With no friends nor family to speak of, young Sein salvaged scraps from the garbage. He clutched thin blankets to his shivering body, hiding from thralls in a dark alleyway.

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     In the Holy City, protection came for a price; The Church only saved those who benefitted them. In their eyes, a child who has nothing to give and can only take is better off dead.

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     However, there was something the Church valued above all else. Sein learned to burn others' lives to extend his own. Be it bribery, blackmail, or spying on the Church's enemies, no information was sacred. How many lives he destroyed? It hardly mattered. They were all doomed, helpless under this apocalyptic sky. The Holy City was but a jungle of haves and have-nots.

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     It was an expedition like any other, darkness gripping his skin like a fog. Like a mole through its tunnels, he wove through desolate woods with ease.

     I despise humans that stick their noses where they don't belong.

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     Clack, clack, clack... his soles echoed against the marble floor. His hand traced a dulled rail ascending the stairway. Higher and higher, the haze began to clear. What on earth lied at the top?

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     A spiraling catacomb, books and scrolls crammed in every corner. Each held a lost history, as though carefully chronicled by someone. This building was once worshipped as the temple of Minerva.

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     Within oceans of long-forgotten truth, a worn tome stood boldly in its center. It must have been read countless times, judging by the frayed edges... Yes, this book detailed the law of this world: The cause of the Darkover Phenomenon.

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    Young Sein, as though entranced, lifted it from its pillar. The script unintelligible, somehow its meaning seared into his mind. "If this is true... If this is true, it could save everyone-!"

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   ...How could one hope to understand after a few minutes with a book? Such human-like naivety.

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    Sein was never quite the same. A woman with silver hair watched him hole up in his room with something that resembled concern. No amount of struggle could pry the words from his throat--No one would ever know the truth in that tower.

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     The poor Sein drifted through his day-to-day, hoping to distract himself from the shackle clamped around his wrist. He cursed fate and hope itself, knowing he would never be free. Someone who would crush a man's spirit for their own interests...

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    Must be a truly terrible person.