Though my life begins elsewhere I will start my story in
what I recall from my first memories...

I wasn't raised in a particular place but in a moving one...
my growing was in a bandits camp located usually in
waterdeep or in waterdeep's sewage.
In fact it wasn't an ordinary bandit's camp, it was a
thief's school- and I was one of its students.
"Thai" wasn't an easy school, you could have been killed
many times while studying there - I myself dodged death a
few times there - but those who do manage to stay alive and
to pass all tests in there, never have to search too hard
for a job again, for the school was highly known in the
thief guilds, and those who chose to be thieves or robbers
in their youth, indifferent what species or regions are they
from, occasionally tries to get in.
I was different from those students because from my furthest
memory I was in the company of those teaching the school...
not searching them willingly but bound to them by our mutual
place of living.
I had a great advantage over the other students because of
my special skills, only those that new me from my childhood
noticed my physical changes from the rest, my lack of shadow
was almost impossible to notice because of the darkness we
usually was in and because my skills I was able to conceal
it, and about my skin that was someway warmer than the
other's almost nobody new- I covered all of my body but my
face.
In fact, my already great natural skills grew so much that
eventually I was able to hide myself almost perfectly and
sneak on almost anyone, swifter than a dagger-stroke.

The life in Thai was cruel, most of the people in there had
long lost their souls, some I sure had no souls to begin
with.
As one who grew there from my infancy, I knew not even of
the concept of good,
I was the cruelest of the student and had no mercy to those
that stood in my way...
But even so I did had a soul, a conscience- a little voice
in my head that told me when evil things where happening,
and every time I shut it up and ignored it, but I remember
one time I couldn't... one time I was unable to close my
feelings in that tight place of mine, it took me two nights
to set my feeling in place and to shut that screaming voice
from my head...
It was about two years before my graduation, and the camp
moved to a very remote land for a while because of some
paladins' mad campaign against rouges in waterdeep.
On the way we saw some temple of the goddess "Salune", and
while me and the other students was ordered to practice
hiding outside it's walls, the teachers and the graduating
students of this year that just past, went to raid the
temple... it was horrible, all those people, not even trying
to defend their self, where slaughtered unmercifully.
I had already killed a few times but only in self defense
and with the knowledge that my opponent can defend himself
or run away, not this was the case- there was no escape...
they all where doomed to die, I was deeply in horror but
couldn't shift my eyes from the terrible sight, than sparks
where seen through the highest windows of the temple, more
and more sparks in any color and shape illuminated the
window for an hour or so and then all of a sudden stopped,
after a while I saw our school headmaster going out deeply
burned very much alive, I later found out that the high
priest was in that room and singly killed more then twenty
of our best teachers -every teacher in my school is an
expert in his field if not the best, what proved to be a
great strike for the school for many a year- only the school
headmaster succeed and only with some good burns that will
not pass for a long while, but its said that they found some
artifact in there that was worth it.

About two years after, in that time we where already on our
way back to waterdeep, I finished all my classes and knew
all I needed to know to be a thief, I past almost all of my
tests and I was ready for my graduation test... the hardest
of all.
The test they gave to me was to find a good thief and steal
from him something.
I always thought of myself as the best thief that school had
as a student, and I had a record that told a similar story
in there, I was so full of myself that I decided to prove it
by stealing something from the best thief I ever heard of...
the headmaster Zolk.
I knew that capturing equaled being dead so I waited for
about a month for the opportunity to come... and it did.
In that month I used all the money I ever saved, from
stealing of course, and bought the best thief's tools I
found, I spied on the headmaster from far as best as I
could, he almost found out I'm there In few occasions but
with a bit of luck I managed to stay out of his sight.
By the time a month passed, I knew his schedule by heart...
and than one day I managed to find a perfect hiding place
where I knew he will pass and I waited there, I had a stroke
of luck and right by that spot I heard him and his companion
speaking of a job on some great wizard their going to do the
next day and that it will take them the whole day to do
it... the opportunity just knocked on my face.

The next day I waited outside his apartment till I saw him
and his companion leaving, I waited for another half an hour
and then I started my test...

