The second eldest son of eighteen brothers and sisters, Ezomir was born.

In the prosperous town of Bayat, and even at a young age having a new sibling being added to the family every year or so, Ezomir and his elder brother Artuk had much to do, for their mother and father relied upon the eldest sons in many ways as the family grew. Their father, Kemal Farajal, served as a Priest at one of Bayat's local temples, and had great standing within the Bayat community. Their mother, Julia Farajal, was foreign born, yet a devout convert to Jura, and she aided her husband in countless tasks of the faith; never did she speak on what drove her to Gild and to the embrace of Regel, though Ezomir always wondered.

Once, when Ezomir was aged eight, he saw for the first time a Penitent, seeing the distinctive anti-magic anklet. He asked his mother of it, about Penitents, and Julia said: "There is a battle for righteousness in them that we shall never know."

And for many more years yet did the Farajal family grow and Bayat gain prominence within the Kingdom. This until the Ommite War, and the doom which would befall Bayat in its sacking.


Ezomir by this time had become a dependable young man, recently aged of twenty summers. He worked as a local guardsman alongside Artuk. Neither had been levied for a Gildan army in the war, though their father Kemal had, serving as a battlefield Priest and physician. Ezomir and Artuk, then, were part of the small garrison of Bayat, though the war seemed a far away thing. But as misfortune fell upon the Gildans, the Ommites made an offensive which brought them to the walls of Bayat.

Ezomir and Artuk manned the walls, and they themselves watched as Gildan forces, attempting to relieve Bayat of the siege, were repelled. They knew the worst was coming, but they held fast. The assault came on a gray day, with black clouds hanging over the nearby mountains of the Spine, drifting toward Bayat, and the smell of rain in the air preceding them. The Ommites brought their ladders and their siege engines to bear. Arrows flew from both sides. The rain came lashing down in vicious torrents as the fighting reached its fever pitch. But the defenders of Bayat had no hope of victory, and the town was fated to fall.

Julia, knowing this, appeared suddenly in the midst of the fighting upon the wall, begging Ezomir and Artuk to flee for their lives. She had their sixteen brothers and sisters assembled at their home and ready to escape, but she would not leave without them too. And as Ezomir and Artuk beheld the town and saw the lanes and the streets already brimming, boiling, seething with an insurmountable mass of Ommites, they knew that Bayat was lost, and that to stay would mean death. The fight was lost, Bayat doomed to the Ommites' mercy. And so they agreed to follow their mother.

But an arrow would smite her, piercing her chest, before they could take the first step in their flight. Ezomir, though inwardly in an agony of dismay and alarm, took hold of his mother and carried her in his arms as Artuk protected them. As she bled from her wound and her face paled, she pleaded weakly to Ezomir: "Leave me. Leave me." But Ezomir refused. He said to her: "I will save you, Mother. You and all your children, my brothers and sisters."

Through the embattled streets of Bayat the brothers ran, until they arrived home. Carromir, the third eldest brother of the Farajals, awaited them, and he had the means of their escape ready: a rope made of many bedsheets, by which they could climb down the northern walls. All the children of Julia wailed when they saw their mother, barely clinging to life in Ezomir's arms, but Carromir and Artuk urged them on. No time was there yet to render aid. They all had to run.

The Farajal family came then to the spot along the northern walls, slim fortune theirs for the moment, as they had their chance to begin their escape unseen. Ezomir, far too exhausted now to climb down with Julia, gave the task to Carromir, and Artuk, fearing encroaching Ommites at any moment, stayed at the top of the wall to defend the rest of his siblings with Ezomir. Brother helped brother, sister helped sister, and sixteen of Julia's children reached the ground below.

At the last moment came the Ommites, a small band of them. So swift was their advance that only one of the brothers, Ezomir or Artuk, could have time to safely descend from the makeshift rope. Artuk said simply to Ezomir, "Go", and stood his ground, fending off the Ommites until his family could all escape into the forested foothills to the north. Artuk fell valiantly there, and was indeed the last Gildan defender killed in the sacking of Bayat.


But sorrow would strike again. That first night in the wilderness of the foothills, Julia Farajal would speak her final words to Ezomir, who now had become the eldest living brother of the Farajal family. She said to him, "Do everything you can...to protect them." And it was with these words did she pass from Arethil, and all her children wept the night through.

It fell to Ezomir and Carromir now to safeguard their younger brothers and sisters. They had precious little food, no true shelter, and only the two eldest brothers carried arms. They saw from afar that the Ommite army still occupied Bayat that following day, and so did not dare to risk emerging from their place of hiding. They settled in for another night in the forest.

