His mind was an incorrigible flame.  Morning rations could not void the bitterness from his tongue.  "Countless Seasons" he thought to himself, not in anger, but in cold disbelief.  He had always been the keeper, never the killer, but ten years of practice made him unbeatable with a Grue and Bladd.  No easy task for a bookkeeper.
He hadn't had these types of thoughts in years.  Not since the town ignored him.  Not since his father died starving on his behalf.  Calhoon had often lived with despondence, but he seldom felt anger and only ever with good reason.  His throat was completely blocked with emotion.  His breath felt hot and dangerous.  When he coughed, he tasted sick.  One more hand of this life and he would not be able to accept himself.  He laughed through his tears when he realized that losing everything is what would make him do the right thing.  Calhoon had already buried his mother and sister by this time, but he had not washed the blood they left on his hands.  The blood overtook him, and for just a moment he was lost deep in the red.  He returned as quickly as he had drifted off, but when he did a significant change had come over him.  He then removed his Grue with his right hand, squeezing it awhile before laying it on the floor of his home.  Upon letting go his hand was white again, and the Grue had retained the bloody hand.  Next he pressed his left hand to the heart of his exposed breastplate. He refrained to wash off the remaining blood.  Before leaving for the Sunkin Woods he took three things from his home.  First he acquired all the records of himself and his family ever living there, and burned them in the firehold. Second, he found his fathers hunting knives, and finally he took a token from each: his father's ring from Tynska, his mothers favorite necklace, and a mask his sister had made to look like a Gauler.  He left without taking a moment to say goodbye to his childhood home.  He had always despised Dravus, and the only people in this town he ever loved were now gone.  As he walked through the dimly light streets, children playing Dravus Tagg raced passed.  He silently longed for a time when he was so naïve, so unaware of what now must be done.  Soon enough the Cornath Day would begin, and he knew that by the Tarnath they would be dead. All of them.
******************************

The first sun was rising on the first morning of the Reap.  Corna always rose a short while prior to Tarna, banishing the cold before the much smaller sun appeared.  It is believed that children born under Corna's morning light are of strong importance, and carry a special sense of individuality.  Historically, many of Orphan's most revered leaders were Corna born, and any baby of Corna is immediately considered a celebrity. Calhoon Fortiss was the only known child in Orphan to be born under Corna's light in the last 50 years.  For Dravus, an otherwise unremarkable town, this was considered their chance to be revered.  Of course as an infant Calhoon and his family reaped the benefits that the sun and the townsfolk brought.  However, when he grew old enough to understand, Calhoon did not care about his reputation, denying the town and all their hopefulness for such a public icon.  Calhoon resented the townsfolk knowing they only appreciated his gift for their personal gain.  The townsfolk resented his crest in exchange.  And so, a family was ostracized, and a very special boy became a very special loner.  Due to the unfortunate response from the town of Dravus, Calhoon's father died hungry and unemployed. He had been hunting in the Sunkin in order to feed his family, but a long Slumber left only so much food, so like any father would he held his appetite for the survival of his family.  At 15 years old Calhoon was pressed to care for his remaining mother and sister.  No matter who he turned to, the town would not excuse his actions, holding against him their possible fame and notoriety.  Work was simply impossible to acquire, so he took to hunting like his father, but soon realized that his strong wit and sleight of hand would feed his family much better.  Calhoon was never caught, using the town's intended ignorance of his existence to his advantage.  Only once had he ever been seen thieving, and only once was all it took for Philos Zyeer to take a liking to Calhoon.
Truthfully, Philos Zyeer was a man to be greatly feared, but no one in Dravus would ever know because if you had reason to fear him, you would disappear before you had the chance to voice it.  Philos had grown up and lived in Cabnic, until the inner-workings of his operations were exposed by a rival gang, and he was run out of the city by its inhabitants.  After a short stint of travel, Philos established himself in the town of Dravus during the same Cycle in which Calhoon lost his father.  Zyeer fabricated a reputation of extreme wealth, inherited from a relative, so he would not have to work to cover up his next operation.  Slowly, Philos began to recruit young men and boys of Dravus, understanding that they knew the town and where it's wealthiest would reside.  He also assumed that their innocence would help assumptions of his own.  However, he understood that no family would simply hand over their working young men, so in exchange for their care and guardianship he promised to instruct the boys in combat and keep them well fed, clothed, and sheltered.  Furthermore, he created an organization to act as a façade for their future unlawful acts.  The Entrusts were on the surface an underground police that planned to travel Orphan in search of criminals to unlawfully disband them.  Sadly this supposed valor was enough to convince the parents, and exploit the children of Dravus to be the criminals themselves.  To ensure their focus, Philos created a hidden camp within the trees and caves of the Sunkin Woods.  Philos and The Entrusts recruited many, as young as 11, and when they were of age they would travel to the four edges of Orphan in search of coin and "criminals".  At first, Philos kept them all in the dark.  He did not reveal that these criminals were truly rivals of his.  He did not reveal that the wealth they were "eradicating" was in fact not tainted or stolen itself.  He would always take the coin in order to "see that it returned to its rightful owner", never actually doing so, and never being questioned.  To the town of Dravus, Philos Zyeer was a truly great man.  To Calhoon Fortiss, Philos was the only man that would honestly offer him work, and what he thought was the love and good nature of a surrogate father.  It was not until Philos trusted Calhoon as his new bookkeeper that their relationship would turn bitter.  As years went on and the Entrusts reputation began to soar, Calhoon began to see the true Philos Zyeer.

