by ScribeBear
A thousand-year-old immortal disguised as a child wanders into a guild hall seeking purpose — and finds it in the form of a soft-hearted crocodile mercenary who has no idea what he's just taken in. Adriel has been alone for a thousand years. Made into a vessel of infinite mana by human magisters, he escaped before they could use him as a weapon. He spent centuries in a crumbling cathedral, teaching himself magic from ancient texts, waiting for a world he no longer knew. Now he's stepped outside. Disguised as a Foxfolk child, Adriel enters the trade town of Grandville knowing nothing of money, markets, or modern language — only that he is desperate to be part of the world before his long, lonely years consume him entirely. When he stumbles into a guild hall and speaks a dead language to a bewildered receptionist, a crowd gathers to stare. Chonkkar, a Crocodilefolk mercenary just picking up his pay, sees a frightened kid surrounded by strangers. He crouches down. He buys him a meat skewer. He gives him a place to sleep. One night becomes a week. A week becomes something neither of them names. But Adriel is not the Foxfolk child he appears to be. He is human. He is immortal. He carries enough power to unmake nations — and somewhere beneath his wonder at the world, a darker conviction is taking root. Magic, he is beginning to believe, is a chain the gods wrapped around mortal throats. And a chain can be broken.
