Chapter 1
Introductions

Tobias Vulcos placed one hand on the railing of Helios' only blacksmith after a day of work and pulled himself up into the air. Effortlessly, he flipped over the railing, landing well pass the meager three stairs that one would have had to walk down normally, and landed expertly on his feet. This is Tobias' way, why would he walk down the three stairs when he could have more fun taking a less expected route.

After he landed, he ran a hand across his forehead, wiping his sandy blonde hair out of his blue eyes. He quickly patted at his trouser's pocket, eyes widening in shock when the boy realized that one of his most prized positions was missing. Tobias dropped to his knees, searching the ground around the shop, and was relieved when he saw pearls reflecting the sunlight. The necklace went back into his pocket, his fingers gently rubbing it. He glanced up and down the street, looking for any who may have seen his acrobatic display, followed by his embarrassing search, both relieved and disappointed when he saw no one watching. That was not too surprising, with the size of Helios' it wasn't common to have a street full of passerby's. He sighed, shrugged, and started walking in the direction of his house, looking for someone to talk to.

The shop that Tobias had just left was ran by his grandfather, Argus Vulcos, the man who primarily raised Tobias since he was just a boy. Argus was elderly, but still insisted he was in well enough shape to run the forge. The railing was installed last year to ease Argus' ascent and descent, and the man occasionally winced on his way in, but no one could deny that his talent hadn't left him yet. Working together, as family, they had finished all of the jobs that the residents of their backwater little town of Helios had. They had repaired some horseshoes for the Mules', built a couple of knickknacks that old lady Henderson had been pestering them about and finished up crafting a few fresh swords for Rhonin, the dwarf in charge of town security, to use during guard duty. Tobias left the blacksmith, happy to be out early and desperately hoping that no new requests came in tonight, so that he wouldn't have any need to go to work tomorrow. He loved helping his grandfather, but he loved being able to sleep in even more. Waking up early was not one of Tobias' favorite things.

The walk to Tobias' home was a short one; it would take most people no more than five minutes. For Tobias, it took him more than triple that. Every step he found himself stopping to strike up a conversation with the locals who headed out of the storefronts to talk to Tobias. The potter even let an earthenware jug spin unattended on her wheel to come and speak with the young man. Tobias loved small talk. He talked about the weather, business at the shop, the health of various villagers' family members, and the latest pillowcase he finished sewing; he left out the fact that the case was very lopsided. He did not inherit his mother's sewing abilities. By the time the young man had made it inside, Argus was already tending to the fire in their cozy little home, despite the fact that Argus was cleaning up the shop still when Toby left. Argus knew his grandson and his ways, and always let Tobias leave work before everything was completed, so that they would get back at roughly the same time.

"Go wash up for supper, boy." Argus said as he threw another log on the fire, stirring the coals and embers into a sturdy blaze. Tobias' response was a grin and quick thumbs up before he ran into the other room, leaving his grandfather smiling and deep in thought. He knew it would be best for Tobias to be raised by his parents, and of course Argus missed his son and daughter-in-law, but given the circumstances, Argus believed he did a pretty good job. As lucky as Tobias was to have his grandfather in his life, Argus knew that he was even luckier to have Tobias in his.

Grobrunk Krognak's impressive muscles strained as he pulled the deer carcass the last couple of yards he needed to until he arrived at his butcher shop. He grunted a low guttural noise that told his parents that he was home, and threw the animal's body up on the table. He was quite proud with himself for getting this deer, and he found himself admiring the stag's size and strength, not to mention its impressive rack. It was a great hunt and with the amount of meat on it, he would have a plentiful amount to sell to the residents of the town. It symbolized everything Grobrunk wanted in his life; a challenging day followed by some good old fashioned hard work.

Grobrunk had dark hair and even darker eyes. Most of the town knew him to be kind to children and slow to anger. Only during battle and hunting did his eyes sparkle with excitement. Grobrunk was only twenty-two years of age, but as a half-orc, he aged much faster than other races and was well into his maturity. He was tall and muscular, just the way his race was meant to be. He did his family proud.

