Chapter 1 : The Mansion
At the countryside, the cobblestone roads of Rowstone town did not welcome outsiders mostly because the town itself seemed rejected by time. Nestled against the jagged, lower slopes of the Northern mountains, Rowstone was a fractured portrait of rural survival. The adjacent villages were populated by mediocre hand-to-mouth families who spent their lives coaxing crops from stubborn soil of the mountains and or worked small trade or craftsman work to meet their daily needs. They were extremely hard working and honest people. However, propesperity eluded most of the families.
Whatever little wealth existed belonged to a handful of local zameendars - landlords who weilded their modest riches like bkunt weapons, often dominating the impoverished peasants with cruel efficiency. Some of them acted like demi gods to these people who took whatever these land owners offered.
Yet, the true master of the region never set foot in the town square or any villages. High above the downward slopes, where the air grew thin and the mountain roads turned steeply treacherous, sat the ESTATE OF SHADOWS. It was a paradox in the countryside. While the villages below crumbled under the weight of poverty, the estate seemed to thrive in isolated luxury, completely detached from the world beneath it.
To the common folk, the mansion was nearly invisible. A dense cascade of lush green gardens surrounded the property, growing so thick and wild, it resembled a private forest. It acted as a living, breathing fortress swallowing the structure whole from outside eyes. Unless you braved the steep, winding road that blocked any casual trespasser, you would never know a human empire existed up there.
If a traveler ever did manage to reach the wrought iron gates that were always electronically locked from the inside, the onset of the mansion was instantly intimidating. Stepping past the threshold, the air seemed to drop. At the very front of the estate stood a massive grand fountain. It's waters cascaded over weathered stone nymphs, a sharp contrast to the neatly maintained lawns that rolled out like an emarald carpet. The estate grounds were almost pristine leaving the exception of the leaves falling from the private forest of the estate, it was all pristinely manicured. But beyond the grand fountain and last the dark canopy of the private forest, stood the mansion itself.
It possessed a truly domineering, secretive and ghastly presence. The mansion looked as though it had been pulled from a different era and dropped into the mountains as a warning. It's architectural style was ancient, heavy, and threatening. The exterior walls once a proud, stark, white had faded into ghostly off-white streaked with grey stains of mountain mist and time. It was scary in it's sheer scale, looming like a sleeping beast over the valley.
Because it sat at the furthest, deepest end of the estate, it was functionally impossible to know what went on inside. The dark, curtained windows stared back at the world like hollow eyes.
No one in Rowstone had the exact idea who lived inside those faded walls and how many people inhabited it. Nor the elder members of the villages had an exact idea since when it had existed there. Even the zameendarsband their extended families never sought to uncurl the mystery behind it. They simply were too lazy and detested the mansion as it eluded more power than their bungalows. Some of them dismissed it as abandoned while some made up stories of it being a ghostly hollow.
Yet, it existed like a silent God, watching the peasants survive and other people quietly dedicating themselves to their daily work. The only sign of life was an occasional, fleeting ghost of a movement. Every few weeks, the heavy iron gates would groan open. A high end sleek black car with tinted windows would emerge from the shadows of the forest - a vehicle far too expensive for the broken cobblestone roads of Rowstone and far too elite for anyone to know or gauge the name - and vanished into the highway. Hours or sometimes days later, it would return carrying the passenger back into the mansion's secretive embrace.
No visitors were ever seen. No deliveries were ever made in the light of the day. The mansion remained a beautiful yet terrifying riddle looming over the poor families and the over confident landlords of Rowstone like a monument to an untouchable power.
