Kael

Kael of Thornhaven is a hunter, perhaps the best the valley has. He tracks deer, keeps wolves from the goat pens, and wants nothing from destiny.

The dreams do not care what he wants. For a moon’s turning he has woken with a bronze sword already in hand, having stood on walls he has no word for, beside four others whose faces blur and whose presence is as familiar as his own heartbeat.

He is twenty summers. He is also, in the quiet way of this cycle, the Warrior: the soul that leads the charge when the Darkness comes north.

In this age

He lives in a hut at the edge of the village, walks the oak line at dawn, and finds his spear too light. The bronze-smith who shares his name — Kael the Elder — hammers plow blades, not war.

When the northern forest starts swallowing hunters, Kael is the one who listens. His spear feels too light. The Bond has already chosen him.