Sarah Carter

Games

Design

Portfolio

Address:

The Hideaway

Lease Lane

East Halton

North Lincs.

DN40 3PT

Email: sarah@lady-of-winds.co.uk

Tel: (01469) 541661

All materials presented in this portfolio are also available at http://gamesdesigner.lady-of-winds.co.uk and as such are part of the public domain. This is not an unsolicited submission.

Excerpt of a Game Concept for a new game, “Excelsis”

“Excelsis is a RPG aimed at an age range of 12 and above. Its main themes are to do with angels and demons derived from the Islamic, Judaism and Christian myths about these beings.

The backstory to the game is that the player’s custom built character is a member of the Knights of Antioch, a religious military order that was founded during the First Crusade. Unfortunately, when Turkey took over Antioch, they were removed back to Europe where they became a small sect. In the Dark Ages, however, a powerful demon was released upon the earth, filled with the blood and souls of a hundred misguided sacrifices. A Knight of Antioch stood helplessly at the end of a long and dangerous chase through the foothills of Italy as they watched the demon bury itself deep within the earth, where they could not follow. As punishment for their incompetence in dealing with the demon now becoming ever stronger with each moment on this vital plane of life, the Knights were given a task to find and destroy all demons that come to earth to wreak their havoc. As the years passed, the old ways were still held true, and part of the order passed into the West with those who looked for new futures, the youngest and best. They survived and did their work diligently as the world grew and changed. Sometimes they were many, sometimes they were few, and yet the Knights persisted.

Time passed. Stars and heavenly bodies aligned, a fated day came. Deep within the earth, the demon awakens and claws itself out of the bed it has made for itself. Over the years the gentle current of the earth’s fiery core has moved it from Italy to the red desert of Nevada. It senses depravity among the emptiness and moves towards it as a man dying of thirst towards a lake, shapeshifting to blend in. Las Vegas, the sinful city where almost anything goes. The demon makes a name for himself, specifically that of a casino owner after it kills him and takes his form. Slowly it gathers cult followers to it, using their faith and power to summon more of its kindred. Sacrifices are needed, and once they are ready – the world will burn.

A visitation to the Knights of Antioch, now spread across most of the two continents. The visitor, an angel, both revives the faith that had being waning thin over the centuries of endless demon killing and brings terrible news about the demon infiltrating the Las Vegas casinos and the many souls in terrible danger. The player is the brightest and best and is chosen to reconnoitre the area.

The demons are varied, ranging in different power levels and likelihood to travel in packs as the player progresses through the game, many with strange esoteric powers that can be highly problematic. Demons can be killed using blessed weapons. Weapons can be blessed either through the use of a priest, an angel, or angelic magic in later levels. Using daemonic magic, demons can be sent back to Hell but only if they are helpless or trapped in some fashion. Daemonic magic can also directly harm normal people and can act as a shield against attacks from demons specifically. However, to learn daemonic magic from one of the NPC guides in the game you must be diabolic in nature.

Angels appear to you regularly throughout the game, giving you information and clues on the various types of demons, weapons and how the world works. They can also teach you angelic magic if you should choose that path. To be eligible to learn angelic magic you must be a virtuous soul. Angelic magic can do many things such as produce shields, bless weapons and heal. It cannot harm directly however. Angelic magic at later levels can also summon an angel for advice or as aid in the midst of battle for a very short period of time. Angelic magic can also send an angel back to the incorporeal realm, though they can get somewhat superior at your ungracious attitude if this is a common feature. Angels tend to be highly irritating to the player as while they give advice, they are also very self-righteous and arrogant, pedantic and evasive when asked direct questions, even to the point of answers more akin to riddles.

Cultists are normal people who believe that association and belief in demons and Satan will give them powers, and some have them already being “blessed” with extra abilities that make them more difficult to overcome than some. Cultists can be killed with conventional weapons although if they have being given defensive powers, blessed weapons will remove any resistance to damage they may have. Most cultists are fairly straightforward in their desire to protect their masters and servants, but others are more guileful about their associated with the damned. Any NPC can be a secret cultist and mislead the player with false information or even lead them into a trap.

