it, and what is it for?” Jesuan asked.
“Open it, and you will see,” Yehwehenann replied. Jesuan carefully unlatched the little gold lock, which kept the box closed and slowly lifted the bronze lid to reveal a elegant golden hilt inlaid with glittering diamonds and turquoise stones and engraved in silver with the Crornnerisian words:
‘Crios Countas Highan Rexas kel Cronneras’

“It is quite glorious Father, quite glorious indeed” Jesuan remarked with astonishment.
“It is for the King my son,” Yehwehenann answered joyfully. “You are to deliver it to the King tomorrow on the eve before the royal banquet for the King’s fifty-sixth birthday,” Yehwehenann added.
As Yehwehenann finished speaking, a short man clothed in a short green tunic with dark stone-gray pants covered in dirt entered the small room carrying a long paper scroll that was rolled up and fastened with a purple chord.
“One of the King’s royal servants brought this by the shop early this morning, and said that the King wanted your best goldsmith to fashion him a case made of pure gold and edged with silver, for the Scrolls of Entity” the apprentice remarked.
“I will do it,“ replied Jesuan excitedly, “But I will need a half pound of silver and two pounds of the finest, and most pure gold in all of Cronneras!” “You go get the silver and I will go to the furnaces and retrieve the most pure gold for the King’s gift,” Jesuan commanded the apprentice.
Jesuan left the small room and headed to the “Room of a Hundred Furnaces” where men and boys were busy stoking the fires of the great furnaces and hammering the molten glowing-hot metal into thin sheets and other unique shapes. As Jesuan stooped down to pick up a piece of the shining precious gold, he paused when he heard the sudden whisper of voices near the archway that led out of the shop’s courtyard and on to the bustling streets of Cronneras.
Jesuan walked closer to try and hear what they were saying. As he peered over the hot gray stone wall, which separated the goldsmith shop from the rest of Cronneras he could see a castle guard wearing a ink-black tunic, that was covered by a coat of linked chainmail. Next to him was an old black-cloaked man with a bronze staff in his hand. As Jesuan ducked behind the wall, as the guard began to speak.
“Tonight when the King is in the royal throne room celebrating the feast with all the nobles and princes of the realm, I shall enter and give the King the golden case, which my servant requested Jesuan the Master Goldsmith to make. "When the time has come you will give him the case. Then I will draw my sword and act like I’m going to attack the King! When I do so, you shall cast a great and terrible dark spell, turning all the guards and nobles into demon-like warriors, who will protect and serve us as the new lords and high kings of Cronneras! ” We shall then steal and corrupt the Scrolls of Entity so that the location of the legendary sword of Altar shall not be found,” the guard cackled loudly.

"We shall rule the Kingdom of Cronneras in complete darkness, and all light and good will be vanquished FOREVER,” The dark-cloaked figure bellowed!

Suddenly, as Jesuan leaned against the wall, he dropped the bar of gold he was holding. The two shadowy figures looked over at Jesuan, and then dashed into a thick clump of bushes, which lined the street and were out of sight almost instantly!
Jesuan picked the bar of gold up off the ground, and then headed back inside the shop to begin work on the casing for the Scrolls. As he walked he pondered the words of the two dark figures, and thought about whether or not he should tell his father about their conversation. But then he decided to just to keep it a secret and see if their plan followed through the next night.

The next morning Jesuan opened his eyes and saw that Hyaneen and two other men had already begun working on the golden bracelet he was crafting the day before.
“What time of day is it”? “And why am I still in the shop”. Jesuan groggily asked Hyaneen.
“Last night, while you were working on the case, you fell asleep” “And it is almost sunrise right now Jesuan,” Hyaneen answered him.
Jesuan slowly shook off the sheep wool blanket that was covering him, and stepped on to the cold stone floor of the shop. He carefully put a long emerald tunic on and slipped his almond-colored leather sandals on his feet and headed to his workbench, where the unfinished gold case lay on the wooden table, along with his iron tongs. The warm rays of the morning sun began to peek through the shop’s windows as the, door slowly creaked open. Yehwehenann entered the door, and turned to speak to Jesuan.
“Jesuan, I have received a message from one of the King’s servants. “He wants you to bring the case, to the castle before sundown tonight.” “Just in time for the royal banquet.” Yehwehenann paused for a moment before continuing “The King has also invited you to the banquet at the castle at sundown”
“Yes father,” Jesuan warmly replied. Yehwehenann nodded and headed toward doorway in order to help a customer who had just entered the shop.
Jesuan labored all day long forming and molding the gold that would be used create the case for the precious relic. At last he put down his hammer and brushed his chestnut-colored hair out of his eyes.
“Jethro, bring me some wine, for my dry throat please,” Jesuan kindly asked one of the young boys.
“Yes sir” the boy humbly replied.
In a matter of moments Jethro brought Jesuan a small clay cup of sweet wine and gently placed it on his table.
“Thank you,” Jesuan kindly responded.
Jesuan slowly took a few sips of the cool red liquid and then began to work on the case again. After three more hours, Jesuan joyously cried out:
“I have finally finished the case for the King!”
Jesuan carefully took a box, overlaid with gold and embedded with diamonds and rubies from a small wooden shelf. He gently wrapped the case of gold in a blue silk cloth and placed it in the box. Jesuan then set the box on the table and called to a servant to bring him his finest tunic and robe. Jesuan donned on the new tunic and a silver trimmed, red silk robe. He then tucked both the gold and bronze boxes in his robe and headed out of the shop toward the castle of Cronneras.