The headmaster Zolk lived for the time we stayed here in a
cave, I immediately that the front was heavily guarded by
some very complicated traps, and I couldn't just sit there
and bypass it in the middle of our camp in the middle of the
day, so I started using what I learned in school: "If you
can use the front gate- use it! It's the most unexpected
place of infiltration, if you can't- use the backdoor, if
there's no backdoor... make one!" I was misfortunate- there
was no back door, so I had to use the third option and make
one- that was hard, I took my grapple crossbow and shot a
roped grapple to the ceiling of the cave- there was a small
skylight there. I knew I'm not dealing with just any thief
there... I was dealing with one of the best alive- so I
searched with all my skills for a trap, it was concealed
perfectly- I found it just after half an hour, ten times
what it takes me usually to find and disarm it, disarming it
was easy after I found it but it still was slow because of
the way it was fixed- you could see a genius made it by how
he took a very simple trap and fixed it so it will be
impossible to find it if you don't know it's there- I felt
good about foreseeing it's existence in that unusual place
and not giving up the possibility there's a trap there even
after an half an hour, I felt I was on the right track but I
knew now what I got into and started being afraid I will not
make it.
I still needed to expand the skylight so I could go through
it, before long I was finished, I dug it to my direction so
that the cave inside wouldn't get dirt in it, and in that
way it will look like the skylight stayed in the same size-
because the rules of thief's say clearly as I learned until
not long ago in the school: "Avoid, in any cost, leaving any
signs of your presence - in the present or the past - in
that place, the longer it will take them to found out about
you, the better is your chance to assassinate your target
and or just disappear for the thief / assassin".
I went down the cave by two ropes, the ropes where wrapped
around me and tied to some hooks above the cave, allowing me
to hang in the middle of the room above the floor without
using my hands or legs to do so, except for to change my
position downward or upward.
About 5 feet above ground I discovered a trap just beneath
me, in fact, the whole floor was full of traps, there's no
foothold without one in whole the room!
I felt very depressed, it seemed impossible - to disarm so
many traps, and all without even a foothold, was in fact
impossible! - I stayed there, frozen in the air, for about
an hour more, trying to figure out I am I going to do it...
Than I asked myself how can he live in a place like -
normally a thief knows every trap in his house by heart so
that he won't ever need to disarm it, and in that way
assassination on him will be a lot harder - but it stroke me
that its impossible to any man (or halfling in Zolk's case)
to live with so many traps.
I started looking for a switch of any kind.
After some long searching in midair, maybe an hour, I given
up on the search - the room wasn't very full but still in
the few items in that room I found no switch or a lever of
any kind.
Than a great strokes of luck was falling on me, or rather
from me, my backpack got knocked by the rope I was hanging
from and because of the impact a few items got cut off the
backpack's side and was falling to the ground, hitting two
of the traps...

The seconds of the falling of my items seemed to last
forever, but the time after they was on the ground, after
meeting the traps, did not pass at all - I knew this means
my doom and so I waited for it in the never-moving time
flow, I don't know how much I waited there- it could be
seconds or hours- when I was shocked to realize that nothing
happened, it is possible that one of the traps made - even
by Zolk - wasn't functioning properly, but for him to make
two mistakes like that wasn't an option, especially after
the magnificent trap I was handling in the skylight, after
some thinking I got it, it was ingenious!!!
He made all those traps so it will seem like you can't
possibly go through the room, when in fact most of the traps
are demi-traps and only if you'll know where are the real
traps you'll be able to pass through the room.
Knowing that I started my job, I picked up what I dropped
from the air and secured it to my backpack, than remembering
where they fell I established by first two foothold, I
decided a direction to go to, the closest thing to me - a
bookcase - than for about two hours I went step by step
toward the bookcase, when I'm very carefully examine every
step's trap to check if it's a demy or not and marking it by
little rope splits I split from my spare rope from my
backpack, the longest ten meters I ever had.
I was just going to search for valuable items in the
bookcase when something draw my eyes, in the bottom of the
bookcase I saw a scroll among other much older scrolls, but
the fact that the scroll was much newer wasn't the thing
that draw my attention, it was the name on the scroll - it
was written in golden big letters "NIRK", my name  - I
gathered it's my student's record and wondered what my
scroll is doing in here amongst those old scrolls, I took
the scroll and I was very surprised when I realized that
there was poisonous needle  inside the seal - these sort of
things are not uncommon in scrolls containing any kind of
secret information, so I learned to search for it
instinctively before opening a seal, but the actual presence
of the needle in my own scroll struck me unguarded- some
unimportant document as a student's record shouldn't be by
any case guarded by such deadly device - I was starting to
think there's more to here than meets the eye, maybe it's
not just a student's record...
I lit one of my fire-sticks and used it to warm-up my
dagger, I carefully removed the seal from its bottom with
the hot dagger without breaking it.
While starting to unroll the scroll, the first thing I saw
was the beginning of a painting... first I saw the faces of
two man-like adults, a man and a woman, the thing I first
noticed was that the man had little horns and when I shifted
my eyes to the woman's face I noticed that the woman had
noticeably shining eyes, but that even added to her beauty,
it was overwhelming, her beauty was almost inhuman, I was
taken by her and couldn't take my eyes of her, I felt a new
feeling I had never had before- warmness.
After a few minutes I realized I was not even breathing, I
forced my hand to keep unrolling the scroll, the painting
continued, I noticed than that the man had a tail, it seemed
normal with the horns - but even with the devilish look with
the horns and tail he didn't seemed evil, he looked like a
nice person in spite of his stout face, and a similar
feeling as from the woman came from him too.
I unrolled the scroll more and just in the bottom of the
picture between the two adults I saw a little child, about
three years old or so, he seemed very familiar for some
reason but I couldn't put my finger on it.
Scanning the picture again I noticed that the man had a big
noticeable shadow, it bothered me for some reason, after a
few minutes I realized why - the woman had no shadow drawn
at all and so did the child...
I was shocked beyond movement, questions ran in my mind
without stopping, what I was rejecting from the second I saw
the two adults was forcing it's way to my mind, the answer
could not be avoided anymore- and in an instant I knew in
every cell of my body, this is my parents...
This child was I...
I couldn't move, I could hardly breath, I noticed drops of
water coming down on the painting, I realized that from my
first memory, for the first time in my life, I was crying-
after a few seconds I realized that my tears could ruin the
painting and I moved the painting away.
I than understood those other students I often saw crying,
and dismissed the feelings of disgust and loathing I felt
for them when I saw it... I started to understand that I,
just like them, was human and shared those feelings I once -
not even an hour ago - thought only as weaknesses.
I sat there for more then an hour crying and thinking, until
the questions that popped in my head forced me to pick up
the scroll and keep unrolling in, I picked it up and after a
few more minutes of gazing at the picture I unrolled the
scroll more.
After the painting there was a long passage, and in the end
of it a painting of a strange looking dagger - I think I
glimpsed at it few times in Zolk's hand when he stroke an
enemy, though usually the strokes was far too quick to
notice - I started reading the passage:

 "After all those years I finally found them, the guardians
of 'the shadow's dagger' their ancestors for years defended
it from going to evil hands, my father almost got it once,
but he failed miserably and almost lost his life, trying to
take it from another thief is crazy... especially a
goodhearted thief, the legend says that the dagger works
even better on a good thief then on an evil one.
It was a stroke of luck this painting fell into my hands, I
immediately recognized the tiefling's features of the
parents and noticed the similarity of the painting my father
had of the tiefling he tried to steal the dagger from and
the man-tiefling in the painting.
I was happy to found out it indeed was his father.
The master will be very pleased when I will kill the
guardians and shift the dagger to evil hands... to my
hands!
I was lucky to find out that neither of the parents had
skills as thieves, a non-thief can't really use the power of
the dagger, it was a great stupidity to make a non-thief the
guardian of the dagger - it will be like taking a candy from
an elf-baby - I planned the attack in just two days before
attacking... that was a mistake I almost paid my life for.
I easily unlocked the backdoor and noticed no trap... that's
why I was very surprised to hear an alarm bell when I opened
the door - it was a magical trap, not my expertise - the
tiefling male showed up after some minutes and I barely
dodged his magical attacks, some of them I wasn't able to
avoid at all.
I ran for my life through the house, a shower of missiles
after me, I thought I was dead for sure, but just in the
end, when I could barely ran anymore and I was critically
wounded, one of the attacks stroke an invisible object
hanging near the ceiling, and out of thin air an object fell
- the dagger.
Both him and me saw it and while I ran toward it, it stopped
in midair and started flying toward him; I jumped and caught
the dagger in midair just before it reached him...
After I had the dagger he had no chance against me, it was
over before it even started.
I found the woman and child hiding in a corner under the
floor like rats, she was even more beautiful in life then
from the painting, she begged me not to hurt her child, she
offered her life for her baby's life, I still can her, her
beautiful voice in my head "Please spare my son, don't hurt
my little Nirk, he's still a child and know nothing of this"
I could not refuse, I still don't know why, I still have her
face graved in my head just before I took her life, those
eyes... staring at me in gratefulness even though I just
killed her husband, even though I was killing her in that
very time, just because I promised not to kill her son.
Those eyes, those shining eyes... I saw her life shutting
out through them and knew I could not kill the child after
that.
'He will be a good adding to my father's school' I told
myself as an excuse for it but knew that's not the reason.
I don't know why I'm writing this, but I just can't help it,
I'm sorry I never asked her name, she still hunting my
dreams, but at least I know her son's name, and I will train
him to be a great thief, as if he was my own son..."

Reading, an hatred grew inside me, I had my parents now if
not for him, he killed my parents and stole my childhood, I
had no childhood from him, he never treated me any
differently from the other students... never showed me any
feeling, because of him I have nothing in the world when I
could have had everything.
Even through my anger I kept my mind clear and never thought
of facing him, not until I was very much stronger.
I promised to myself I'm going to get much stronger, come
beck and take his life... painfully!