In the game, there is a morality monitor that decides how virtuous or damned the player is in accordance to their actions. If they spare lives, try to keep civilian casualties down, including the cultists and take time to convert those who might be on the shaky path to lack of morals they will be considered good, and can thus learn angelic magic and those of the appropriate nature will react to them better. If they just kill everybody and behave viciously in conversations, the player will gain respect from those of a dubious nature and their morality meter will fall. Considered evil, they will be approached by those skilled in damned arts and given the chance to learn daemonic magic and become damned. While the game never gives the player the option of joining with the demons themselves, it is quite possible to end the game utterly damned and hunted by the Knights, and also by dint of a great deal of effort, to fall and yet be redeemed.

The goal for the game is to find through a combination of clues and cut-scenes, who the most powerful demon is masquerading as and defeat them, while dealing with the seething underbelly of Las Vegas, infested with demons, cultists and a few good people who can help the player with their quest, if they choose to trust them. The Knights help the player with weapons and equipment when they can but a lot of the action in the field requires them to obtain items when possible, through barter at stores or looting, though stealing from friendly NPCs will lose points on the morality meter.

The game follows a skill system of levelling, where the player gains points in the skills they have being using and attributes such as Strength, Toughness and so on, linked to those skills. Skills range from pure melee and firearm skills to those dealing with conversation and converting the morally impure to a more righteous path, to the player’s adeptness at using angelic or daemonic magic…”

Excerpt from a Game Concept, “Nine”, a Real Time Strategy game

“The player controls mankind’s Military Forces in the near future during an alien invasion, on a battlefield that encompasses sections of the world. Their goal is to follow the storyline by completing missions and thus drive the alien invaders back and eventually destroy the interstellar carrier that brought them across the galaxy. However, though it starts with a simple military theme throughout the game are more story-based missions where the player controls a squad of elite personnel sent to “collect” one of the Nine. The Nine are powerful assets, though the player can fail at most of these search and rescue missions, thus losing an advantage. The United States government was in correspondence with the alien race and they traded technology to the scientists’ labs in exchange for the right to “study” humans without too much interference. Only later would that be seen as a study into both how difficult the human race would be to defeat and their main weaknesses, the “permission” given just in case the aliens, the Xoth as they were familiarly labelled, decided that humans were too potent an enemy.

The Nine are examples of the human genome tweaked by the alien’s technology and have various far-reaching abilities that aid the player once they gain them.

The Nine

• The Guardian (her codename, not her real name) has the ability to increase defence and to put up shields to protect friendly units around her.
• The Keeper can replicate items almost effortlessly and store them in a strange other place until they are needed.
• The Warrior is the penultimate fighter, able to use all and any weapons available to him to great efficiency. Units nearby do more damage as they are spurred on.
• The General gives the player greater tactical knowledge and abilities, giving all units better morale and a slight increase to their statistics. He also allows the player to unlock more options for new units.
• The Seer gives the player greater time to prepare for incoming units as they are identified very early on and the player is made aware of them. She can also give the player hints about upcoming storyline events.
• The Shadow is an almost imperceptible spy, which can be sent on scouting missions and gives friendly units around him that also rely on stealth a bonus to their sneaking abilities.
• The Blaze is a living cannon that uses super-heated blasts of pyrokinesis to vaporise anything in her path. However, she is quite fragile and needs protection from the opposing army in order to be effective.
• The Rider moves very quickly through any type of terrain and gives units around him a boost to their movement.
• The Comfort has very powerful empathic abilities and increases morale of all units nearby, while decreasing morale of any enemy units within a certain radius.

The game culminates in an attempt to defend specially created missiles blended with both human and alien technology until they have a chance to fire at the carrier with predictably impressive results…”

Excerpt of a Game Concept for “Thief IV: The Hidden Path” a sequel to the acclaimed Thief Series by Eidos, Looking Glass Studios and Ion Storm.

“In the Hidden Path, Garrett is now the one true Keeper and as such has the responsibility of keeping the city in balance, along with thieving to keep his belly full, of course. The Keepers have disbanded since the glyphs disappeared, while the Pagans and Hammers continue on regardless, still fighting and trying to sway the balance of power one way or another.

The City is plagued by mysterious disappearances. On every street corner, men gossip about people going missing. During some of Garrett’s more elite night-time jaunts, Garrett finds references in both conversation and written letters and books to a third group that is enshrouded in code-words and unusual puzzles and seems to know more than they should about the missing people. The game unfolds with missions to find out more about this new shadowy player in the game of power over the City that seems to be both new and very old. Without prophecies to guide him, Garrett has to rely on his own new instincts, intuition and research to untangle the web of lies that surround the Hidden Path, and once he finds it, to travel it and find what is at the end of it.

