Thank you for reading so far! (Or checking it out if you haven’t…)
This is the summary for ‘book’ one. The TLDR if you will. For those who either have taken a break from reading, who read multiple stories and need a refresher, or even those who want to jump in at this stage and watch Jano’s journey after breaking out of the rigorously anti-meritocracy that is Qursa. There is no judgement for those who want to use this to skip all those hard fought words of mine, I’m just glad you’re reading. There’s going to be some missing detail as you can probably appreciate, but you’ll get the gist of the story (hopefully).
Also don’t judge me if it’s terrible. It’s hard to summarise 66k words in a short snappy way. If the summary bothers you then just read the chapters!
So to get started.
Jano worked as a general labourer in the workhouses of the Commercial District. His power had been restricted by the Lesser Court because of a previous incident involving a higher class citizen who he had accidentally killed while working as a stonesmith. He was a Class Ten citizen, which is the lowest class available to anybody other than criminals. With his power restricted, he could only do the most basic of tasks, so his only option was to turn up at the crack of dawn each day at one of the workhouses and hope there was a job available. Constant employment was out of reach and every day was a struggle.
He lived with Alsace, his wife. She was a housemaid to a wealthy merchant in the upper echelons of the Middle. They are both in their early twenties, but they wear their daily struggle plainly.
At night, Jano did a bit of casual thieving. Nothing major, just enough to make ends meet, he used what little of his power over stone essence he had left to break into loosely guarded shops to pilfer what he could without drawing too much attention. He hates himself for it but he has no choice. Little does he know that a few people have noticed his choices.
One day, Jano is late for the workhouse and is offered a chance to do some odd jobs by a shady looking Mage who was skulking in the shadows by the line of workers. Jano has no real choice but to agree, particularly when the Mage offers him more money than he would earn in a month at the workhouse. He knows not to look a gift horse in the mouth, and gets on his way.
The Mage introduces themselves as Darrel. The Mage has him do a simple fetch job. He turned up to a shady looking store, retrieved a wrapped item and then left. As he left, he saw a couple walk into the shop and disappear. On his way back, he is ambushed and attacked by a small group attempting to extort him and gather information,
After refusing to talk or give anything up, the Mage reveals himself and shows that he is behind the pretend assault and he did so using powerful illusions. He thanked Jano for the job and for withstanding his own interrogation and lets him know that he passed the small test.
Jano received the money and buys a small feast for him and his wife to share. Alsace was skeptical, but Jano comforted her. They settle down and enjoy the meal and the wine and allows them to experience a little bit of the life that others so easily take for granted.
Darrel explained to Jano that he can override the restriction placed on him by the Lesser Court and give him some of his power back. The Mage sets out to explain that he will do so if Jano agrees to complete more tasks for him. They do this by entering another contract between him and Darrel, which is designed to sit alongside but overriding the one held between him and the Emperor which originally gave him his power. They do so and Jano is elevated back to a Class Seven with only a little bit of bodily harm.
Darrel showed Jano an ancient dome structure (the Dome of the Enchanted) which predates most of the other buildings in the city. He taught Jano about old places of power and Jano feels what it is like to live outside of the Emperor’s powerful bindings which for some reason he puts on Qursa. They train and Jano gets to grips with his power over stone essence once more.
Next, Jano turns up at Darrell’s home, where he was instructed to arrive. He meets a City Guard leaving. She wore swords in an X on her back and looked at Jano up and down when leaving. Judging him. Darrel explained that the Guard is Nara and that she is on their side. Whatever side that might be.
Jano is taken to a dodgy looking doorway which reveals a small crawl space. Darrel instructed him to go through and find Nara. He does so and found himself in the House of Trin, a network of safe houses which run underneath Qursa.
He met Nara who then informed him of the plan. They are to break into the Jade University and he is their way in and out. He doesn’t have much choice at this point, so they head to the University and he uses his control over stone to remove the large old bricks and hold the rest of the building in place while they break in.
They break in and Nara manages to locate whatever they are there to steal. But as she does so, she creates a racket and they wake up the entire wing of the building. As they are escaping Jano grabs a weapon, a mid sized scythe which had a glowing red warning underneath which he assumed meant it was something worth having.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
They fought their way out of the University and split up to escape. Jano made it back to Darrel’s house and delivered the item. He passed out and woke up the next day to a commotion outside as the Guards tear through the city looking for the culprits. He is sent home in a change of clothes and told to come back later, though when he does return he finds the house empty and the Mage is gone.
