Miles away, an old horse-drawn stagecoach came to a sudden halt.

"Whoa, did you just see that?", the young boy inside of the coach asked the driver.

"By Freya's saggy tits, you're damn right I saw that! The entire fucking continent probably saw that! What the hell was that?", the driver, a middle-aged man with stubby beard and shoulder-long, black hair blurted out in shock. His attire made him look no different from the usual coach driver, simple leather armour and a long, black cape, though the sword at his belt, together with the throwing knives hidden at various places on his body would tell a different story.

"Beats me. But wasn't Edenia supposed to be visible from here? I can't find it anywhere.", the child asked, a hint of worry in his voice.

"This can't be good... Alright then, grab onto something, kid, I'm about to kick it up a notch! you don't mind arriving a day or two early in Caelum now do ya?", the driver yelled into the cart.

"Of course not, and stop calling me kid, I have a name. What if I call you geezer from now on, Uncle Lye?", the child answered with an annoyed expression.

"Hey, just because I know your folks doesn't mean you can be sassy with me, Corvo. And by the way, I'm just 35, no reason to call me old yet, ya hear?"

Before the child could come up with a retort, Lye snapped the reigns in his hands and the speed of the coach doubled abruptly, causing Corvo to bump his head on the back wall of the chariot.

"Hey, that hurt!", he cries out, rubbing the back of his head while blinking away the tears forming at the corners of his eyes.

"Serves ya right, I told you grab onto something. Now quit whining, at this speed we'll make it before the sun sets.", Lye shouts back and they continue on their way to Caelum.

Paul Lye, a Scoundrel during his mercenary days, a specialization of the rogue-class which excels in the bypassing and creation of traps, locks, and explosives, though now a humble merchant. He was once part of the same mercenary party as Corvo's parents, and had promised them that he would take the boy, who had just become 11 years old not too long ago, safely to Merdelum's holy capital, Caelum, as it was the city in which he was to attend the Rouclier military-academy, in which he would receive a formal education and basic combat- and survival-training. There were two reasons for this choice, with the first being that Corvo had dreamed of becoming a mercenary ever since he had first listened to his father's stories of his own mercenary days, and the second being his childhood friend Sean Riddar, who had moved to Caelum one year prior and attended the same academy. Sean's father had been part of the same mercenary group before becoming a guardsman, and thus agreed to take in Corvo until he was accepted, as he would move into the dormitories of the academy afterwards.

When Corvo's parents allowed him to go and told him that they saved up enough money over the years, he became so excited that he was not able to sleep for 2 days, even though they had told him that he was not going to be able to enroll until he was 11 years old. His best friend Sean, who was a year older than him, had already started to attend the academy, and wrote him letters about his experiences there. From his correspondence with Sean, he found out what the entrance exam for the academy entailed, so he had already prepared himself for what was to come. Despite this, feelings of doubt started to gnaw at him.

'What if I won't be able to become a mage? Will I still be able to attend, or will I have to return home and become a farmer? I can barely even lift a spade.', and other similar thoughts raced through his mind, while the coach sped across the thankfully dry dirt road. After a while, the coach started to lose its speed, which ripped Corvo out of his thoughts. Just as he wanted to ask if there was something else wrong, Lye already yelled out the answer.

"Hey, boy! Look out the window, we're almost there!"

Just as Lye said, the stagecoach was nary a mile away from Caelum, the residence of the luminary of the Ardent Path, and therefore the of the entire religion. Massive, white walls surrounded the city which lied at the foot of the Nuage mountain-range, with only the spires of the Temple of Light peeking out from behind the walls, as no building was allowed to be built taller than the temple itself. Three main gates where built into the city walls, two of which seemed to have been completely closed off, as a several mile long queue had formed in front of the one they were headed to.

"Eugh, I hate waiting in line. Oi, kid, we're gonna cut the line and drive directly to the gate! I'll go have a talk with the guards and see what I can do, so stay inside the coach!" the driver yelled and drove past the line much to the dismay of those who watched them.

As the coach came to a halt, Corvo could hear someone outside angrily yell something in a language he had never heard before, which made him stick his head out of one of the windows. Next to the stagecoach, a small bald man clad in heavy, white armour over which he had thrown a black tabard adorned with the white cross of Order, who was sporting a magnificent, intricately woven red beard, was angrily talking to a younger, red-haired dwarf, who had yet to grow a beard and was wearing a light-grey robe which reminded Corvo of the one the priest in his village was wearing. Corvo had heard of dwarves from stories his father used to tell him of his adventuring days, but he had never seen one in the flesh. Before he could get back in his seat, the older dwarf noticed him and approached his window.

"Oi, cad é sin? Abair le do tiománaí faoi cheannas ingne fanacht i líne!", the red bearded dwarf ranted about angrily.

"...what?", answered Corvo in confusion.

"Sorry lad, me pa ain't comfortable in conversing in Common yet. He 'politely' asked to tell yer driver ta wait in line like we all do. He can get a bit heated during times like this.", the son chimed in, putting a mocking emphasis on the word 'politely'.

