Abandoned without warning by his parents and left unable to pay tuition and board at the academy on his own, Nevil Wordright was forced to drop out and find a new home. Oh well, it's not like he'd been granted the powers of an oracle or was naturally inclined to the cut-throat competition endemic of the upper crust. If anything, he craved a simpler life, and stumbled upon that in the care of his guardian, Kale Gorund. Since then, he's grown comfortable, happy even and content, learning skills of a more practical sort working at Kale's tavern. Now a young man, he's come into his own, and the troubles of his youth have faded into bitersweet memory. But not all is as it seems, and events are already in motion: events that threaten to destroy the simple life that Nevil has forged.