Throne of the Mist

When Auden emerged from the fog, he held a faceless corpse in his arms. The fog in the north comes once every ten years. This time it rained for nine days. On the early morning of the tenth day, he walked out from the edge of the fog, with one foot in the fog and one foot outside. He stood still, waiting for the layer of fog to slide off his body before he dared to loosen his left shoulder a little. The people in the village stood at the door of their houses, looking at him one by one. There are more than half the people there than when he left ten years ago. The blacksmith's Sarah looked down at the unfinished horseshoe in her hand. The tavern's Pete pushed the door half open to let him in. Old Clive kept his hand on the stone door frame of the guard hall and did not retract it. What they were looking at was not him, but the spot where he had stood. Old Adam Muramasa took out a diary from the deepest part of the cabinet and placed it in front of him. That was the ninth book Auden left behind before entering the fog. The leather cover is a little frayed at the corners. Turning it over, the first few pages were his own words. After turning a few pages, the handwriting changed - it was not his handwriting, but the way he would write it when he was nervous. That page read: "If I live in the fog for seven years, I will remember at least seven things on the day I come out of the fog." Seven items are listed below. The first one: my mother. On the finger of the corpse in Auden's arms was his mother's ring. His mother died in the fog for many years. Old Adam pulled out a roster of knights from the drawer. Oden Wells's name was crossed out three times and added three times. On the day the fog cleared, it was the fourth time that the Knights' old score was settled.