Raven

When Raven lost first her family, then her home, she was reluctant to form close bonds again. Then she met Jhael, a man who shared her sense of the injustice in the world and, like her, wanted to do something about it. In the city of Freeport, they met others who, for reasons of their own, were set apart from the world around them—outcasts, idealists, and wanderers who didn’t quite fit anywhere else.

At first, Raven told herself it was only convenience. They needed a thief; she needed coin. But shared danger has a way of binding people together, and over time she found herself watching their backs without being asked. Jhael’s conviction reminded her of her father’s courage; the others—so different from her—offered something she hadn’t expected: belonging without obligation.

She stayed because they were more than allies. They were proof that not everyone was ruled by greed or cruelty. Each of them carried scars of their own, but together they built something fragile and rare—trust born not of innocence, but of survival. For the first time since Dunmar, Raven stopped looking for the moment she’d have to run.