"Oh, I see. Sorry, Uncle Lye-... I mean, my driver just wanted to find out what was going on here. Why is there a line forming in front of only one entrance anyway?" Corvo asked.

"Hrmph, an bhfuil sé dall nó rud éigin?", the angry dwarf mumbled into his beard while kicking away a stone on the road.

"Athair, bíodh níos mó tuisceana agat, níl an duine seo ach thart ar leath mo aois féin!" the young dwarf sighed deeply, before making a shushing gesture at his father.

"Hrm, well, ye probably saw that flash in tha sky mere hours ago, did ye? Apparently, whatever it was, it took the flying city with it!", the young dwarf explained.

"What? How? Wasn't Edenia supposed to be invincible?", Corvo yelled out in surprise.

"That's what everyone thought til now. We heard most cities shut their gates after the flash, likely outta fear of whatever took the flying city out. Truly annoying if ye ask me, seeing as we'll not make it if things don't speed up.", the dwarf concluded with another sigh.

"Hey, kid, didn't I tell ya to stay inside?", the voice of Lye suddenly rang out, causing Corvo and the dwarves to look at him. He returned with what looked like one of Caelum's guards, a soldier in metal plate armour which used his spear like a walking cane while approaching the coach.

"Aren't those the dwarves that called me a... what was it again? Ceann ingne? A nail-head, is it? Breathnú ar do chuid féin ceann, fear maol."

Upon hearing that his insults had not only been heard and understood by someone other than a dwarf but also answered with another, the anger visibly drained from the formerly irate dwarf's face and was replaced with curiosity. However, before he could inquire any further on where he had learned these words, as the dwarven language was considered quite hard to learn, Lye had already turned back to Corvo.

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"Never mind that, you see, my old pal Laurence here owes me a favour, so we can cut in front without having to wait all day and night to get in. Ain't that right, Laurence?", he laughed while slapping the guard, Laurence, on his back, who did not look as amused as Lye did, quite the opposite.

"Yeah, yeah, just make sure to look important once you get there, if my boss finds out about this he's gonna kill me!", the guard stated nervously.

"Not if your wife finds out about what you do behind her back first, my friend.", Lye whispered barely audibly to himself while jumping back on the coach, with Laurence following shortly after.

"Fan, Brom, cad atá ar siúl anseo?", the red bearded dwarf asked, confused about why the coach started to move towards the gate.

Before Corvo could hear the other one answer, which would then cause the red bearded dwarf to grow even angrier than before, they were already out of earshot and on their way into the city.

Corvo, who grew up in Serena, a small village south of Caelum, had never been to a big city before. The view outside of the coach was overwhelming. Countless tall buildings made of bricks cramped next to each other along paved streets of cobblestone, countless of people walking throughout the city, even though the day already approached late evening, and troops of guards which made their way towards the city walls. He leaned out of the window, and, at the end of the road, he could see what looked like an enormous pentagonal-shaped church with a bell-tower built into each corner, massive coloured windows, and spiked walls, the Temple of Light. Hidden between the normal buildings of the city, he made out shop signs indicating all kinds of businesses, some of which he recognized as being food stores, weapon sellers, and other similar shops, others being specialized in goods and services he could not make heads or tails of, one of them having three cards carved into its shop sign, and another where the shop sign depicted a heart with a golden coin inside of it.

"Mr. Lye, what is that shop on the left side of the street for? You know, the one with the heart on the sign?", he asked out loud, unintentionally drawing the looks of bystanders towards the coach. "Hm? Ohhhh..., that one... uhm, you know what? Why don't you ask Mike or Silv about it once we get to them? You're going to stay with them for a while, won't ya?", Lye responded awkwardly, causing some of the people around them, who had listened in on their conversation to quietly snicker.

"Okay?", Corvo answered, unsure of what to make with the suggestion of Lye.

"Whatever, we're there, boy! Get your things, I need to park the coach!", Lye yelled out while the coach started to slow to a halt.

Corvo excitedly grabbed his luggage, three leather sacks filled with clothes, some money, and some of his favourite books, and jumped out of the coach, which Lye parked the coach in front of the entrance to an alley. Corvo marvelled at the magic crystals inside of lanterns which were placed on tall poles, as they slowly started to glow brighter and brighter. "Eh, looks like we barely made it. Once those lights go on, the city is closed off and you have to pay quite the sum to get em to open em again. Whatever, let's get going!", Lye said and made his way through the alley. They walked a short distance until Lye turned to the right and knocked at the green door in front of him.

"Who could it be at this hour?", a familiar female voice sounded out from inside the building.

"Oi, open up Silv! It's Paul, I'm dropping off Corvo!", Lye yelled out, annoyed by how long it took for the owner of the house to open the door. Not long after, the door opened and revealed a woman in her mid-30s with long, blond hair wearing a light-blue nightgown. Her light green eyes fixated Lye, seemingly annoyed by the rude behaviour of the man standing before her, but once her gaze fell upon Corvo, it immediately started to light up.