Even though I knew I should leave no evidence of me being
there, I took the scroll, knowing that in the second Zolk
will notice the absence of the scroll, he will guess that
was my test and my new knowledge will mean a contract on my
life, but even though, I still took it, I rearranged the
rest of the scrolls to minimize the feeling of absence on
the shelf.
I went beck on the places I left the rope pieces, while
collecting them.
I climbed the ropes and went through the skylight, I took
the ropes and rearmed the trap and did what I could to
rebuild the skylight and conceal my remodeling of it.


---------------------


I needed to buy some time, so not to be too suspicious I
needed to act natural, after only a few hours I went to the
teacher council, I was very glad to see that the headmaster
Zolk wasn't there - he must've been still on his
"business-trip".
I told the council I have managed my last test and that I
want my diploma, I refused to tell them what my last test
was - this wasn't that unusual, it was common to steal from
one of the teachers for the test, and though the rules says
no teacher allowed to retribute on the stealing, but even
so, because of the fear from "accidents" the rules didn't
force the student to tell who was their victim, only to
tell, under a very powerful truth spell, if they did
successfully the test - they used a truth spell on me, I
said I did my test perfectly, in that second Zolk came in
through the door, my heart was pounding, I thought this was
my doom... he must have visited his house and saw my scroll
was missing...
Just after him I saw to my relief that Zolk's companion is
with him and that he had the same clothes, the clothes was
worn a bit and seemed to have been used all day - those two
details assured me they weren't in his home before arriving
here, because the rules we were taught here says "one must
change his clothes as soon as possible after a job, even if
it was unsuccessful, a different clothes can be your alibi
or draw the eye away from you while searching for a you
right after seeing you with it, while the same clothes will
immediately will tell a sharp observer what you were been
doing", so if he had the chance he would automatically
change his clothes, I wondered what brought him here before
he did so.
I found myself gazing at him in wonder and hate and I
immediately concealed my feelings as best as I could and
tried to focus on the teachers inquiring me... I glimpsed at
him and saw that he was looking at me in a look that made me
wonder if he noticed the way I was looking at him, and then
he walked straight at me... it took all my skills to try and
conceal all the hatred I felt for him, my heart was pounding
like crazy, and when he said "I beg your pardon, but I will
take it from here", my heart completely stop, it came to me
that I was still under the truth spell...
He walked straight to me, entering the truth spell's zone,
what relieved me a lot because the next thing he said was,
"I came straight here when I heard your graduating", that
answered some questions and I knew he won't be able to lie
in here.
"What was your test objective? ", he continued the inquiry.
"Information", I answered.
"And what was it's worth", he asked.
Before I could answer myself on that question, I heard my
self, saying "priceless".
All the teachers gasped in amazement and even the headmaster
looked pretty amazed.
The next question came a few seconds after, "How come?"
That took me unguarded, and I searched in my mind for an
answer... for a truth that will conceal the truth.
"How come...?", he asked again when no answer came.
And just then the answer flashed through my mind right to my
mouth, "It had information about a powerful artifact's
location", a second gasp came then, and even Zolk's
amazement was on the open.
They all continued looking at me like that a few more
seconds and then Zolk asked me, "What kind of artifact?"
some shouts started coming of the teachers then, "Zolk...
wait... it's forbidden... the rules...", and he just shouted
beck, "I don't care, I want that artifact, What kind of
artifact is it, Nirk, answer me!", he said while dropping me
on the ground and grabbing me quicker then my eyes could
follow, even though he was such a little man, a childe size
- my perfect solution crushed down on me, it seemed that
Zolk wasn't content with my parents dagger and wanted more
artifacts to strengthened him, I knew that any answer will
end in my death, the shouting of the teachers didn't do much
good until a shout of one of them silenced the all room
including Zolk, a simple shout I still don't understand,
"The master...".
After that Zolk came off me and helped me get on my legs,
"I'm sorry about that", he said and gave his hand for me to
shake, "if you want someone to do the job with you, come to
me", usually any new graduating student of Thai will jump on
that offer, for it will built up his reputation enough for
any guild thief, if I would have refuse his request he might
guess why I will not join with him, or he might come and
force me to tell him anything I know and then in any case it
will mean my death again, but because of the spell I could
not lie to him so instead I said: "Be sure that when I'll
make that job you will be a part of it." I took all my
skills to hide my hatred for him and the disgust of myself,
for concealing his hatred for him, from my words and face
while I shook his hand.
They all signed on my diploma, writing a special
recommendation on the beck of it.
I got out acting proud and cheerful, I walked in that act to
the end of the camp, and then started running, I ran like
hell, 'his skills... he was amazing... I could never take
him as weakly as I am, I will get stronger - much stronger,
and then I'll be beck for you Zolk, then you will die...
that is a promise!'.