It was a nice sunny morning in the north, Cailin, always one of the first ones to wake up, had gotten up before sunrise and gone for a short walk around the temple in the cool morning air. “Cailin!“ an old man shouted from the top of the stairs, “come inside, you have duties to attend to”. Without delay Cailin rushed into the temple library, remembering that he had to sweep the floors before the students would come and bury themselves in their studies. When he entered the library, he found it empty, except for a few early-birds peering through piles of old books. Not wanting to disturb them, Cailin went straight for his broom and started sweeping the floors in silence.

After a while more and more people were coming in to study, and while he was working, a young boy, one of the initiates, approached him with a quizzical look on his face “You're an Alcolyte, right? aren’t you supposed to be doing something more important than sweeping floors?”

Cailin looked at the boy and smiled, noticing the book he was holding he replied “I see you are studying the works of Jaesh, The Natural Order is indeed an interesting topic. Tell me, do you know what is more important? is it the wind that blows from the north, the sun that rises in the east? or the rain that falls from the sky? The boy stood in silence, narrowing his eyes. ”You see, when each of these stand alone, they can bring forth terrible things, and yet all of them in and of themselves are good and serve a purpose, but it is when they work together that they form something truly magnificent”, as he said this, Cailin twirled his fingers and out came a short gust of wind that gracefully turned the pages of the book and revealed drawings of great trees, mountains and lakes. “we all have a part to play, some have been here longer than others, but it is of the utmost importance that we do not forget that all of us were once where you are now. We must not think ourselves better than others, we are all equal, students of the Star’s arcane. And as such, we must not let pride cloud our judgment, we must learn to master it.”

The boy apologised with a smile, ”I.. I’ll let you go back to your sweeping then.. I should continue my studies”.

For the remainder of the day, Cailin couldn’t help but smile, the inquisitive nature of the boy had made his day. When he was finished with his chores, Cailin retreated to his bed chamber to study for the remainder of the afternoon. He went into his room, took a seat at his desk, and picked up an old copper coin, on one side was a five pointed star, on the other the head of a dragon. Looking at the pile of books in front of him, he picked two of them, and tossed the coin, “ah, the Star” he thought to himself, pleased with the result, he opened a book titled “The Nature of the Celestial”, and started reading.

A few hours later there came a sudden knock at the door, “come in” exclaimed Cailin, and in came a wrinkled old man, with long thin white hair, with the occasional bald spot on his head. ”Well hello there, Eldric, welcome, to what do I owe the pleasure?” The old man trudged into the room grasping his staff for dear life.

Eldric looked down on the young man with a smile on his face. “I always know where to find you”, he let out a short chuckle, “I’m just checking on an old friend. You know, studying is great, but you ought to spend more time in the sun, and less time cooped up in your books. Take it from an old man who has spend most of his life with his face buried in them.” He sat down on the edge of the bed, next to Cailin.

“Well, if I become half as wise as you, old man, I’ll be well pleased with myself!” replied Cailin as he closed the book. As they were talking, he noticed a bruise of some sort on Eldric’s wrist, “Have you been fighting again, my friend?” He gave him a slight shove, as he let out a snort of laughter, pointing at his wrist.

“That is none of your concern” replied Eldric, as he pulled down the sleeve of his greyish white robe to cover up the bruise.

“It looks bad, are you sure you’re okay?” Cailin added as he noticed a slight change in his tone.

“Never mind that!” He snapped, sounding a bit angry now.

It wasn’t until now that he noticed the man looking weaker than usual, for an old man. “suspicious”, he thought to himself, but over the years Cailin had learned not to meddle in the affairs of the Council, so he laid the matter to rest for now. He did not question him, but neither did he forget what he saw. Eldric shot to his feet and headed for the door, before leaving, he turned his head to look at Cailin and added in his usual calm voice, “Go out Cailin, socialise, it’s good for you” then he turned around left the room and closed the door behind him.

Cailin was confused as to what Eldric’s purpose for visiting him was, but he thought to himself “mysterious as he may be, the man’s got a point.” So he took his advice, put the books on a shelf, grabbed his cloak and headed outside. A mile of forest lay between the temple and the town of Thorneguard. There was a tavern in town called the Silverleaf Inn, where most people would come to blow off some steam. It was a stormy night, as was usual in the north, so he picked up the pace. He had been walking in the muddy forest for a long stretch, with rain soaking him down to his breeches, when he at last reached the cobblestone pathways of Thornguarde, and was able to seek shelter between its narrow lamplit streets. It was a large town, the largest one in the north, the houses were big and cramped together so as to keep wild animals at bay.

At last Cailin reached the tavern, and when he opened the large wooden door he was met with the warmth of the fire burning in the hearth, the smell of delicious food cooking in the pot and a welcoming nod from the barkeep. Inside, the tavern was already crammed with people, commoners for the most part, with the occasional elf and dwarf passing by on business at the temple or the mine. Some were singing along to the tune coming from the bard in the corner, and others were drinking away their coin. Cailin approached the barkeep and noticed a familiar face buried in some meat and ale at the adjacent table. The man saw him and immiediatly got up to greet him. He towered above the others, was built like a great bull, with long hair as black as night, and a long and slim face.