What Garrett actually finds is an underground passage that leads to a vast network of tunnels and eventually to a part of the Old City that had being cut off from the rest by ancient landfalls and magma. However, it is not the technology of the Ancients that is the trouble this time around but an old trouble that glyph magic had being restraining for eons. With the glyphs undone, the seductive evil of the self-styled Dancer has been released. Calling itself a third god, a deity of deceit, mystery and self-serving grasping for power; highly desirable to the morally corrupt of the City’s nobility.

Garrett must find out the true nature and intentions of the Dancer, how far its insidious poison has spread and come up with a plan to bring balance back to the City, all the while ignoring the temptations and blandishments it offers. He must also deal with the Pagans and Hammers, followers of the other two Gods, who are eager to forge an alliance with the Dancer that may truly push the balance to one side or the other,… and try to keep those he cares about from disappearing, including his new apprentice…

The game-play is similar to Thief: Deadly Shadows in that you have missions with checklists of actions to be performed successfully and a more freeform City mode where the player can choose to pilfer to his heart’s content and accept smaller missions from NPCs. There is also the choice to switch to a two-player mode for any mission; where your apprentice comes with you. The two-player mode can be through a network or an internet connection and the difficulty and certain puzzles change in response, to give both players an interesting and challenging play experience.

A range of weapons, with the dagger, blackjack, fire arrows, moss arrows, water arrows, noisemaker arrows, gas arrows, rope arrows, and broad-head arrows, all making an appearance. Items include, but are not limited to, health potions, breathing potions, gas mines, explosive mines, oil flasks, gas bombs, flash bombs, holy water flasks, and of course, lock-picks. There is also a mechanical eye that can see around corners and zoom in on details or far-off objects…”

Excerpt of Non-Fiction Article from “Women, Gaming and MMORPGs”

“Quite a few women pretend to be men playing a female character, play a male character, or simply never answer if someone asks for their gender. Revealing your identity as a girl in a MMORPG can be an unpleasant experience (as I have learnt personally) depending upon the group you have found, who you interact with, your willingness to reveal details about yourself and your proficiency with the ignore button. Revealing your gender, as with all actions, is decided whether to perform that action or not by its consequence. If those consequences are neutral, then you are mostly likely to be ambivalent. If those consequences are overall positive, then you are more likely to perform that action. If those consequences are likely to be a reaction from someone else that makes you feel uncomfortable and threatened, then you are less likely to perform that action. If pretending to be something you're not makes you uncomfortable… MORE uncomfortable than creepy people… then pretending to be a guy isn't an option. If you're fine with it, then to avoid that negative consequence, you may choose that action over the others. If both of these consequences are negative enough to outweigh the positive influence of the game and the positive elements of the community only available there, the game loses a potential player and account payer. Obviously, this makes the ratio of men to women even worse.

I do not, however, blame men's behaviour in-game, overall for the male/female ratio in games. The ratio, in some ways, is one of the reasons for the ratio. You will always have deviants (also know here as creepy stalker dudes and dudettes), and because of the ratio the deviants seem to be everywhere for women.

Lets say that an average person in a purely hypothetical small MMORPG with 20% females and 80% males in it, meets 10 new people a day, and actually talks to them for more than two minutes. By the law of averages, that’s 2 women and 8 men. For a moment, let's pretend that nobody pretends to be a girl/guy if they aren't one. Now, let's say 1 in a 100 men are creepy stalker dude, and 1 in a 100 women are creepy stalker dudette. If you are a guy, you will meet 1 creepy stalker dudette every 50 days. If you are a girl, you will meet 1 creepy stalker dude every 12 and a half days. You can start to see the problem. Now, I am also assuming that creepy stalkers don't act as such around members of the same sex.

Female creeps have a whole world to choose from of victims. As most MMORPGs have fewer than 20% females who are willing to reveal their sex, male creeps have a far smaller pool of people to harass. Personally I think that these are both bad, for different reasons. Female stalkers can literally harass or ruin whole swathes of poor guys who didn't know any better, and males can be rather worryingly intense when they finally do manage to pin down a "real girl!". Sexual harassment is a problem in online communities, partly because its not considered "bad" from bystanders, and partly because there are few consequences for it beyond being ignored, and rarely reported - and that’s generally only if you are being very rude and disgusting. It is a faceless crime that does not evoke empathy in the same way watching someone cry would do. In some ways moaning about sexual harassment is considered a woman's complaint - possibly because we might be more likely to not stand for it, I'm not sure. I have to admit, I haven't heard of many women being reported for sexual harassment of someone. This could also be an upshot of the gender ratio.

