A small hand reaches forward towards a hot pot, as a young half-elf boy looks eagerly at the cooking food. With curly navy-blue hair, reddish-brown skin, and deep-sea colored eyes the boy looks forward with innocent bliss. Quickly the hand of his mother snaps forward to stop the boy before he hurts himself.

“Zora! Be careful son. Wait for it to cool off first.” says Rhea Leones, the boy’s human mother. Rhea has an odd powerful, yet warm composure with her sharp grey eyes and long black braided hair. The warmth of the cooking fire glows on her umber brown skin, as Rhea looks down at her son and smiles.

“Alana! Call your brother down to eat.” Rhea calls out, as the spitting image of the mother in the form of a half-elf girl perks up from her reading spot in the corner. Carefully setting down her book so that the old, worn-out frame does not fall apart, Alana rushes to the stairs and yells to the upper floor.

“Nyx! Food is ready!”

“I’m coming!” Nyx calls as the 18-year-old half-elf emerges from his upstairs bedroom and slides down the railing of the wooden staircase with his long ponytail flowing behind him. A curious fellow, the half-elf also takes after his mother’s appearance, however with a very refined poise for such a rustic looking family. The middle part of the back of his dark blue hair is wrapped into a long-braided ponytail reaching down to his waist, tied at the end into a golden star hair clip. Matching the clip are two golden hoop ear piercings, contrasting from the rest of his much plainer attire. Various old and tattered cloth scraps make up his sandy colored tunic, wrapped in a rope belt that dangles tied to his waist. His dark brown pants are even more cut up and ripped seemingly from past scuffles or accidents. Striding across the wooden floor Nyx grabs an apple from a basket of fruit sitting on the table by the fire.

“Thanks for the food ma!”

“I cooked is that all you want to eat?” Rhea asks with Zora in her arms smiling up at his older brother.

“I’ll have some later. I have an early job today!” Nyx says after taking a bite out of his apple. Giving a playful pat on Alana’s head as he walks by, Nyx starts to open a cabinet searching for something inside. He pulls out a roll of gauze and starts to wrap it around his fists and forearm. Knowing that her son goes out every day for the sake of the family, Rhea is grateful. The Leones family lives in the outskirts of Crystalis, the capital of the Crystalis Empire of the elves. The Crystalis Empire is widely considered the strongest nation in all of Dunia. Known for their intelligence and perception, the elves are a highly prideful group who look down on the other races. The capital is the prized gem of the Empire, a strong center of economic, military, and magical power. However, the success that the elves have is at the expense of any of the other races that happen to be living in Alfheim. Having one of the worst disparities between the wealthy and the poor of all cities across the continent, the slums on the outside of Crystalis City are a very difficult place to live. Being a human woman in the most important city of the elves certainly did not help, being why Rhea had to reluctantly rely almost entirely on her son to support the family’s needs.

“Please be careful son.” Rhea says, always concerned with her son’s safety as he leaves for another job, unsure of whether he will never return just like his father years ago.

“Don’t worry I’ll be back soon!” Nyx confidently states as he opens the door and walks outside to feel the cool morning air. After looking around and waiting for a moment where nobody was looking in his direction, Nyx quickly climbs up the wall to the top of his home. A crafty kid, Nyx grew up learning to fend for himself against any elven assailants that had tried to pick on him after finding out about his partial human blood. Many of his skills were taught to him by his father, Faelar.

Faelar was an elven adventurer who was expelled from his status for falling in love with a human woman. The experience he learned in battle and on his journeys had helped him to support his family. Faelar taught Nyx how to silence his footsteps to sneak up and take pies from window sills, how to use the deadly art of throwing rocks to distract guards, and most importantly how to swindle and deceive his way out of most situations. Originally Faelar belonged to a family that shared eagle marks, however after he was caught courting Rhea, a human, Faelar was chased off from the family and had his mark damaged in the process of escaping. Thus, his power was diminished, and the mark was not able to be passed down to any of his children that were born afterwards. Nyx’s mother also has a mark, however being a human peasant, she did not come from a strong bloodline, and it is possible and likely that powers from marks may not be evident in the children of weak parentage. Alana and Zora had been born with small marks which had been starting to develop into the cat mark also found on Rhea. However, Nyx was never blessed with any such mark. Thus, the training and sparring Nyx had gone through with his father were all the more important.