Here, then, would terror and further sorrow assail them. That second night, a pack of kraits—horrifying monsters which primarily hunted mages to gorge themselves on their magic, but were known also to feast on ordinary flesh as well—came upon the Farajal family's camp. Ezomir and Carromir with their blades kept the kraits at bay, for they were wary and cunning creatures that pounced when the opportunity was best, but the efforts of the brothers could not drive the monsters away. Only did the kraits retreat when one of their horrid number seized Kemal the Younger, tenth born child and named after his father, and dragged him screaming off into the night. The Farajal family lamented and wept and wailed till the break of dawn at the loss of Kemal the Younger, and his body was never found. Guilt devastated Ezomir, cutting into him more than any Ommite blade ever could. He went to Carromir and he said to him that they could not lose one more, not one more, that they the now sixteen children of Julia had to escape from their misfortune together, or not at all.

Still the Ommites occupied Bayat, and with their mounted outriders made any attempt to flee to the city of Gild impossible. The Farajal family had to endure several more nights in the forested foothills, and their food had run out. And worse, by night they feared the kraits, for though they did not see them again for those nights, they could hear them clicking and calling and chittering in the dark.


At last, as terrible hunger ravaged the sixteen siblings, Ezomir and Carromir witnessed the retreat of the Ommites from Bayat, and better yet, the advance of a Gildan army from which the enemy were fleeing. Regel had delivered hope long awaited. Ezomir and Carromir roused their siblings to rise, despite their fatigue and weakness from lack of food and sleep. The sixteen siblings began their descent from the foothills and made for the approaching Gildan army.

But the kraits emerged once again from their places of hiding, and they gave chase.

The sixteen siblings had no choice but to run. The elder brothers and sisters helped the younger, carrying them or leading them by the hand, and now with the forest behind them and through the open fields around Bayat they ran for their lives toward the salvation of the Gildan army, the monstrous pack of kraits in ravenous pursuit. Ezomir and Carromir once again fended off the kraits as best they could, lagging behind the other siblings. Their gambit seemed to work, for the kraits appeared more interested in the two eldest brothers than their younger siblings. Cavalry from the Gildan army spotted the Farajal family, and the cavalry captain dispatched riders at once, galloping with all speed in the hope of rescue. Swiftly enough did they come to the fourteen youngest siblings, but Ezomir and Carromir were by then far back, and were fighting for their lives to keep the increasingly bold kraits at bay. Cavalrymen galloped. The brothers fought. But it looked like the kraits might take down the exhausted brothers before help could arrive. Already they seized upon Carromir as he stumbled and fell.

Yet then, a salvation sudden and terrible happened: Ezomir shot from his hand a gout of magical flame. The kraits, resistant to magic as they were, did not suffer much damage from this flame, but instead of feasting on Carromir they pounced upon Ezomir and began to siphon his magic—all interest lost in his brother. The cavalrymen then fell upon the monsters and slew them, and Ezomir survived with only minor injuries.

But his magic, hitherto unknown even by Ezomir himself, had been seen by all. The cavalrymen apprehended Ezomir, even as his family cried out from afar. Kemal Farajal himself, who was with the relieving Gildan army, had to come forward to see his son released from custody, saying that this was no secret long held, that all respect to Gildan law and Jurist tenets would be paid, and on the strength of Kemal's reputation was Ezomir made free. The Gildan Army had its mission, and could not stay for long, and therefore was Ezomir given a reprieve.


The Ommite War would come to its end with the surrender of Gild and the imposition of terms. But now that peace had come, and wartime necessities receded, domestic matters like the status of Ezomir Farajal came again to the fore. As with all Gildan citizens who were known to possess magic, Ezomir had before him now the only path prescribed by the Church: to become a Penitent. To openly refuse this meant the sentence of exile.

Ezomir spoke with his father Kemal on the night before he would be officially summoned to a temple. All the time between the sacking of Bayat and the end of the war had Ezomir been deeply considering what he ought to do. And the time had come to decide.

A single candle lit the faces of father and son. Tense quiet reigned in the room of the Farajal home. At last Ezomir spoke. He recalled the terrible fate of Kemal the Younger, and of his mother Julia's final words to him. Do everything you can to protect them. His burden, therefore, was clear: to use his magic to help rid Arethil of the scourge of monsters like kraits, and to pray to Regel for forgiveness in this matter every night. To gain a safer world for his brothers and sisters, he would venture his very life and soul. Expecting stiff opposition, Ezomir found himself awed by his father Kemal when he, after a long moment of silence, agreed to Ezomir's decision. He advised only that Ezomir leave that very night, before a sentence of exile could even be imposed on him. They embraced, and Ezomir went to all fifteen of his brothers and sisters and bid them goodbye, saying that he would be going out into the wider world in the effort to keep them safe from the monsters in the night.

Thus did Ezomir depart from his family, with the only destination possible now in his mind:

To a Keep of the Noct Yaegir.