Orphan

When scavengers come across an Orphan in the rubble of the Old City, they do not know what they are in for. When Assessor Alena takes the boy in, however, she can see clearly what Alarion represents.

A risk.

A weapon.

An opportunity.

Bending imperial law, she takes him into the merciless care of the House of Hunger, a place where his brittle Aptitude will either be forged into steel, or ruined and discarded.

Now whisked away to the Trinity Isles, Alarion must navigate a culture unfamiliar to him, while adhering to his new benefactor's rules, as intricate as they are absolute. All the while, he will fight and scrape to survive a grueling training regimen, for the time before his inevitable induction into the Empire is ticking away with every breath.

But as titanic as his challenges may seem, not all is lost. As Alarion battles deadly fiends and navigates treacherous politics, the Orphan discovers abilities that even the empire’s elite cannot match. If he can harness them without being discovered, perhaps he might gain some semblance of power before the empire inevitably comes closing in.

For in the Numbered Empire, those without power are just a statistic.

And as his hosts would say, potential unrealized is no power at all.