When Nyx was 13 years old, Faelar went missing after being drafted into a military expedition to fight against the Dark Empire which has been slowly sending roaming bands of soldiers to ravage villages across Dunia. While these attacks certainly were important to monitor, they were typically seen as death sentences for generals to send targets to die alone at the hands of the Dark Warriors. Knowing of the taboo for an elf to wed a human, Nyx knew that his father was sentenced to death, which only added to his hatred of the Crystalis Empire.

While Nyx did what he could to help his family survive, his father also taught him to live by a code. Thus, Nyx never took any jobs that would put anyone already disadvantaged at risk or in danger, and only stole from the wealthy elves. Usually he would take petty jobs such as stealing from elven homes at the edge of the city or taking a bit of food here or there in the marketplace. For today’s job however, Nyx would try a much more dangerous task: stealing from a caravan bringing goods from the Coastal Coalition to trade at Sylverwin Keep.

Crystalis City is governed by King Aranel at its head, with advisors chosen from the various noble families that live in the city. One of the strongest of the families is the Sylverwin’s, led by General Castien Sylverwin, the leader of the military of the Crystalis Empire.

Racing across the rooftops, Nyx heads to the center of the city where the noble families live. Sylverwin Keep is notable because of its shining silver stone walls and bright blue stained-glass windows. As the walls of the keep get closer, Nyx starts to slow down his pace and tries more to conceal his presence.

Elven marks are typically tied to pacts to birds, and noble elven families have powers aligned with the skills of birds of prey. The eyes of the highest tier elven warriors are said to be able to perceive an opponent hiding in pure darkness or see an enemy standing up to two miles away. Full of confidence, Nyx was ready for the challenge of having to face stronger elven guards.

“Have all the goods been accounted for?” Nyx hears as he peers over the edge of a rooftop looking down at the gates of Sylverwin Keep. Standing by a horse led caravan is a large, bronze skinned elf clothed in military attire with the royal purple of the Crystalis Empire. His face is shaped by a well-trimmed Klingon beard, juxtaposed by the messy curls of his light brown hair. The falcon mark on his cheek is very defined with its talon-like shape, right beneath his piercing bright amber eyes. The General of the Crystalis army and head of the Sylverwin family himself stands before the entrance to the keep with his guards by his side, speaking to two cloaked figures sitting in the carriage, one larger seemingly male frame and one smaller female body.

“Of course, sir, we double, and triple checked the supplies before we arrived. As previously arranged, we have brought four barrels of the most delicate fruits from Solaris, two crates of the finest wines from Redwater, and a package of magical potions straight from the mystical city of Arcan.” the male hooded figure declares.

“Guards go retrieve the gold to exchange.” Castien commands in his deep, booming voice. The guards quickly rush off to not provoke the general’s short temper.

“Right on time.” Nyx says quietly to himself as he looks down eager to share in the exchange. Without a sound Nyx leaps from his vantage point and lands on his toes into an alley behind the caravan. Sneakily inching forward Nyx reaches the back of the carriage and peeks inside. Sure enough, he can see the goods, just waiting to be picked off. Picking up an empty satchel at the bottom of the carriage, Nyx unties his rope and starts to pick out his treasure.

At the front of the caravan, some of the guards then return carrying a large wooden chest. They set the chest down in front of Castien and it lands with a jingling of coins.

“Here, 500,000 gold.” Castien says as the hooded merchant almost falls out of his chair.

“What?! T-that is double the originally decided upon amount! We did not bring enough goods for that.” the female cloaked merchant exclaims.

“Think of it as extra insurance for your continued support.” Castien says with an ever-stern look in his eyes.

“Askari! Go unload the caravan.” Castien commands an elven girl standing at the side of the guards. Eyes on the beautiful white mane of the horse strapped to the carriage, the girl is stuck in a gaze unaware of Castien’s order.

“Askari!” Castien shouts again after clearing his voice. The girl jumps up and looks to the general.

“Please pay attention.” Castien sighs. “You need to be on alert at all times if you are to take my place one day.”

