A coup has thrown the kingdom of Farshores into turmoil, and one of the pretender’s first moves was to order mercenaries to invade the Mage District and put all its inhabitants – men, women, and children – to the sword. There is one survivor: Horace Stonecutter, the youngest son of the Stonecutter family. Though a member of a stone-cutting mage family, his stone-cutting gift had yet to manifest itself. Instead, he had a talent he first used playing hide-and-seek with other children. He discovered could hide “inside” shadows, and the other kids nicknamed him “Hyder”, because no one could spot him once he hid. Embarrassed to tell his family about this seemingly useless talent, he kept it to himself.
But his ability to hide saved his life when the soldiers came to kill his family. Though there was no love lost between him and his five elder brothers, he dearly loved his mother, and the mercs killed her. That night, vengeance – in the form of an enraged Horace – moved from shadow to shadow, killing the attackers without mercy. After all, it takes no arms training to bury an axe in the back of an enemy’s head when attacking from deep shadow.
Consumed with anger and a hunger for retribution, he journeys out to find who ordered the murder of his family. He owes someone a blood debt, and he wants to collect.
Along his bloody journey, he meets kings, princes, princesses, noblemen – and not so noble men. He learns that in troubled times, few are to be trusted. Join him as he becomes a fully developed Shadow Mage and follow as his abilities and powers grow while he seeks to collect the blood debt he is owed. May God have mercy on his enemies – because he won’t.
