Chapter 1

Loye woke up to the sound of birds chirping and the smell of fresh air. He sat up on his mat and looked around, trying to shake off the grogginess that had enveloped him. It took a few seconds for him to realize that he had had a strange dream the night before, one that felt very real.

In the dream, he had seen a powerful spirit that had shown him the ways of the ancient mage warriors, the very ones his people were said to be descended from. Loye couldn't remember all the details of the dream, but he knew that he had been shown things he never knew existed, things that he wanted to know more about. He got up and stretched, feeling the stiffness in his limbs from the previous day's hunting. His father had insisted that he accompany the hunting party, despite his protests. Loye was eager to prove his worth and become a man, but he was also tired and hungry.

He stepped outside the hut, looking around the small village that was his home. It consisted of only a few huts, a small shrine, and some farmland that his family tended to. Loye's clan were hunters, but they were not wealthy like some of the other clans in the region. They were a proud people, but they had fallen from their glory days when their ancestors were the rulers of a vast empire. Loye's thoughts went back to the dream, and he realized that he needed to know more about the mage warriors. He decided to talk to his father about it, hoping that he would have some answers.

As he walked towards his father's hut, he saw some of the other villagers going about their daily routines. Some were tending to their crops, while others were repairing their huts. Loye felt a sense of belonging in this community, but he also felt that he needed to find his own path in life. He entered his father's hut, seeing him sitting on a mat and sharpening his hunting knives. His father looked up and greeted him with a nod.

"Good morning, son. Did you sleep well?" he asked.

Loye nodded, but his mind was elsewhere. He took a deep breath and spoke, "Father, who are mage warriors?" His father looked at him with surprise, "What do you know of the mage warriors, my son? It is not something we speak of lightly."

Loye hesitated, he was not sure if he should tell his father about his dream yet, so he kept quiet. Seeing this, his father's face grew serious, and he warned: "Loye, Be careful, my son. The mage warriors were powerful people, but their power came at a great cost, and it led to their downfall. We should not seek such power, for it can corrupt even the purest of hearts."

Loye felt disappointed by his father's response, but he knew that he needed to find out more. So he finally decided to tell his father about the spirit that had appeared in his dream. "Father, I saw a powerful spirit in my dream. It promised me the ways of the mage warriors, the magic they possessed and the power they wielded." Startled, his father was quite for a long time before finally he said:

"Tell me all that you saw, my son".