Grobrunk lived with his parents on the outskirts of Helios in a small cabin still nestled in the boughs of the pine forest. He didn't necessarily feel at home with the rest of the townsfolk. Everyone was always very kind to his family, but he always felt as though the mostly human community was excluding his kin. But his parents insisted that they were valued members of the town, or at least were before their age forced them to spend most days inside, leaving Grobrunk to hunt and manage their shop. He didn't mind, it was his duty and his honor to be of help.

As Grobrunk was skinning his newest quarry, he noticed that his father was standing in the doorway. Without a word, Grobrunk knew what he wanted. "Yes, delivery to Rhonin. I know." He grunted without stopping his work. His father nodded and left Grobrunk alone to work on the stag. As the elder Krogruk Krognak departed, he smiled in obvious satisfaction, believing that he has raised a good strong lad.

Rhonin Silverhammer was the only dwarf who lived in Helios. He came roughly a decade ago, claiming that he wanted to help fortify the town from the harsh winters. Soon after he joined the militia, he rose through the ranks until his seasoned advice led him to be Captain of the Guard. He put an end to the surprising high number of dangers that living in this area brought. Since Rhonin arrived, attacks had decreased and fatalities were very few and far between. To combat the boredom that settled over the dwarf once patrols were not needed daily, Rhonin had opened up a tavern for the town, after all, what was a dwarf without a place to drink and carouse?

Rhonin also had a small altar set up to worship Mordain, the Stonefather. It was the only form of public worship that existed in Helios; most people just said their devotions in the privacy of their own home. Grobrunk was due to bring the tavern's weekly delivery of meat today.

His thoughts drifted away as he grabbed his meat cleaver and started going through his trained motions to get the most meat from the stag. Grobrunk smiled. Life on the frontier was good to him.

Eli Stoneroot twisted his body, straining against his father and his brothers grasp. The four men's angry faces leered down at the boy, terrifying him.

"Did you think we wouldn't find out? Did you think you could run around behind our back to practice that deviltry?" His father yelled, spit flying. Pa Stoneroot had dirt brown hair coupled with beady little eyes. The middle aged man was rounded in the middle, evident by the empty ale flagons around and starting to bald, but he was far more muscular than Eli. This, added on with the fact that Eli also had three older brothers, who all inherited their fathers looks, caused his straining to be in vain. He couldn't get out of their grip.

Eli came from a family of farmers. They were, for the most part, what one would expect a family of farmers to be: illiterate, chewing on pieces of wheat, and abusive. He hated them. The only member of his family he had any respect for had been his grandfather, but he died when Eli was just a kid.

Elijah, Eli's grandfather, whom he was named after, was training to become a mage. He had minor mastery over arcane powers, and unfortunately he pushed his limited understanding too far one day. A spell he was attempting to cast had backfired, instantly killing Elijah. This tragedy occurred during a patrol prior to Rhonin's arrival to the town. Elijah had attempted to summon a wall of flame to stop whatever attacked his group, but the spell instead engulfed him. Eli always wanted to train as a mage, to pay respect to his grandfather, but Elijah had been the only student of the arcane arts in Helios. Eli never had anyone or anything to learn from, except for a few notes and journals that his grandfather had left behind. Elijah's limited understanding was evident when reading the papers, most of the notes were nonsense and the number of errors in them was outstanding.

No one to learn from that is, until two years ago when a mysterious woman named Jhoira had moved to the town and built herself a mage tower. The people of Helios did not know what caused this tattoo covered woman to move to their little town. At first, there was a lot of distrust but she took it upon herself to head to Trail's End, the city closest to Helios in order to deal with the trading of goods. She always brought new wonders back to the citizens, so they had accepted her. It didn't' hurt that Jhoira's well-placed thunderbolts and other wizardly powers kept monsters at bay.

Most of them had accepted her, but not all.

The Stoneroots, with the exception of Eli, hated the woman. She brought foreign, unreliable powers to this town, and they were certain she was running from something, or someone. They didn't trust her, and wanted no contact with her. Eli, however, for the past couple months had been training with Jhoira in the mysteries of the arcane. He thought he was secretive enough, but someone had tipped off his family. And they were not happy about it.