"Corvo! It's been so long! Have you grown taller since the last time I saw you? How was your journey? Did Paul here give you a hard time?", she asked while pulling Corvo into an embrace, adding more and more questions before letting him answer.

"I'm fine, thanks Auntie Silvia!", Corvo answered, slightly embarrassed about the hug.

" 'Nice to see you too, Paul! How's the wife and kids?' ", Lye asked himself loudly while mockingly emulating Silvia Riddar's voice.

"Oh, hush you!", the woman answered with a smirk while letting go of Corvo.

"By the way, weren't you two supposed to arrive in the next two days? And how did you get past the blockade?", she asked, with a hint of concern in her voice.

"Let's talk about that inside, shall we?", Lye answered, and all three of them entered the house.

They entered a big room, which was a hybrid of kitchen, living room, and dining room, with a staircase opposite of the entrance to the building which led to what Corvo believed to be where the bedroom was. Left of the staircase was another door, which Silvia explained to be one of two bathrooms in the building, the second one being upstairs. The room was decorated with a few small paintings depicting landscapes and a vase filled with fresh flowers, which stood on a small table next to the entrance. The left half of the room was used as a living room area, the right half was furnished for cooking and dining. In the living room area where four chairs placed around a table in front of a small fireplace, which illuminated the room together with a small light crystal, which was placed on the other half of the room on the dinner table. Left of the fireplace was a large wooden bookcase filled with all kinds of books, to its right was a larger wooden dresser with several small compartments. The only windows in the room where to the left and right of the entrance door, and next to the kitchen stove. The room looked no different to Corvo than the old house of his friend's family, the only difference being that the room looked smaller than the one in their old home, but not small to a point where it felt cramped.

Silvia Riddar motioned Corvo and Lye to sit down in front of the fireplace while she made them a cup of tea. "So, what do you want answered first?" Lye inclined while crossing his legs and placing them on the table in front of him.

"How did you get through the blockade? Mike told me that they would not let anyone without urgent business they needed to attend to inside of the city. Also, get your dirty shoes off of the table!", she yelled out annoyed by Lye's lack of manners.

"Oh, sorry. Merchants and rouges are one and the same when it comes to connections, ya know. Let's just say I have my ways. On a different note, why exactly is the city locked up? Edenia floats around all over the place, maybe they accidentally miscast a spell and just landed on the other side of the world, not really a reason to make a big fuss about, if you ask me.", Lye asked while begrudgingly taking his feet off the table.

"That's the point, Mike told me Edenia did not just disappear, it exploded! I thought lightning had struck near the house when I saw the light shine through my window!", she responded while placing a metal tray with cups and a teapot in front of them, after which she started pouring each of them a cup of tea.

"You sure about it being an explosion? Could be the light of large-scale teleportation for all we now!", Lye replied and downed the tea he was offered in one gulp. Corvo took small sips of his own while he listened to the conversation with growing interest.

"Apparently it was, according to my husband, as scouts had found an enormous hole they had never seen before in the place where Edenia had disappeared, and countless of trees in the area had been uprooted. They even said that they had found corpses of magi and even some metal dragons in the area!", she explained with worry in her voice.

"Fuck me, even metal dragons got knocked out by that? What the hell's going on out there? If even those haughty snobs in their sky-castle didn't stand a chance, we might be in bigger shit than we can imagine!", Lye blurted out, shocked by what he had heard.

"LANGUAGE!", Silvia shouted while glowing daggers at Lye and subtly nodding in Corvo's direction.

"Sheesh, sorry, that just got me by surprise. Whatever, I got to make some preparations, this could mean quite some profit, if ya know what I mean. Thanks for the tea Silv! Take care, kiddo! Next time I see ya you'd better be a hot-shot mage like your old man!", Lye said his goodbyes and went for the door.

"Bye, Paul, take care, and greet your wife for me, will you?", Silvia said, to which Lye responded with a quick two-finger salute before leaving the building and closing the door behind him.

"Well, Corvo, Sean won't be back from the academy until tomorrow, which is when his vacation starts. Come, I'll show you where you will stay until the day you enrol. Tomorrow we will buy you an uniform and all the books and items you're going to need. I know that you won't need these things for two months but getting them early makes it less likely that we forget something!", she explained while rising from her chair and motioning towards the staircase.

"Okay, and thanks for the tea!", Corvo replied and followed her upstairs.

There were 3 rooms upstairs, 2 on the left and one on the right. The one on the right, as she had told him, was the master bedroom, which belonged to her and her husband. The first on the left was the upstairs bathroom, and the last one next to it was Seans room, which he would share with him once he returned from the academy. They both wished each other a good night and Corvo entered his new, temporary sleeping place.

Seans room looked just as it did back in Serena, with the only difference being a writing desk next to the door and a small field-bed with a mattress on the wall opposite of the Seans bed, which Corvo assumed to be his new bed until the day he enrolled. A small wooden chest had been placed in front of it, in which he decided to place his leather bags, and he started to feel the exhaustion of the events of the day starting to catch up to him. He decided upon emptying his bags the next day, took of his clothes and went straight to bed. Seconds later, sleep took over and he sunk into the world of dreams.