"Listen boy you just keep up the good work.  I can't send you away, because what would I do without my guy? My guy, you’re my guy, none of the other boys are my guy. They're boys, but they're not my GUY. You keep the records like nobody's business, and believe me that there is nobody's business, so I can't have a bunch a little eyes all over them. Just one set. The best. Yours. And besides you like your job, dontcha? Yeah, ya do, so why should you do anything but what you like. I know you wanna travel like the other boys, but you just keep up the good work, and……DON'T ASK ME AGAIN! I'm not going around the world, you don't see me givin two flying MUKS about seeing the world! Listen, I know I sound mad, but kid, you're hardly a kid anymore, and I need you to be here to help me out.  I did not wanna have to say this, but those other kids are idiots compared to you.  You can read. You can write. Hell, Shylock doesn't even know his own muking name." He swills his Moonvine "Want some? Alright, but listen, you're still my guy, and you can't just walk out on me when I need you. I need you Calhoon. I need you……to SHUT up and FIX THOSE RECORDS! I don't care if they're off, I don't care if you know why they're off. You're not a kid anymore so I'm not gonna muk around with ya.  I send people to kill people. I send people to steal from people.  We're running a business, and Calhoon you're running it better than I ever could, so don't you ever think about leaving because you won't get more than one foot into the Sunkin woods 'fore I sick every rank we have on you, dogs included!"

It was clear to Philos how much smarter Calhoon was than all the other boys, and so Calhoon would become the Entrusts bookkeeper.  However, it was not clear to Philos that when the secrets would come out, Calhoon would be the only boy to care.  He knew Calhoon's story by now, and expected his resent for Dravus to form yet another ruthless crime lord just like himself.  However, as much as he understood the Cornath legend, he did not account for its sincerity, and Calhoon was simply of too pure birth to not care.  Calhoon had no one he would care to tell, but he did not want to be involved with The Entrusts anymore.  Four more years of torturous activity would plague Calhoon, and at the ripe age of 25 he was losing interest in his criminal contributions.  His work would begin to slip, and soon he would not have enough time to hunt for his family.  Philos used to set aside rations for Calhoon to bring home for his mother and sister, but somewhere in the passed 3 years he had decided that he could not spare such "generosity".  Only twice before this day had Calhoon ran out of time to feed his family, and upon request was reluctantly given spare rations for them.  Today he needed to request this again, but expected a very stringent "no".  Instead, what he got was even more unnerving.
"Why of course my boy." Said Philos with a disgustingly sincere smile. "Anything to help your family. Why, because of you I see them as my own."
"Thanks." Philos had not been drinking as much Moonvine of late, but that did not normally make him this pleasant. However, Calhoon did not let it bother him long, taking the rations before Philos could revoke his answer.