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"Cailin!" Exclaimed the man, as he grabbed him by the shoulders and embraced him.

"Aiden, my big friend, looks like you've had a little too much to drink!" Cailin laughted.

"Not yet!" They laughed.

Cailin, who was getting hungry by now, ordered an ale and something to eat and went and sat with his friend. While they were enjoying their food, his mind wandered back to Eldric, “what has he been up to? why is he injured?”

As he was sitting in deep thought, he was brought back to reality by someone giving him a bump on his shoulders.

“If you two don't mind what you keep stuffing your face with, you're going to end up looking like two pigs ripe for slaughter”.

Cailin lost his train of thought and turned to see who it was that interrupted him, it was a tall, one handed woman with long golden hair and a welcoming smile. She was beautiful. “Tara!” His eyes widened, “I didn’t expect to see you here tonight, or Aiden for that matter.”

“Where else should I be? tending to the needs of the Council perhaps?” She narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms, “I’m off tonight, Thoras dismissed me when my chores were done. I’m here to drink and have fun, may I join you two pigs?”

Laughing Cailin and Aiden grabbed her a chair and welcomed her to sit with them. It was a nice place, one of the more cozy taverns of Thorneguarde, there was always music playing, stories to be heard and games to gamble away your coin. The townsfolk seemed to be in a good mood this particular evening, perhaps some of them had just received their monthly earnings and were enjoying a well earned night of fun, while others were seeking shelter from the storm, enjoying the warmth of the fire. In any case, all Cailin could think was that his friends could keep him company. He always enjoyed having them around, after all they had been friends ever since he could remember.

"I'll go get us some more drinks" Aiden said, and went to the barkeep.

While Aiden was gone, and Cailin and Tara were enjoying what remained of their drinks, two men stumbled towards them and gave Tara a flirtatious look, they had without a doubt had a bit too much to drink. When she dismissed them they started giving her a hard time, this was almost a regular occurrence for her, Cailin had seen it many times before, and he knew that even without her right hand, she was more than capable of handling herself. But he couldn’t just sit there and let them harass her like that. He jumped up, clenched his fists and commanded them to cease harassing the lady.

“Sit down, boy”, demanded one of the large men, as he was bringing his right hand down onto a sheath at his side. “You’re one of them magic users, eh” he snarled, noticing the crest of the temple on his chest, “All that power, and you couldn’t do anything about that horrid face of yours?” He spat on the ground. By now most of the people in the tavern were starting to pay attention to their argument. When he said this Cailin felt anger rising inside him and just as he was about to strike him with his fist, not caring that the men seemed to be twice his size, a flash of blue light filled the tavern, and the two men were flung backwards and slammed into the wall. Tara had hit them with a spell that Cailin had never seen before. As the men were lying unconcious up against the wall, shouts of laughter could be heard from around the room, some cheered while others sat in silence and observed her.

“Tara!” Cailins face paled, “What have you done!” Aiden came running towards them, they grabbed her arm and rushed out of the tavern,“we’re not allowed to use our magic on the townsfolk!”.

“They deserved it!” she replied.

“I know they deserved it, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is forbidden!” He noticed that she seemed winded, it was as if the spell had taken a toll on her, which surprised him because, well, even though Tara had joined the temple initiates a bit after he had, she was by far the most gifted student at the temple. “What’s wrong, what happened in there?” Aiden asked.

“Oh, it’s nothing, I can’t really talk about it…”

Cailin raised his eyebrows, “Is it the Council? the training, are they pushing you too hard? and what was that spell? i've never seen you cast anything like it?”

“Can you please stop with all the questions! I can't talk about it. I'm sorry!” She replied without looking at him. Cailin could see that she was battling something in her mind, and that she didn't want to share it with them, so he kept his mouth shut and they started off in the direction of the temple. When they reached the outskirts of the city, they stopped under a large oak tree and sat in silence for a while, under the starlit sky, listening to the sounds of nature. When the hour had grown late, they arose and walked back home. They did not wish to stay out too late. The townsfolk would usually stay indoors during the late hours, even for mages it would be unwise to walk about so close to midnight, when the creatures of the night roam around.

When they arrived on the temple grounds Aiden bid them goodnight and went straight to bed, but Tara stopped Cailin, before letting out a word she turned her head to see if anyone was around, “be careful with the Council, Cailin…" she whispered. "I overheard Eldric talking to Thoras earlier saying you were asking questions. Don’t go poking your nose where is doesn’t belong, and don’t ask too many questions.” When she had said this, she softly rubbed her left wrist as if to put pressure on a wound. Then, without another word, she turned around and sped off into the girls sleeping quarters, without looking back at Cailin.