Prologue

His footsteps swayed uneasily, boots hitting each crevice along the cobbled streets. What hour had he woken to, from his drunken night of revelry? It was made apparent by the depth of the darkness that stretched above him, flecked with the occasional pinpoint of light as it sparkled between the clouds above, that the hour was far beyond when he should have ended his escapades. Even the streetlamps had burned away hours ago, their wicks having been turned to nothing as the night closed in. Only the palest sliver of moon offered up a steady light, bobbing among the lazily-drifting blanket of cloud as they threatened to burst into rainfall.

Steps came almost unwillingly as he made his way toward home. Despite the thinness of his boots, he found a familiar leaden weight to them, slowing his pace, even as he stumbled forward into the shadows surrounding him. There was a hesitance with each shuffling footfall, as he knew well that the late hour had sent his lady of the home into slumber, having donned her sleep gown hours ago with the first light of the lanterns.

Through the recent months, his lady had grown less than enthused by his nightly excursions. The late-night homecomings, reeking of the cheapest beers that the pub had to offer. Despite her pleas and protests, he continued to drown his troubles each night, his coinpurse much the lighter as he took leave in the earliest hours of morning. While he kept to the least expense he could manage, he had no issue in keeping his mug filled.

As the nights continued, his movements became less precise, drink sloshing down his front to wash away the soot and smoke of the factories. It scrubbed him clean of his troubled mind, leaving him with a warmth much more pleasant than that of the metal vats with which he spent his days.