Chapter 2 – Vincendo Celest

Vincendo Celest was thirty-one, fifteen-eight-eight units, pale and blue – thirty-one years old, six feet tall, with fair hair and blue eyes.

As the director of the Communications Centre in Ghentisland, another country set within the northern borders of Olenland, Vincendo was responsible for monitoring global communications throughout Epho and reporting directly to the Samodenic Committee, the governing body of Ghentisland.

Today, however, Vincendo was not at home, but attending a convention in Dallishes Land. Moreover, he was feeling – well, odd: a strong sense of concern. Added to that, the conference was not living up to its usual standards; it was somewhat boring and he had a nagging headache. He needed some fresh air, and the sooner the better.

Vincendo left his seat and slipped quietly out of the hall, heading for the lakeside path, deliberately taking in deep gulps of the cool mountain air as he walked. He had to admit his behaviour was a little uncharacteristic, especially as, on this occasion, he’d no idea why he felt this way.

Boredom was not something that usually affected the young man. Under such circumstances he could easily find some other matter to occupy his mind – worry, though, was something else.

Inevitably, there was a great deal going on throughout Epho, not all of it necessarily involving good news. Moreover, it was impossible to avoid knowing that. His work at the Centre guaranteed it, and there were many occasions when he would far rather have been in total ignorance of some of those global issues, and as a result, the pressure got to him from time to time. But there were no major crises at the moment – certainly nothing that might be construed as worrying, so this unexpected sense of concern was in itself troublesome – he sensed it foretold unforeseen danger, and he was all too aware of an inbuilt ability to know when something, unpleasant at best, was about to happen.

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