Thomas Tanner lived south of the river in a thatched house with his parents, grandparents, and seven siblings. Tom was the middle child and had just begun helping his father in the vats, dredging goat and cow hides though the solution of salt and potash. His father told him that his hands would soon turn “tanner’s black,” which scared the eight-year-old who already hated the foul smells that clung to him and the burning that lingered in his nose and eyes after the day’s work was done. The priests had commanded that all workshops were to be closed the day of the tournament. Thomas, his father, and his older brother, Peter, who had lost a hand to gangrene after piercing it on a farrier’s nail on the riverbank, went to watch the joust. The crowd pushed and pulled at the small, stinking boy and eventually, Thomas found himself alone, wandering the alleys on the north side of the cathedral. He tried to make his way toward the jubilant cries of the crowd, but the narrow alleys echoed and channeled the sound so that the shouts seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. Eventually, he emerged into the deserted square in front of the church. He watched as a tow-headed boy, a few years older than himself, emerged from the alley opposite and headed towards him. Tom lingered in the shadows, and the boy streaked across the cobblestones towards the gleaming hilt of a sword, standing upright in a stone in the center of the square. The blond boy reached the stone and in one swift motion pulled the sword from it before taking off at a run, back in the direction from which he’d come. Tom continued to wander the streets aimlessly. He found the river sometime after dark and made his way back to his house. It was dark when he arrived. His family had gone to sleep. He never told them about what he saw though there was a good deal of bell ringing and cheering from the far side of the river the next morning. Tom overheard chatter about swords and kings that day around the vats, but he began feeling poorly around noon. His brother led him to a pile of raw goat hides and laid him down on top. His father carried him home at dusk where he died three days later from fever.