All his friends would have laughed if they saw him now. His once proud shoulders were hunched over to fight through the cold of the winter as he neared his distanction. The city of Iridine, home to as his father had taught him Cinera's greatest enemy. He could only hope his view had been more right.
*****
Baiae was born on a sun afternoon to the distant cousin of The King of Cinera. His father immediately saw oppertunity in his young son, the soon to be heir to the family fortune. So as soon as Baiae could walk he was ripped from his mother's arms and sat in the family library. An old sage sat with him and taught him to read and write and then the history of his family and the world. He sat for hours upon hours reading and studying. Learn of great warlords and great romance. He was taught who to speak and quickly developed his language skills, at the age of 12 he could out wit the learned sage and convince anyone he meet of anything he said. It was then his father once again rudely showed up one day and removed him from the library and set him in the house barracks, where an old Altenian slave began to teach him basic fighting with his small dagger. The young teen quickly picked up simple manuevers and battle tactics and show good dextrity, the slender teen could not over power the brawny Altenian but speed and agility where on the side of the smaller teen. But there was always something missing, something lacking from the training sessions. That all changed, when one night the boy spotted from the barracks the training of a new slave acuistion. He was from Gadaene and used his long knife expertly, he wasn't as strong as the house guards but could out-wit a fox. He used the basic movements, the jab, slash, and parry, but he add something, he added flare. A cut with just a little more show.
So at the age of 15, the young boy began to sneak away during the night and study with his new trainer. He learned quickly that most enemies fight with solid plain tactics and where not used to block different manuevers. The Altenian, always the butt of their jokes, would see a jab begin to be thrust and expect a jab, but the Gadeanen could and often would change that motion to a slash in mid-move. Something the Altenian would not be able to block. Sadly one day the boy could not resist showing the altenian the error of his ways and tricked the proud warrior, immediately his father heard the news and called the boy to his chamabers.
His father was an impossing man, esspecially since the boy had seen him a total of three times his entire life. 'How dare you!' was the only thing his father could scream and he paced back and forth ranting and raving.
'I can't help if that Altenian came to you crying father, he was teaching me wrong, I had to show him,' Baiae complained back.
'Your life as a noble has made you stubborn boy, I know exactly how to put you in your place, I am sending you to my cousin's court, there you will be a lowly servant until you eightenth birthday, when you will return with some humility!'
So at the age of 16 he was off toward the palace to learn humility, or so his father thought. Instead The King recieved the boy with disinterest and made him a page-prince of the palace, meaning he had free reign of his actions throughout the city and has the protect of the royal guard wherever he went.
For the first time in his life the boy experianced freedom, which was not a good thing. As most teenagers do, he wondered around the shadier streets of town, finding his way with words more often then not found a girl's heart and her bedchambers. Which attracted the other young princes who gained girls through association, but unlike the other page-princes, unruly sons of other nobles, Baiae refused to abuse the power he had. He behaved as a commoner among commoners, who did not order and did not cry to royal guards. He was often the center of a barroom brawl, from the jealous he recieved from all the more attractive women attention on him. Instead of expect a guard to protect him, he perfected the actions required to stop a brawl or start one.
His soft side also should through as he never turned a beggar away from his purse and thieves rarely lost their fingers to him, as he would stop them and then give them some coins to feed themselves. His kind heart cost him when one night he used his power to release a young boy who had stolen a loaf of bread from a vendor, as the guards were about to remove his fingers. His kindness opened up the whole underground, all the hidden palace under the feet of everyday life, he picked up alittle pickpockecting here and there just for fun and told the thieves about all the slave-dealer's house and how to get in. Of course he didn't expect all the thieves or assassins to change, he encouraged a better-life and helped them achieve it. But this was put to an end the night the guards raided on of the underground taverns and took every man prisioner, save the 17 year-old page-prince who was instead hauled before The King and ordered that the rest of his year be served behind the Palace walls. Of course the skills of stealth he learned as thief rarely made the palace as much a prision as it should have been.
By his eightteenth birthday he was on the road to his house. Immediately his father grew angry at his son's new attitude of kindness toward commoners. It was approriate for a noblemen to be seen in a commoner's tavern, drink a commoner's liquid. Esspecially his son's belief that the war with Iridinian was a pointless indevour. So on the day Baiae's mother gave birth to a second son, his father's decision came easy. Baiae was stripped of his title, his wealth, and exiled from any lands held by Cinera.
With a heavy-heart, the homeless rogue left his home and journeyed to Iridine to show his father that kindness was the better path.