The only way that such harassment will be eradicated, or at least brought to an acceptable, occasional level, is to have stern measures against it, AND a more equal footing between the sexes in regard to numbers. To do that, you need to keep the female gamer population in the game, by changing the way the game is designed in regards to appearance and bias towards the player. Obviously, the developers don't want to lose the gaming base they already have. They want to also gain the female gaming base. Hopefully the idea of more females in the game may be a trade-off for fewer virtual "eyecandy" opportunities. More females means that the society becomes more damning of such harassment. It also means, potentially, more harassment from females as well. Report them.

The Problem With Games

Finally, the game developers have to take responsibility for the effect of visual cues on the player in regards to gender roles and sexual nature, such as skimpy armour.

You walk into a bar. On one side of the bar sits a beautiful looking woman with huge breasts, wearing a chainmail bikini bottom, thigh-high boots, a leather bodice and a spiked collar. On the other side is a woman wearing long brown robes and soft brown boots, carrying a knarled wooden staff. Who do you talk to? And why? Be honest now.

The girl in the long brown clothes can be respected, she is humanised and approachable. She is obviously a person and not something to be admired and belittled. If the warrior with the thong and bodice was wearing the Black Diamond Agate Armour of the Amazon Princess because the stats were awesome, the body is not a choice but the default avatar for this warrior, and of course all the faces were beautiful, then her choice is between appearing this way or sacrificing her ability to play the game for a degree of restraint. However, by glancing at her, you think several things. One, she is not approachable. Two, she is not interesting. Three, she's nice to look at. So you look, and then either talk to her in order to try to “get” her, or ignore her in favour of a more reserved female you can personalise.

My point is that some recent games have pushed women playing female avatars to either abandon decency or to gimp their character. People do make snap judgements depending on what avatars look like. If she looks like a slut, a bimbo, or a similar person - she will be treated like one. The men who do approach her will react to her and approach as if she is what she seems to represent, and that may even help to decide who approaches her and who doesn't.

If the best armour in the game looks utterly cool on a male avatar, but looks like woven floss on her character. If there are dynamics that make her idle animation be her character playing with her breasts, but the male's animation is scuffing his foot in the dirt and looking around. If everything she does in the game has sexual overtones, from the way her toon walks and dances, to the way that every emote she does makes the huge breasts bounce, and everything she picks up seems to be some demented piece of lingerie from a perverted sexshop. If she has to play a male character (which almost no female will do unless she feels she has to) just to avoid such degradation, you are not in her best books.

I understand that many men like to play such female avatars, wearing the Pantyhose of Deflecting Drool, but making that the only option is not a good idea. Thankfully, developers seem to have woken up to the fact that they are creating a game that is not just appealing to the usual demographic of boys with urges. As such, while I am expecting to see certain elements of sexuality in new games- I think that there will also be plenty of opportunities for those of us who aren't really into being compulsory sex objects. Which is nice.”

Excerpt of Fiction Description Writing,  “The Entrance”

“The moon makes a river of the road, stretching out along the rolling darkened hills. Touching on the clouds that linger at the bottom of the sky, lighting them with a ghostly luminescence, making them burn with a silver flame. The trees, dark sentinels stretching out upon the lonely vista, sway and whisper in the wind, softly murmuring and laughing their secrets to each other. That same breeze rushes over the stirring grasses, wafting forth a susurrus, a soft song that complements a soft beat.

Almost unheard, the faint patter of footsteps, running at a speed a mortal would be proud of, but slow, as slow as molasses, to the near-immortal. They echo off the wooden monoliths, drum in the quiet vibrations of the earth. The tread is light, almost silent, but the standing dead hear it regardless, in the texture of the air, in the feel of the earth beneath their feet. A figure emerges from the forests, running swiftly, each long slender limb within perfect control, a perfect cadence, eating up the ground in long strides. It ghosts along the road, barely seeming to touch the surface, its shadow stretching out before it, as if eager to reach its final destination. It lifts its eyes, empty hands held loose, feeling the wind between its fingers as it runs smoothly, the distance disappearing into the dark place where these things go.

It slows, hands ghosting on the wind and coming forwards, fingers lifting and spreading, even as it opens its arms into an ancient gesture. Peace. The sprint slows to a walk, the figure's details becoming more and more distinct with each slow and graceful step it takes. The light of the moon touches its face with an angel's caress, glinting off bright eyes, trailing over its simple clothes.