Months pass where Jano is working for an old friend when she occasionally needs help. She pays cash and doesn’t ask questions. He misses the excitement of his short experience with the Mage, but at least he can mostly pay his bills with what he gets.
He went for a drink with his friend, who tells him that though the commotion of the robbery has calmed down, the Emperor is returning to the capital of his Empire to seek out the perpetrator personally. That he is due to arrive in the next few weeks.
Jano grows a little worried but heads home, only to be surprised by Nara. He invited her in, and she started asking whether he has seen their mutual friend. He explains he has not and gives what little information he has. Then after she goes but before he goes to sleep, he sees a little note being passed under his door. Meet at the Dome it reads.
He arrived at the Dome to see Darrel waiting for him. He explained that things are not as they appear and that he needs his help to once again steal something from the Emperor. This time from the Palace. It is more pressing as the Emperor is actually set to return imminently. Reluctantly, Jano agreed.
He crawled up a sewer pipe to find the Palace basically unguarded as they prepared to cater to the returning Emperor. Guided by directions from the Mage he breaks into the old throne room and retrieved the items.
After he returned to the Dome, he found Darrel in the centre of the floor waiting for him. He is unresponsive and Jano gets the feeling that something is very wrong. He is ambushed by the Arch-Mage of the University and their allies. He is stuck in place and cannot move. The Arch-Mage begins unleashing attacks at the Mage still sat cross legged in the centre.
It is not truly Darrel in the centre, but another illusion. After a few moments of attacks, a woman unleashes a barrage of attacks at the Arch-Mage and flattens them entirely. They are so overwhelmed that Jano cannot truly comprehend what he is watching.
She sees off the attackers and reveals herself to Jano. She introduces herself properly. She is Dariea, an older powerful Mage originally from Qursa but who had been exiled for quite some time. She is here to free the people of the Empire from the Emperor, and wants to start with Qursa. She explains that the contracts made with the Emperor when every citizen is old enough to do so to grant them power is actually in place so that the Emperor can exploit their spirit and grant him further power.
It is a traditional way of becoming an apprentice Mage, but he has turned the concept upside down in order to draw from hundreds of thousands of people for his own ends. Hence why he is so powerful. Dariea had been cloaking herself using a strong illusion to mask her appearance and her strength, but if the Emperor was coming back to the city, then it wouldn’t matter now anyway.
They begin a plan to destroy the Ledger, the artefact which stores all of the contracts from Qursa and from which the Emperor draws much of his strength. It is in the Palace, which means they must move fast if they hope to achieve their ends. Jano insists that they check on his wife before they do anything and they find his entire block of housing in the Slums has been destroyed.
Nara and a small ragtag group decide to launch a distraction so that Jano and Dariea can slip in hopefully without being noticed.
They break in and make their way to the main hall where they find all of Jano’s neighbours from the Slums as well as Alsace. The Emperor Eradin joins them and he and Dariea have a small battle which Eradin wins.
Just then, Nara and a few others blow a hole in the side of the hall and all hell breaks loose. The Mages start attacking but Jano and Nara manage to get away with many of the others from the Slums.
They regroup and lick their wounds. But with Dariea captured, all hope seems lost. Jano decides to grasp the situation and lead him and Nara in through the sewers in one final charge to rescue Dariea and Alsace.
They crawled back through the sewers, then skulk down into the dungeon. They fight the guards and then manage to break Dariea out of prison but Nara gets seriously hurt when fighting to get her out. Another prisoner is a skilled healer and he and Nara take the servants exit. Dariea and Jano go to get Alsace out of the Emperor’s grasp.
They head up a hidden exit until they find her but as they do so, the Emperor summons the Shimmer, creatures made of death essence, to them and they become surrounded. Jano is forced to watch through a window as Eradin walks towards them past an oblivious Alsace.
Dariea summons a portal to escape through. They escape from Qursa and Jano is forced to leave Alsace and everything he’s ever known behind.
A Brief Preview
I thought I would do a small preview of where the story is heading. A tempting sentence or two to whet the appetite.
The next part of the story deals with Jano after Dariea breaks his connection to the Emperor and he starts to really learn how to use essence by himself and learns what it takes to become stronger. They need allies and so Dariea leads them to a neighbouring settlement and Jano learns that there is a whole world outside of Qursa.
There you go - a really bare bones summary. I've probably missed something. I hope it helped either way - onwards with the rest of the story!