"Give him a reminder of who he is!" One of Eli's brothers shouted. In the scuffle, he wasn't sure which. However, his father nodded, and let go of his son. Eli thought this was his chance, and once again tried to get away, but it was of no use. His brothers all were muscular from their work on the farm and Eli would never be able to out power them. Eli turned his head in time to see his father grab the branding rod and hold it up to the fire. He turned to Eli, and grimaced.

"You need to learn what it means to be a Stoneroot."

"Hey, more ale over here Cara!" A drunkard at Rhonin's tavern, aptly named "Rhonin's" yelled.

The barmaid in question was a stunning young woman. She had the thick reddish brown hair of her human father couple with the delicate bones and violet eyes of her eladrin mother. Her skin was fair and her complexion was always perfect. Cara had recently turned twenty-three and had finally lost all of the awkwardness of adolescence and truly grown into the body of a woman.

Cara Sypher sighed slightly before turning around with a grin on her face. "Right away, sir." Just think of the coins, Cara thought to herself. Every copper piece you make here is a step closer to being able to leave this hell hole.

It was midafternoon; the majority of the town was still working or getting ready for their evening. The tavern was bare, but Cara knew that as the night progressed it would be full of townsfolk looking to forget their troubles or at least share them with someone else. Cara also knew that one of the Stoneroot boys was working as the hired muscle for the night, which meant plenty of tips for her, since he wouldn't be working again.

Rhonin had decided he needed a bouncer after a couple of drunken fights had gotten a little too out of hand. After replacing his front door for the fourth time, Rhonin decided some help was in order. The bouncers rarely had to intercede but Cara was usually grateful when they did. She smiled when she thought about how Tobias, who worked the busiest nights, brought a staff with him to break up the fights, since he caused less damage with the weapon than he did with his bare hands. Tobias learned this the hard way, after he threw a drunken instigator through the front door, causing Rhonin to replace it for his fifth time.

Cara poured the drink and started to head over to her table, smoothing the wrinkles out of her apron with her free hand. Cara set the drink in front of the man, whose name she had purposefully forgotten, and as she turned to go back towards the kitchen, the man slapped her ass and laughed. She bit her lip, thinking of the coins, and let her mind drift away from this place. She began to think of her mother, mere thoughts of her always cheered Cara up.

Cara's mother died when she was just a child. Cara and Tobias were both being watched by Lyra the Wild, an elderly elf who kept watch over the many diverse children of Helios while their parents saw to their professions. Lyra took this time to care for the children and also educate them in the basics of language and numbers. She served as one part nanny, one part teacher. Cara's memory of her mother was very hazy, but just thinking of her mother caused a warm glow to fill her spirit. She felt more at peace just by thinking of her beauty, strength, and kindness.

After the drunken man left, and Cara was wiping down a table, she noticed Rhonin coming out of the kitchen and getting ready to leave. The dwarf had his full set of armor on, Moradin's holy symbol around his neck and his golden two-handed warhammer strapped to his back, despite the fact that he had no plans to leave town. Cara often teased the dwarf about it, but Rhonin only responded by saying that he'd rather have it and not need it than the other way around.

"That Stoneroot boy sent me a message, said he was sick or some garbage," Rhonin grumbled. "Good fer nothing Stoneroots… goin' to go get Toby to fill in." Without waiting for a response from the half-elf, Rhonin was gone.

"Great." Cara mumbled to herself while she cleaned up. "There's goes my chances of making anything tonight."

"I thought you and Toby were friends?" Rebecca Henderson said from the counter. With a wink she added, "Maybe even more than friends, if you can believe the town gossip."

"Oh, just you wait." Cara said, choosing to ignore the second part of her comment. She had fought against that rumor more times than she needed to; she had arrived at the point where it was easier to just let it be. Besides, if one protests too much it almost makes the gossip true. "I guarantee he'll be here no more than five minutes before scaring away most of my clientele."