******************************

He had known who was responsible the moment he saw their bodies.  His mother and sister had lay there as still as air after the rain, blood running from the pools in their mouths.  As he reached the Dravus town limits he considered his actions in the last few days.  Due to recent heat, he had suggested Philos use poison so none of the Entrusts would have to even be present for the actual murder.  He did not like helping Philos, but he could not deny when he had good ideas.  Philos was one of the first that respected him for his intellect, so even though he despised working under him he still appreciated that validation.  He had no idea that this would be the result of his suggestions.  He vowed that he would not fail tonight.  For every coin Philos extorted from the Entrust, and for every murder that he commanded the Entrust would be held accountable.  And they would be cut down like the wealth and health of the people they affected.  Philos Zyeer had tapped the wrath of a man with nothing more to lose; a man that knew the inner-workings of Philos' entire operation.  Philos had said himself, he was not nearly as smart as Calhoon, but Calhoon was of current, to be feared much more.  He slipped his sisters mask over his face when he reached the Sunkin Woods.
Calhoon did not even have to review the guard duty to know who would be on and where they would be.  He had brought his Grue and Bladd, and a bow and full quiver courtesy of Philos a few weeks prior.  Silently he sniped the first guard on the edge of the encampment, about 300 feet from the entry cave.  Calhoon had always found this guard useless.  He was able to dispatch of him without alarming anyone.  If everyone was at camp, then he would have 29 more men to eliminate, and then Philos himself.  The five grounds guards were often spread out, making them easy to pick off one by one.  He was able to use his bow on the first three, but two of the guards had broken rank and were standing outside the entry cave talking.  He fired an arrow into the tree directly next to the guard on the right.  One guard took off directly for the origin of the arrow, and the other began to flank to Calhoon's right.  Calhoon unsheathed his Grue, crouched behind a tree, waiting for the first guards footsteps to be close enough to-BAM.  He smashed him over the head with the gauntlet, and gutted him on the ground.  He turned his attention and his Bladd to the other guard, waiting at the edge of a clearing.  Just as he thought the guard heard what he had done, and was sprinting straight for him.  He triggered the Bladd once he came into the clearing, and swung the whip across it, catching him around the ankle, slitting his Achilles and bringing him to the ground.  He wedged the hilt into a tree and retriggered the Bladd, reeling the guard in.  As the guard slid by, he came down on him with the Grue.  Calhoon released the Bladd, removed it from the tree, and reeled it in fully.  24 men remained as he entered the cave.  Calhoon had picked this time because all of the other men were scheduled to be on their sleeping rounds.  Only two other men were awake, and he disposed of them quickly and quietly, waking no one.  He counted the sleeping men as he dropped the powder poison down their throats.  By the time he had finished, had just enough to kill a Rhodia.  He knew who it would be for. 
He approached Philos' door cautiously.  Philos was not clever, but he was insane when put against a wall, and often had a plan to get out of things.  He did not want to lose him tonight, and be forced to chase after him.  He kicked in the door, but waited out of sight. "Hello?" He heard Philos say from inside. Philos proceeded to get up and walk towards the door.  Calhoon's heart was racing.  Just as Philos reached for the door, Calhoon sprang, tossing the rest of the poison from the pouch into Philos' face.  A scream of agonizing pain followed as Philos dropped to his knees.  Blood began to pour from his eyes behind his hands.  He did not stop screaming until Calhoon spoke
"BE SILENT! BE STILL! Or you will not even have the chance to hear my last words to you.  I do not wish for an explanation, and I dare you to apologize for you will only die more slowly and painfully. For years you denied me opportunities, now I deny you life.  The family Fortiss has been lost to memory because of men like you, out for their own personal gain.  By making me kill you, you've left me with nothing.  However, you have given me everything to live for. And everything to kill for."
As Calhoon said this, he crouched down just in front of Philos.  He triggered his Grue impaling Philos and ending a struggle he had so longed to for years.  The Entrusts were no more.  Philos Zyeer was no more.  All thanks to the power of a bookkeeper.

Calhoon had nothing to return to, so rather than turn back towards Dravus he readied rations and weapons from the camp, acquired a Meggun from the stables, and set out through the Sunkin Woods.  He reached the edges of a plain before Corna was joined by Tarna.  He knew he was not supposed to, but he glared back at the sun, thanking it and blaming it for everything he had become.  Everything he had lost.  As the Tarnath day began, he fell out of his Trance with his sun, and continued through the valley in front of him, another orphan to journey Orphan.