Prologue

Everyone has their secrets; deeds, thoughts, and desires that they keep locked deep within themselves lest they be revealed to others. When secrets are learned they are no longer what they once were. They become damaging, they become dangerous. A man with no secrets of his own is naked, stripped of cloth and flesh, his bones hollowed. He becomes a man with no meaning, no reason to be. Simply another ordinary person, with nothing to contribute. With nothing to continue struggling through life for.

Bits and pieces of information can tear men apart more easily than the toothy maw of a dreaded dragon. They can pull kings off their thrones and heroes off their pedestals in the blink of an eye. They can destroy people. When the governor’s secret affair with a notorious harlot becomes public, the people will rise up and drag the official from office. When it is learned that the jester harbors a hatred for the king because he is embarrassed daily, he is marched to the gallows. And when an angry father learns that his daughter has clandestinely given her virginity to the horse breeder’s son, he reaches for pitchfork and vengeance.

Just as they destroy from without, they can just as easily lay waste from within. Holding dark secrets eats away at the soul. The spirit, nearly breaking under the weight, cries out for the secret to be shared so the burden can be alleviated. Salvation can only be achieved when the secret has become what it’s not; a shared piece of information, known by another. Those that keep to themselves skillfully hide inner struggles with the truth. Battles wage over painfully kept information, and the mind slowly creeps towards insanity.

When collectively know information is dubbed secret, it has the same toll on all who hold it. But the individual can at least find relief by sharing. A group already has others aware of the secrets they hold, and thus their work cannot be lightened. If one gives up the closely guarded knowledge, it would be a loss for all involved. Paranoia might set in, the members of the group beginning to suspect the others of revealing their secret. Delusional minds lose sight of right and wrong, and act to protect themselves from what is often unjustified fear.

But what would happen if it was not a small group within much larger ones holding a secret, but rather a far greater number of people. Suppose a whole nation held a secret, one of dark origins, and the security of each and every person depended upon its protection? The repercussions of a single soul revealing the knowledge to one outside of the group would likely mean suffering for all, beyond the torment of holding the information to begin with. Most would deem it an impossible task in the first place. Treachery and espionage are common in the world, and surely the secret would leak out in a short amount of time, especially with the entire populace of the country aware of it.

This is hardly the case. When it has become such an integral part of society, when it has become life, people do not betray their oath of secrecy. They do not discuss it; it is simply what is and nothing more. But were it to somehow escape the nation, the people would find themselves in grave danger from all sides.

Every nation has its secrets, some darker than others. When it gets down to it, the people of the country cannot determine how dangerous the secret will be for themselves. They must look beyond their borders to see the threat, because what matters is how others would utilize the information against them. Some secrets run deeper and darker than others. Some secrets provide more to be feared than others. Some secrets must not be revealed under any circumstances.