Rono is a quiet town located near a lesser port in the greater continent of Rozons. The government of Rozons sends meager funds to the small town, thus most of the Ronoian economy is funded by farming. Despite it being a farming town it has a thriving town center with many shops and boutiques, where young tourists looking to escape for the countryside might go shopping. Lunis was born into one of these shops, a shop owned by Tegred, his mother who many considered to be a witch. Before she died many strange and eccentric characters from all over Rozons would come and visit the shop in search of occult and ancient treasures that she was known to be able to acquire. When she died Lunis was left to tend to the shop alone, but since he had no experience in or knowledge of his mother's dealings and connections the shop saw a drastic decline in visitors. Lunis was not concerned about the shop however, his interests were always in magic. While the rumors of his mother being a witch were certainly not true, Lunis had been caught many times trying to reanimate corpses in the village cemetery. Any time he was caught he would say he was setting up a shrine for his mother, but the villagers knew better and had their eye on him ever since those incidents.

Today Lunis enters the shop to be greeted by a strange face. Tono is sitting on the chair in front of the shopkeeper's booth. Lunis never bothered to lock the door because the town was so small that stealing was almost unheard of, besides all of the neighboring shopkeeps kept a special eye on Lunis and his dealings in hope of catching him red-handed in some necromancy to report to the local authorities.

Tono turns to Lunis in the swiveling chair and greets him with a smile. "Lunis you look great how are you holding up? I heard your mother had passed away."

"She passed away a year ago Tono, I have gotten over it by now."

"Oh ya sorry about that I forget that it was such a long time ago."

"So are you looking for anything Tono, do you want to buy some ruins?"

"No, no none of that I just thought I would come over and see how you were doing, maybe catch up on some things with you."

Lunis realized that Tono had come to the shop in desperation. Tono was shaking his legs and frantically rubbing his palms against the top of his pants to calm himself down. Though it was strange to see Tono in this condition it did not surprise Lunis. Tono had very recently come into some issues with the law. He was a very attractive young man with plenty of charm and charisma. All of the girls in the town loved him and wanted to be with him, but Tono always had a poor choice in who he chose to bed. He was seen many times in the oracle's cave kissing the daughter of the oracle. Sleeping and having relations with the oracles daughter was considered to be a loathsome transgression. The villages believed in the higher demon Tenzie who could enter into the oracle through his child if his daughter became unpure. His punishment could have been severe but Tono belonged to a wealthy family with money and connections that stretched down for generations. His father hired a great lawyer and was able to bail Tono out of a very severe punishment through a technicality. The oracle's daughter Mirinda did not get out of her crime. She was sentenced to death by beheading and executed just three days prior. The oracle was then given a thirty-day grace period to prove his daughter's death had not ruined his fortune-telling ability by coming up with a prediction that came true. Since the oracle was unable to prove his magical powers due to his grief after his daughter's death, they believed Tenzie had already taken possession of the oracle and thus his death was needed to save the town.

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The beheadings had been messy ordeals since Rono had not had crimes that severely happen for decades. All of the villagers in the town were present save the children and those too old to leave their homes, but they all had heard it. It had taken three swings of the ax to fully behead the oracle since he was a big burly man with a large neck and the ax used was rusty and dull. His screams and blood-curdling gurgles were heard all the way to the end of the village's residential area.

Though Tono had gotten out of the whole ordeal relatively unscathed he was still considered to be the most hated man in the whole village, so much so that Lunis had actually felt the villagers were not paying much attention to him anymore.

"Listen Tono I don't have much against what you did or what happened to you, but the whole village would have your head if the judge allowed it. I just can't have that kind of attention around me and my shop."

"Come on man, I can't go anywhere, my family is kicking me out of the family home, are you going to let me sleep on the streets!"

Lunis gave out a little involuntary laugh knowing that sleeping under the warm stary night in Rono was not really much of punishment in comparison to what the oracle had to endure.

"Please Lunis, I will sweep the floors and clean the privy if it means I will have a place to sleep. I am so alone now Lunis, no one will speak to me, I need someone I can call a friend."

Lunis thought about it for a couple of seconds. The drawback to taking him in is that Lunis will have a target on his back, a target he is used to, but a larger target than he will like. However, he knows he could use Lunis to clean and take care of business around the shop, while he can relax and deepen his magic practice. Perhaps he can even use Tono as a test subject for some of his less practiced and dangerous spells. If he dies no one will be mad at Lunis, if anything they might thank him. Tono also seemed to be willing to do anything to have a place to stay and have a companion so convincing him to take risks would be easy.

Lunis made up his mind to keep him, but he pretended to continue to think. He wanted Tono to feel who was in control of the situation.

"I guess I can take you in, but only if you do as I say."

"Thank you so much Lunis, you will not regret this. I know I have a bad reputation and you probably think I am a spoilt rich imbecile, but I have a lot of skills that could be put to use."

"I am sure you do Tono, you can start right now if you want to."

"Yes, that would be great."

Lunis is feeling really good about the decision he made, but he does not want to show it. If using Tono for his spells works out as planned he might be able to join the mages guild and finally leave this town that hates him so much.