You ride your horse towards the edge of town. You’re probably going faster than you should be, but as the third child of the lord no one is going to complain. You arrive at the weekly market in the square in front of the eastern gate. The square is surrounded by shops, inns, and artisan workshops. For the market today several merchants have also set up shop in the square.

You guide your horse to one of the inns and dismount. You hand the reins to one of your guards as the rest of them dismount and spread out into the crowd around you. They will stay within several meters of you the entire time you are shopping. You sigh thinking about how you can never truly be alone.

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As you wander the market you notice a strange sight in a back corner of the smithy. A youth who appears to be about your own age is working a piece of iron. The strange thing is, they aren’t actually hitting the iron with their hammer. They swing their hammer onto the anvil next to the iron, but somehow the iron still reacts. You immediately recognize the phenomenon as magic. Your father has a hired sorcerer who knows some basic spells, but he is very secretive about how it works. You have no idea where this little smith learned magic.