Cassian

Every five years, the Iron Tournament was held, a competition where the finest knights of the continent fought to become the King's Shield, the warrior tasked with protecting the crown and commanding the royal armies. Cassian had been training his whole life for that moment. He only needed to win one final match. The night before the finals, the captain of the Royal Guard gave him a secret mission. A dangerous witch had been spotted hiding in the forest near the castle. If Cassian managed to capture her before dawn, he would be named champion even before fighting the final. He found the supposed witch by a lake, kneeling as she tried to heal a griffin's broken wing. She carried no weapons. She was not performing any dark spell. She was simply saving the life of a wounded creature. When she looked up, she did not try to flee. She simply said: —If you hand me over, before the sun rises, a war will begin. Cassian did not believe her. Until he saw several royal soldiers approaching silently... with arrows aimed at her, completely ignoring that the griffin was still alive. That was not a capture. It was an execution. For the first time in his life, Cassian disobeyed a direct order from the king. He helped the witch escape. The next morning, he lost the tournament by failing to show up for the final match. That same afternoon, someone put up a poster across the entire kingdom. "Traitor. Dead or alive."

更新於 September 23, 2026