Bright orbs, sparkling unsettlingly in the pale shimmer of the night, glitter like blue topaz gems. Drawn around with infinite care, the dark navy outline of those well-set blue eyes lifts them from beautiful, to beyond earthly beauty. Pale eyelashes, almost white, brush against skin as ivory, smoothly flawless. Long strands of silver gold fall over her forehead, draping themselves coyly in front of her eyes, swaying with the graceful movements of her stride. Cut short at the back, her hair fluttering in the zephyrs dancing about her, easing into a long neck and a slender body. Lithe limbs pause, as she stops several score of feet away from the vampires. She slides her hands down to her belt, resting them upon it.

Boots. Trousers. Shirt. The clothes are not important, they are a simple backdrop, brown and tan, making the truly fascinating features easier to behold. Her face, though strikingly beautiful, glows in the light of the moon with an unearthly radiance, as pale as its unblinking eye. She smiles, very faintly, her stance changing only the slightest amount, somehow by those miniscule movements sharpening her features. The strength of her jaw, the aching definition of her cheekbones, the brightness of her eyes glittering like jewels in an ivory setting. A faint, tangible sense of the hunter, of the predator stilled and patient. A whisper of a cloud catches the moonlight as it escapes from between her smirking lips, and she breaks the silence like it was made of glass, with a voice smooth and sultry. It is filled with a hint of confident amusement, an easy thickness to it and a slow cadence pleasant to hear.

'Apologies for the delay, gentlemen. My feet aren't quite as swift as yours.’…”

Excerpt of Fiction Description Writing, “Guilty Echoes”

“Two men, one old, one young. Two women, again, one old and one young, and then two little boys. I want them dead, all of them. Even the children, she had asked. Yes, all of them. Even the children. I will make an example.
 

…….

Even the children?

She takes her horse’s reins and walks it towards the nearest inn, she would get a good meal and a decent night’s sleep. As she walks past the stream, heading determinedly towards the sea, she stops and pauses, letting go of the leather and walks forward, the dreamy burbling of the water but a background song to the cacophony of thoughts inside her mind and the hollowness in her heart. After scrubbing the blood off her hands and spray on her face, she pauses to look down into the water and sees herself. Black hair, long and thick with shining threads, frames a face marvelled at for its beauty, though feared for its coldness. Pale skin with blue veins echoes in the dark blue eyes, full of mystery and an oddness. A small frown tugs at the corner of a rosebud mouth, tinged silver in the moonlight, and then slackens. Her image in the water seems to ripple and change as the stream runs over the stones, and makes the lines of her face deepen and her eyes darken, making her appear old and evil.

She jerks backward, making her horse snort and back up a few prancing steps, eyes rolling in unease. The assassin takes a deep breath, her heart still thumping in her chest. For a moment, it had seemed that the image in the water, had grown more dark and powerful, and then… it had moved. A hand had reached towards her, and the eyes had lit up in a terrible hunger. She looks steadfastly away from the water, her rigid barriers buckling under the strain of her soul. The image of staring blank faces, so small and helpless, incised into her brain.

She gets up, shuddering, and takes the horse’s reins. Leaning against the warm flanks, she calms herself slowly. Just imagination, not real. Just so tired from tracking, killing, making mind pictures in my head. Just need some food and sleep. The explanation sounds thin, even to herself, and she walks along the dirt track, nervously keeping an eye out at the encroaching darkness, as the moon shines gravely on her form. As she walks into the cobbled houses of the village, she relaxes a little, still watching the alleyways and the shadows. Going to the inn, she buys food, lodgings and stabling, and leaves to her bed, half afraid of the dreams, half anticipating them for the few moments that she can live again in her sleep.

The following morning a man runs in, screaming that the family were dead, and that word would have to be sent to Jahrenwald. The trail leads onwards. She smiles, triumph sparkling in her mind, but regret and uneasiness still echo in her heart. Unnoticed, her hand clenches around her sword as she fights to lock her emotions within the steel chambers of her psyche. At last, it relaxes as she reaches an impasse, her muscles aching from the strain and the hilt's design embedded in her skin. She does not know whether she wishes to lose that battle or to win it, for one would lose her the only life she knows, and the other would leave her a monster…”

Excerpt of Fiction Writing Dialogue, “Taunt”

“She changed direction and dived through the boarded-up window as he let fly with the dagger, just missing her. Bits of wood flew everywhere as he lunged out of the door and after the murderess. A sword, one of her pair, lay abandoned in the middle of the alleyway; he could see the woman climbing up a nearby ladder to the rooftops. The skirt was giving her trouble though and he used that time to pick up her sword and race after her. He started up the rungs with little difficulty, racing after the woman, who just managed to clamber onto the slanted roof as he got to the middle of the ladder. He heard her hurried scrambling trying to climb up the guttering, and speeded up.