“Sorry father.” the girl replies, rolling her eyes. Askari Sylverwin is a peculiar looking elf. A striking beauty with the appearance of a princess, Askari shares her father’s brown curly hair and amber eyes, which pair well with the warm glow of her golden-brown complexion. All things considered Askari was a beautiful elven noble. However, any sense of her elegant, regal upbringing was purposely diminished due to her composure. Askari was opposed to living life so structured and planned out. Her time spent running through the forests to avoid her nobility duties was evident in the dirt stuck on her outfit and the sticks and leaves that are caught in her hair. Standing next to her father one could hardly tell the two were even related because of the large disparity in the way they carry themselves. Askari even refused to wear any of the formal attire her father had prepared for her, choosing instead to wear more casual clothing to remove her look of importance. The purple theme was the only thing that she kept, opting to wear a satin crop top and purple dyed leather pants. On top Askari wore a brown cloth vest with matching boots made by herself out of fibers and materials she had found in the forest. The only two things that identified any semblance of her position in the Sylverwin family were the same falcon mark as Castien found below her eyes, and the amethyst pendant that she kept from her mother after she passed away from illness.

“Yes father.” Askari says with a snort after Castien repeats his command. Giving the horse a pat on the mane as she passes by, Askari makes her way to the back of the cart to start unloading the goods.

At the same time inside the cart, Nyx has finished filling his satchel with food and wine. Right as he ties the satchel to his waste using his rope belt, he hears someone speak from behind.

“Um excuse me, what are you doing?” Askari says arms crossed as she looks in from outside the cart. Nyx freezes for a moment, then regains his composure turning around to face the young elven woman.

“Oh uhm… I got sent back here as extra help to unload all these crates.” Nyx chuckles nervously as he scratches the back of his head. Askari is not amused.

“Yeah right... I’m not sure if you’re dumb, brave, or both but this is the Sylverwin Keep. If you don’t know anything about us then at least know that our eyes don’t miss anything, and I can definitely tell that you aren’t fully elven. My father would never hire help from a human. Not that I care.”

“Yeah, yeah you caught me. Well look, you can probably tell that my family and I need this food much more than yours does. I don’t really think the big guy over there would miss it much.”

“Honestly, I don’t care. Go ahead, just be quick.” Askari says as she blankly stares at the sky waiting for Nyx to climb out of the cart.

“Well that was easier than I thought it would be! Guess I should be off then.” Nyx says as he raises his hand to say goodbye. Sensing movement not belonging to his daughter’s, Castien squints his eyes as he stands on the other side of the cart.

“Ari what is taking so long?” Castien questions with a look of suspicion in his eyes.

“Shit.” Ari mutters under her breath. “Oh, it’s nothing father! There was just this big nasty rat inside the cart. Giving her a look of playful hurt, Nyx drops outside the cart and begins to take a step away towards the alley. Instantly, Castien’s eyes begin to glow with a golden magical aura.

“Falcon Mark: Peregrinus Eye!” Castien shouts as the aura around him grows in intensity. The rest of his surroundings start to move in slow motion, as Castien places a mental target on the flash of brown cloth he saw for just a second moving away from the caravan. Magical power spreads throughout Castien as his body tenses up. To the rest of the people nearby who have not been trained in the magic of falcon marks, this all happens in the blink of an eye. Askari can just barely catch a glimpse of it, as the aura around her father takes form into the shape of a pair of wings, and her father quickly soars through the air towards Nyx.

Not even knowing he was seen, suddenly Nyx feels a hand at his throat as his back hits the wall behind him. Coughing up blood, Nyx looks up to see the powerful claws of General Castien holding him up in the air. The aura surrounding the general is so strong that it feels like a fire that causes Nyx’s body to sweat.

“Ah yes, a rat indeed. What’s a little half-elven scum doing here?” Castien inquires. Nyx gathers himself and spits blood into Castien’s face.

“Oh, sir overlord I was just admiring your vast wealth and riches.” Nyx remarks with a smirk. Castien wipes the blood off his face with one hand and tightens his grip on Nyx’s neck with the other.

“Yes, I’m sure you were, peasant. You should be ashamed for even forcing me to taint my hands by touching your filth. Guards! Let’s put this mutt in a cell. Askari please finish unloading the cargo from the Coastal Coalition merchants.” The guards quickly surround Nyx and help carry him into the gates of Sylverwin Keep. 

♦♦♦