Frank Ebner once wanted to save the world. Let the second one be better than the first.  On Earth he was a student of... well it hardly matters anymore. It was dying, and he and the rest of his fellows and friends studying how to stave off the end graduated just in time to be told it was too late. That there was not enough time, funds, will, to stop it anymore. That the governments and the worthies of the world had moved from trying to stop it, to surviving the oncoming apocalypse, while blaming each other. That was a world Frank wanted nothing to do with. One riven by wars for places in the Archologies going up, and between them and the dying world they were leaving behind. So when a strange voice offered him a way out, to a world unmarred by the poison killing his? Frank took it. The voyage changed him, made him fit his new world, one of stats and magic. It came with perks, for in passing through their Heavens, they'd been exposed to Divinity, and taken some of the Celestial within them.  Heroes now, but there are heroes, and there are Heroes. The nobility of the Empire care only for those who carry blessed bloodlines, and their time to adapt and train up for the new world is limited. Patrons are scarce among those like Frank, with only the base Hero perks, and magic studies expensive and lengthy. Often requiring heavy Oaths to gain the necessary aid to wield mana as a mage.   Frank found another way. It nearly cost him his life. Now on the run and burned by the very magic he sought and craved, he is a pilgrim traveling to the The Eternal Tree, font of Perseverance. Frank hopes Ir-karlak will grant him some way to recover from the fires that scorched him. Without snuffing out the embers those fires lit within, for he has learned to harness them and he would not give up magic for the world.    *** In the last 21 days, as I update this, I've managed about 18-19 updates. So Scorched should update most days, muse willing. She's fickle, sometimes. Not every day, but most. If there's an update for the day, it will be at 7PM, GMT+2. *[participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge] Actually completed it. :) *