I would like to invite you to a living ceremony.
Lost in a dream... On an exceptionally dark, chilly, and heavily overcast Saturday evening in an early November, a crime is committed.
In the early hours of the evening, a robbery is reported on the outskirts of a large village near to the foothills of a vast mountain range.
In the village of Alas, the overall mood throughout the land is one of confusion, disharmony, and mistrust.
An eyewitness, one of the villagers, sees someone run from a burglarized home and provides a description to neighbors.
Word spreads.
A couple of hours later, around 9:00 pm, a group of vigilante thugs cruising about, spot what appears to be a vagrant wandering the streets by themself, loosely fitting the thief's description.
The person is leisurely walking about, perhaps looking for something to eat. They are clasping a small thin envelope in their right hand. Maybe they have plans to deliver a note of some kind.
To the self-appointed street justice, the targeted individual doesn’t appear to belong. They look like they might be from a few villages over, maybe from the town of At Last.
Out of the truck, gangsters jump.
Without a single question, the drifter is restrained, mouth-taped, blind-folded, thrown in the back, and delivered across town.
The new detainee is terrified as this group of thugs isn't known for their reasoning, and they have a reputation for doling out mob justice.
Restraints are removed as the prisoner is pushed into some shed-like structure for temporary keeping.
Only moments are left to attempt to flee or make a plea before the doors behind are shut.