Since I'm 16-years-old, I go to school.  Since I live on Bjorno, I attend school via the mails.  I get a packet for a week’s work in the mail and then return it, via the mail, when I'm done with the week's work.  I have just finished third school, some two years ahead of schedule.  I have won a scholarship to attend the University at Westport.  My scholarship pays for tuition and books.  As to food and lodging, well, I'm just island trash and there's no need to consider such luxury things for the likes of me.

If I'm to attend the university, I need a job.  I need a job that pays better than fishing or farming.

After quite a bit of planning, I think to sail over to The Watchtower, as a small nearby island is known.  Landing there is difficult, but there are known to be Krelzyn relics in The Watchtower.  A Krelzyn helmet, in good condition, will fetch a couple of month’s fisherman pay.  A Krelzyn sword, in good condition, can fetch up to a year’s fisherman pay.

The Watchtower is always shrouded in fog.  There's a difficult landing on the South shore of the island.  Folks from the University at Castletown explored The Watchtower from the South shore landing some years ago.  However, several of them died in falls or had rocks fall on them during the exploration attempt.  The deaths were considered unusual, since the university people are well experienced at exploring coastal or island sites.

What with the safety problems the university people had, it's now illegal to land on The Watchtower.  However, the law has to catch you actually landing on The Watchtower, in order to punish you.  The law comes from the mainland and watching them handle a small boat is a source of amusement only.  Well, actually, a Bjorno sailor can at least see demonstrated several ways of how not to do things.

I sail Flying Fish out of Bjorno harbor and into the open ocean.  I have, just casually, mentioned that I seek to catch some deep water fish that might pay better than the fish caught closer to shore.  Once out of sight of land, in the morning mist, I turn for The Watchtower.

As Flying Fish approaches The Watchtower, a clear path opens through the fog and I can suddenly see my way into the West shore.  There's a small cove at the West shore that's said to have never been explored, as the approach by sea is deemed too dangerous.  However, I sail where I will.  I'm a boat man of Bjorno!

Strange to say, the way in to the beach is smooth and I just ride the tidal surge in to the beach.  It's almost as if I have been this way before.  I run Flying Fish onto a sand beach.  Having landed on the beach, I'm then stuck on The Watchtower until the tide turns, in some twelve hours.  I'll use the time to explore for valuable Krelzyn relics.

There's only one way up from the beach, a steep trail that climbs through boulders.  I spot a Krelzyn sigil, graven into a sheltered place on a rock, as I start my climb.  As I continue to climb, I spot a few more such symbols.  The sigils mean that where I walk is a Krelzyn holy place.  A man will do well to walk carefully in such a place and I do so.

Near the top of the path I find myself in a sort of rough room.  There's an open doorway into a smallish area with rock walls arching into a vaulted ceiling.  There are three black stone patches set into the gray rock of the room.  It's such a place as animals would normally use for shelter, but there's a beaten earth floor with no signs of any habitation.

The black stone is strange, as it has no sheen at all, just a flat, dead black.  The stone is smooth beneath my hand, as smooth as glass.  I find the texture strange, as such smooth stone should show at least some gloss.

As I turn back from the black stone, I spot a Krelzyn helmet, sword and shield in the back of the room near the smallest of the three black stone patches.  The items were not there when I entered the smallish room.

Someone is playing a game.  The hair stands up on the back of my neck!  I have only my fisherman’s knife as a weapon.  If some unknown person wants to play games, it's up to me to defend myself.  The only practical idea that comes to my mind is to use the Krelzyn items.

I place the helmet on my head.  To my surprise I find that it fits!  I then take up the sword and shield.

Suddenly, it's as if I'm in some sort of large hall.  No, I'm not really inside the hall, but it's as if I can see into such a hall and the men inside can see me.  He who appears to be in charge asks me something in a rumbling voice.  I don't understand the words he uses.  Without thinking, I say, “I come in peace.”  (What an idiot I am!  At some point in every cheap sci fi film I have ever seen, the alien invader says the same thing.)