Chapter 1: Awake
Somewhere in forgotten ruins situated on a desolate plain devoid of life, a young man was lying on a cold, stone floor.
He would be considered handsome, tall and athletic as he was, but he was currently covered in soot, ash and grime. His short hair, normally golden and thick, was now full of dirt, clumped together and stuck to his forehead.
His clothes, while not particularly flashy, were of good quality: a grey cotton shirt underneath a black coat, thick linen trousers held by a belt with a metal clasp and leather shoes.
The man was lying motionless until a ray of light hit his face, and then he stirred.
***
Calen felt like shit, to put it lightly.
He was thirsty, sore all over, completely dirty, and the mark on his wrist was burning, but that wasn’t even the worst part. As his consciousness slowly came back, he realised he wasn’t in his bedroom but in a dark, damp room.
Slowly and painfully, he sat up, dusted himself off and looked around the room. There was only one source of light, a small circular window right above the door, but it was enough to discern the general appearance of the room.
It was made of big stone bricks and almost devoid of furniture; instead, there were various boxes, barrels and various strange objects wrapped in fabric. The chamber was clearly some kind of storage, albeit a very old and neglected one; everything was rotting and falling apart.
After he was done inspecting the room, he tried to recall what he was doing before he woke up here.
He remembered that he was running errands for his teacher; apparently they had run out of parchment for magic scrolls as well as magic-infused ink.
Under normal circumstances the whole trip would have taken him only fifteen minutes, but for some reason every single shop in the residential district had run out of the things he was looking for, so he had to go to a proper store in the commercial district.