Prologue

The Unending Night

Earth after nearly a hundred years is a very different place from what we know today.

Two more apocaliptic wars  and fertility problems reduced the global population in just few milions and especialy in Eyrope cities were rare.

But in the town of Oshia in Norway around 2108 that lead to unexpected changes in the society.

 The main political power and wealth consentrated in the hands of an elit , mainly women from wealthy families.

 That led many of the cities working men to abandon the place due to economic unquality and problematic laws about the status of the two gender inside the society.

But after the during the winter of 1120 the residents and especially the female population of the area beggan to die from a apparently "supernatural" disease that spreaded quickly without apparent reason among the women of all ages and social status.

This mysterious plague made the local women feverish for some days as any other simple cold.
But after that the fever increased and the sick women fell into a state of comma until they  inevitable deaths from their inability to eat or drink.

A long period of poverty and bad seed followed and made the sorrow of the people even more unbearable.

Very few children were born as the deaths from the disease in the female population was much more higher than the men for still unexplained reasons.

Soon the other cities and Oshia temporary government decided that no one from this infected city should leave or escape spreading the disease in the other areas and the isolated city became a huge prison. In the high walls and towers archer's and gunmen guarded the gates day and night  killing anyone that approached too close to the city's walls and fences.

The people were ordered to remaine at home with the reassurance of the civil guard that they would distribute food and water in their houses every day for as long as it was necessary.
But this didn't happen.
And the few who tried to break the new laws were executed imidietly without trial.

The elections for the citizens representatives were cancelled and the arm guards had the right to arrest anyone for any reason that they considered related with the epidemic.

Some of the most educated citizens revealed their concerns about the system practices but they weren't many enough to change the minds of the majority of the people who considered this hard measures essential for the survivor of the society.

The libraries and schools* closed permanently  in order to stop the epidemic as the ruling class claimed and the in home education was affordable only for few wealthy families that could afford the housing of the teacher and his family.

A young man and medical practitioner named Elric and his impulsive sister Luciana tried to find the secret behind this events that started when a young woman arrived in their town and died under mysterious circumstances two years before.
The girl later was recognised as a member of a small ethical minority named the Jawhain.

This people were recent immigrants from the southern islands of the continent and their customs and religious beliefs were very different from the local culture of the usually conservative citizens of the northern cities.

Soon they become target for rumours and a heretic secta ,The Pure Ones  became very popular during the epidemic  accusing them for a conspiracy against the majority of the locals who always viewed them with suspicion.

Their slightly darkest skin and hair made them easily recognisable and the locals usually referred to them as "salomes" that meaning outsiders or exiles in their language.
And of course they often accused them for a variety of crimes real or imaginary that happen in their everyday life.

They started to blame them for everything, from witchery to stealing and the young women from this ethic group were often targeted as not pure and unfaithful.

The influence of this strange heretic secta increased dangerously and as the disease was spreading in the city  a pogrom followed agaist the women of Jawhain origin in all the neighbourhoods of the city.

The women who were finally arrested suffered public humiliation in front of the eyes of their own people and families , often sackled as a punishment in the streets at the mercy of the rare bypassers and ruffians.

To shame them the Jawhain women were displayed outside before they relatives gain enough money to pay for their temporary release and medical examination to the court and public authorities .
And this athorities gain quite a lot of money from the all situation.

The few local voices of the young educated women who tried to protest against this actions were ignored at the most of the cases , usually because of their gender.

Sometimes even worse they were also became suspects in the endless search for the carrier's of the plague.

It became very easy for the heretic priests to convince the other people that they must be involved in the spread of the disease.
Their arrest soon followed in few days by the mob or the new civil guard named The Health Keepers.

And then more girls were dragged to the local prison ,often for mouths until their release ,despite the requests for medical examinations that their relatives asked to prove them innocence.

Priscilla the daughter of the of a well respected banker of the city.

The case of Priscilla and her sister Emmeline were the most well known cases to the residents during the second pogrom during the winter.

They both made the unforgiving and dangerous offence of visiting the suspicious women from the  minority in order to provide them with food and clothes for their everyday needs during their obligation to be completely isolated from the "uninfected ones ".

They were both imprisoned without a trial.

Emmeline

Elric quest to find the cure becames even more desperate when Luciana and his Jimena from the minority of Jawhain ,were arrested by the fanatical groups of the the Pure Ones who  delivered them to the civil guard.

Luciana

They blamed them for their loses and accused Luciana for treachery of her own people because she helped Jimena to hide during the first pogrom agaist her people.

Luciana was soon  imprisoned in the Healing Hall ,a special institution or better a prison, that was created for crimes against the public health and order.

There Luciana was considering property of the athorities and every drug or other method could be tested on her from the  medical practitioners in order to find a way to cure the disease.
Even if this resulted in her own death as some other inmates who were used for the same purpose.

Jimena was transferred with some other girls of her origin the heresie "sanctionary "outside of the city named "The Penitentiary "where the priests of the Pure Ones had the "duty " as they claimed to made them harmless with their own cruel methods.

The girls who attempted to escape from this place were kept under "closer supervision" often sackled in their beds for the rest of their time there.

Elric and his clever fiance Valeria have very little time to help his beloved ones and save the city from the plague.

Elric a mysterious medical practitioner from the foreign city of Aerilon who is considered very unorthodox in his methods.

Valeria
A clever and educated woman from the capital who believes that the disease is not what the athorities want the peoples to know.
Her brother Grey is missing for years after his recruitment from a ruthless military and religious order that was send to conquer Anatolia.