--- KOLEN, YEAR 793 ---
It was a strange amount of twists in Kolen’s life that led him where he was now.
At first, he’d seen his life as nothing more than a constant struggle, always one step ahead of those who were willing to report him, or recruit him, or… well anything. He’d failed at that, and then he’d seen his life as impossible. Trying to impress a lot of artificers? No thank you.
After that… well he’d seen himself as dead for sure, but by meer chance he’d been saved. Kolen still wasn’t sure of Netun held a grudge at him for manipulating him like that, but Kolen was fairly sure at this point that the strange mushroom hadn’t even noticed.
The following years were both stressful and absolutely amazing. Kolen had expected himself to keep failing, but keeping his identity as a Yeran secret? Well that was almost too easy. It was far more difficult to keep people from realizing he couldn’t sleep anymore than realizing where all his technical knowledge came from. Most assumed him a prodigy—just like back home—and so Kolen had continued onward, hardly even making any waves as he released his products to the world.
But after that? Well he should have realized that eventually someone would come knocking, wondering where all these inventions were coming from. A crystal that will record your voice? A crystal that can contact its other half across practically any distance?
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It was unheard of.
The following time was the worst of all of them combined. After they’d found him Kolen had hardly even been capable of walking. They’d beat him, ask him questions and then beat him again.
It was really a miracle that he’d even survived, let alone gotten out of the situation. But one day his captors simply packed up their things and… left. Leaving Kolen there to be found once again by Netun.
Kolen was just glad to be alive honestly.
He sighed, picking up a page on the news and raising an eyebrow at the headline. ‘The Reiaran Ayfel, calling for eligible teachers!’ He read on, his eyebrows raising higher and higher with each sentence. They’d finally made something better for the younger generation, eh?
Kolen shook his head slowly and turned the page, reading another headline, ‘migratory mountain sits down on a village! Is your home next?’ he shook his head at the wild claims about mount Beial, and flipped to another one. The rest of the articles consisted of political drivel, but Kolen didn’t care much about that.
Finally, he turned the paper over and read the back, the biggest article proclaiming that magical crystal sales were going up again. His eyes finally tracked to the very last article on that page and it had him blinking. ‘Local genius uses movement crystals to make an automatic wagon.’
Kolen stared at the article for several moments before shoving it in his pocket and rushing to the door, intent on tracking down this woman.