Born of Shadows Introduction

People tell me that Writing is relaxing…I’m not relaxed at all.
Maybe I should write About what we are going to do….naw, that‘ll just get me
in deeper shit…I know! I’ll Write About m





         “Raith!  Getcher ass over here! We’re coming up with an exit strategy!”

         “Coming, Lok!” My Name is Raith Jadetail, and I’m in over my head.  Oh, I guess that to explain that, I need to bring out a background. Well, I might as well start with a clichéd beginning of a birth.  Not mine, this elven boy’s name is Irhec. Nobody knows the when, where, or how of it, just that he was found toddling the streets of Ethum, city of the cavern elves.  He was soon put to work in the kitchens of one of the noble houses, only to be kicked out when strange occurrences became part of his everyday life.  The fires, both magical and non-magical, would put themselves out as he walked by and soon small points of strangely colored light began to float around his head.  Luckily for him, one of the high ranking Master of the Arcane noticed him, and took Irhec in as a student.  Irhec continued to excel in everything the Master put before him, and eventually ranked as the True Master of the Arcane Arts in charge of all the arcane matters for the Elven ruler of the times.  This story should end there, but Irhec had children.  His first son was tutored by the best and excelled like his father.  His next two sons were twins, one was a child prodigy, while the other had talent and used every ounce of it to go against his father’s wishes.  He ended up leaving home to live and train with the Dwarven army, as Irhec said, “Bashing over the head tutelage.”  The next three each had their basis in following their father through the arcane, but none of them truly got far.  The seventh son, all he ever wanted was to make his father happy, but he had no potential in magic.  All that he could boast about was his speed and agility.  He learned to fear magic from his brothers’ mistakes and out-of-control summons, and from his own mistakes with his brothers’ scrolls.  He was the only son forced to leave Ethum.  He learned to steal, to pick locks, what was needed to live on the street.  He was close to death when his brother found him.  The third brother was the one to find him sick and hungry in an alleyway of Panávul, a gathering place of the species.  The brothers soon found acceptance in the dredges of the city, thieves and thugs and smugglers their only friends.  They were the ones to keep the brothers alive.  All of this story and I almost forgot, Irhec’s last name…

… is Jadetail.