In the city of Rune, where the streets echoed with the clink of steel and the whispers of treachery, a boy named Kael grew up amid the shadows and smoke of a realm steeped in corruption. Orphaned at birth, he was left swaddled in rags on the cold steps of the Silent Monastery, a refuge for lost souls nestled within the towering walls of Rune's central district.
From a tender age, Kael learned the harsh lessons of survival. The monastery’s stern caretakers, known as the Silent Brothers, drilled discipline into the orphans like him. Each day dawned with the clanging of bells, signaling the beginning of another routine of chores and lessons in swordplay or rhetoric—skills meant to sharpen both mind and body for the cutthroat world beyond.
Yet, it was not within the hallowed halls of the monastery where Kael truly grasped the essence of Eldoria’s soul. It was in the bustling marketplace, where merchants and thieves alike haggled over every copper coin, that he witnessed the true nature of power in this realm.
Currency flowed through Rune’s veins like blood through a warrior’s heart. Gold dragons minted in the royal treasury, stamped with the visage of a hawk-eyed king, commanded respect and fear. Silver stags, stamped with the sigils of noble houses, exchanged hands swiftly, their value fluctuating with the whispers of courtly intrigue. Even copper fenigs, the lowest denomination, bore the weight of livelihood for many—a currency of survival in the grime-laden alleys where beggars clutched at fleeting hope.
Kael, with his sharp eyes and quicker wit, learned to navigate this labyrinth of wealth and poverty. He sold small trinkets pilfered from the monastery’s stores to street vendors, earning a few meager coins that he squirreled away in a hidden pouch beneath his tunic. He observed the dance of power played out daily between the guildmasters and nobles, whose silken cloaks concealed hearts blackened by ambition.
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The market was not merely a place of commerce but a stage where the drama of Rune’s politics unfolded. Behind the facade of jovial bartering and hearty laughter, whispered alliances were forged and broken. Dark figures lurked in the shadows, their eyes alight with the promise of profit or vengeance.
One such figure, a lean man with a scar across his cheek and a cloak the color of dried blood, caught Kael’s attention one fateful afternoon. The man’s fingers danced across a map spread out on a makeshift table, tracing routes that snaked through treacherous terrain. His voice, low and gravelly, promised wealth beyond imagination to a group of eager listeners—mercenaries, Kael guessed, judging by the ruggedness of their attire and the hardness etched into their faces.
"This Route through the Valley of Anteros is the way of the **True** Equilibrium, Listen to me Daan you won't regret it if you take your goods through here"
As Kael watched, unnoticed in the crowd, he felt a stirring deep within him. It was not fear that clenched his heart but a hunger—a hunger for more than the scraps of life tossed to him by fate. He yearned for the power to shape his own destiny, to rise above the squalor of the monastery and claim a place among the kings and warlords whose names echoed through Eldoria’s history like thunder on a stormy night.
With a silent vow etched upon his soul, Kael waited for the crowd to lessen before the young boy approached the scarred man now identified as Turning a Guard of gold
"Money, how can I get money?"
Kael spoke in a quivering tone his thin hands and breathless hushed voice spoke poverty through and through
"Run along lad I don't have time for y-" Turning was cut off by a single bronze coin being slammed onto the table
"I-ill pay for it so t-tell me" Kael really did know the way of the market Turning left out a hearty laugh as he spoke in a intrigued tone
"To get money you need power kid now move along" he said trying to turn away and back toward the caged parrot he had behind him on a rusty shelf but a small voice once again interrupted his movements
"How do I get...power?" The Boy Spoke, Turning knew...This one was different, Very Different