AMCW no. 177

Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N: Unravelling a little of the mystique of Vimes' badge.

Hundreds of years ago, the king of Ankh Morpork decided he wanted a group of men who kept the peace. Thus the city watch was created and had a glorious history of approximately four days, when the king was assassinated by his son who promptly disbanded the watch. Later they were reformed, and badges were made. What happened next was recorded in a small book which was recently unearthed in the deepest depths of the palace library. What it said was this:

'When we came to molding thee 177th bage, a glowing lite fell from thee skie. I pikked yt up. Yt was a fether which burnd with an eldritch fire wych did not harm me. I was most consernd when yung measter Fredrik's from Lanker sed "Thys ys a fyrebyrd fether! Yt burns in the presense of eville." I then thawt to place it in thee badge forever.'

This was the account of Thomas fern, a blacksmith who made the badges.

The badge survived fire, death, revolution, anarchy and cat vomit. It was passed from hand to hand, down through one family, the Vimes family. After the execution of suffer not injustice, at which it glowed with a strange and foreboding light, it was lost for centuries, out of sight and out of mind. Eventually it was found by chance, and issued to a young watchman of the name of Vimes. As he wore it, it gained a semi sentience, becoming a mental shield from the beast as it had for generations. It became more than it had been before, it became part of Sam Vimes' mind. It became his sense of justice, known simply as, 'the guarding dark'. It lasts forever, as the blacksmith said, immortal, if the word really applies. For it, like the justice carried in the heart and soul of a copper, never changes.