As he hauled himself onto the tiles, he saw her crawling along the top of the roof, her other sword still in her hand. She leant against the chimney, waiting for him. ‘No more little daggers to throw, Matthias? How about you try some insults? Your predecessors all seemed to think you were the best, but frankly, Matthias, I am really disappointed.’ Matthias ignored her, concentrating instead on getting decent handholds, and then somewhere to put his feet.

He breathed heavily, ‘I’m still here, Kitiara, and I’ll take you in.’

‘Now why should I let you do something like that?’

The light was fast fading now, but the white top she was wearing was all he needed to aim at. He knew he would be difficult to see, wearing dark browns and greens. He replied, ‘Maybe I won’t. Maybe I’ll just kill you, so you can’t kill anyone else.’

‘Now that’s not really very nice, is it, Matthias? They want me alive. Besides, who would believe you if you brought back the body of a woman?’

‘Doesn’t matter who would believe me. You’d be dead. That’s enough.’

‘But, Matthias, how can you get your name in the ledgers for capturing the Shadow if no-one believes you?’

She knew. He stopped breathing, and met the woman’s eyes. They gleamed coldly and ruthlessly. He knew that she would give him no mercy, and the only reason he was still alive was because she was playing with him.

‘That doesn’t matter anymore. Not after you killed my friends.’

‘But I didn’t kill them, Matthias.’

He frowned, ‘Yes, you did.’

She shook her head, ‘No, Matthias. You did. You brought them on this little adventure. If you hadn’t asked them, they wouldn’t have come and they would still be alive. Oops, you lost your friends. Wasn’t that careless?’

He started walking towards her, the point of his sword weaving in a small figure of eight, ‘I didn’t kill them.’

‘Now Matthias, don’t do anything hasty…’”

Excerpt of Fiction Action Writing, “Twisted Fate”

“He growled then, his anger rising, losing control. He lunged towards her. She tried to dodge, but lost purchase on the slippery tiles, slithering towards him, knocking his feet from under him. Both of them slid down the incline, towards the two-story fall. He flailed madly, trying to catch something, and his hands closed around the guttering. Both swords clattered against the rooftop, narrowly missing their wielders, and fell off into space. He stopped with a jerk and struck out with the other hand, grabbing onto the Shadow’s belt. She hung there and twisted madly, trying to get him to let go. He could hear the faint tinkle of metal as the swords landed on the pavement.

‘Stop it, you crazy bitch! You’ll have us both down!’ Matthias roared, glancing down at the alley below. There were no torches guttering and he couldn’t see anything except darkness.

‘Good!’ She continued to writhe but he ignored her, swinging her weight to and fro. She started to scratch madly at her sleeve and he frowned, swinging her higher. If he could just throw her up onto the roof again...

Thoughts stopped him, of her stamping on his fingers, and a long fall onto the stones. The dead faces of his friends haunted him. It would be so easy to just let her fall and die.

He stopped, locked in indecision, as the crazy woman continued to scratch.

Memories…

Matthias, I ain’t no quitter. I’m not going to desert you now. Besides, the Shadow is evil. It should be stopped…
They found her, with a deep sword wound through the heart…
The man who caught the Shadow and brought it to justice would be renowned forever…
You did it… You killed your friends…

He looked inside himself and saw the desire for honour, but it wasn’t worth more people losing their friends and loved ones. He looked at her and widened his eyes as he saw a knife in her hands. She twisted, going to stab him… he let go.

He saw her face, shock on it, and then, as she began to fade into black, a twisted smile, full of irony. She fell into the darkness, and all he heard was a faint thud.

The night had almost fully fallen, the last red rays of the sun bathing the town in blood. He pulled himself up onto the rooftop and half-crawled, half-stumbled to the ladder. The authorities could find the body. Let them think of it what they will. In the end, he had chosen to act like the killer, to clean up the world.

The death weighed heavily on him, but he nodded. Let the authorities send others after the Shadow if they wanted. At least she would never again hurt another person. He sat there, as the night darkened around him, and thought about death, and friends, and the real things that mattered.”