Eve of Silence
Distribution: Public Archive
Bloody and brutal. The Salesman Empire has seen its share of terrible violence.” – Mr. Rene Blackstone, Record Keeper and Warden of the North Door
The Eve of Silence, also known as EoS, is first referenced in “The Book” (the late Daniel Swift’s travel journal) delivered anonymously to his daughter Emily Swift on her 30th birthday.
The Eve of Silence is a significant moment in Salesman Empire history, violently underscoring the scope of the Fringe’s power.
The act of terrorism revealed the reach the fanatical group had gained.
It also exposed the weakness of the ruling body in the Salesman Empire, the Salesman Court.
Anne Lace describes to Emily Swift in Door to Door, Book One in the Door to Door Paranormal Mysteries:
“The Eve of Silence, as it came to be called, happened about a week before your father (Daniel Swift) was killed…the Fringe was becoming more and more aggressive. The Salesman Court was pressured to act. They planned to vote on a ruling approving yearly review and broadening the scope of ‘reasonable expulsion.’ The night before it would have passed there was a mass slaughter of Salesmen who influenced or sat on the Court. The next day, when Court reopened, there was no one on the bench. The Court had been effectively silenced, hence the name, Eve of Silence.”
“Your father (Daniel Swift) was one of three justices (Petrovich, Spell, Swift) who survived the attack. He wasn’t in Matar that night.”
Emily Swift understood how important it was to keep the Fringe from getting more power. Early on, she cared about the Empire—the world her father knew intimately; the world she was slowly discovering.
Maybe it was in my genes. Or maybe it was because I saw how the violence in the Empire might bleed over into my world.
I wanted to protect the people I loved and cared about, too…