Jaeth's Eye

## Plot Introduction

*Jaeth's Eye* begins with the introduction of Kefier, a 19-year-old mercenary living in lawless Kago, an anarchist land between the Kag nations to the west and Jin-Sayeng to the east.

The continent of Vir is full of ancient magic and monsters. While other civilizations have managed to harness these powers for the advancement of society, the west has been hampered by a Gasparian witch who once walked through the wilderness and released monstrous, foul beasts that are not quite dead, not quite alive. It is only until the arrival of Agartes Allaicras, hero of the Kag, that people have been able to dominate the land.

The story follows Kefier in the aftermath of his friend's mysterious death. As he flees his old associates, he goes on a journey that leads him to discover the continent's strange secrets...and his connection to all of it.

## Synopsis

### The Boarshind

The first Prologue
outlines the slaughter of the hero Agartes Allaicras’ family at the hands of
the Dageians. We see Agartes’ pain as he realizes that not only has he lost his
children, but that his memories of them will also fade in time. We learn of the
beliefs of his people governing the afterlife, and are invited to remember that
*"The true story, as always, is in the details."*

Kefier is a
young man simply trying to figure life out on his own terms. Banished from his
village for an accident involving his brother, he was taken as a slave by
Dageian mages and it was only because of the help of a mercenary, Oji, that he
was able to escape. But Oji’s well-meaning action causes Kefier much strife—the
other mercenaries treat him as an outsider, blaming him for causing Oji to fall
from grace in the officers’ eyes. And Kefier himself is resentful that Oji
treats him like a child.

He attempts
to gain control of his life by taking a job behind Oji’s back. It is a simple
enough task involving the delivery of a letter, to be taken during a separate job
Oji was entrusted with. Unbeknownst to Kefier, he is being tested for his
response—or lack thereof—to a creature that one of the mercenaries’ clients has
been growing in the abandoned mines, one which they have been feeding with children
taken from villages throughout the land. Even just exposure to its slime can
cause madness in some, and people have different levels of responses to
it—mercenaries that can withstand its effects are particularly valued by this
client.

Kefier
reacts to the creature, but in an entirely different way—he hears it speaking
in his head. Combined with the mild claustrophobia he had picked up during his
time as a slave and his tendency to panic when surprised—something Oji and the
other mercenaries have been careful with during his time with them—he stabs Oji
and kills him.

### Akki

Sume is
Oji’s sister—a young woman in her teens who has been responsible for her father
and the young family Oji left behind when he left to seek his fortune as a
mercenary. For the last year, the money Oji has been sending them has stopped.
She doesn’t know why, but she travels to the mainland in order to work as a
seamstress.

She meets a
foreign dockworker and strikes up a friendship with him. Something about the
dockworker is familiar, especially with the way he speaks Jinan exactly like
how her family does. Only later does she learn that he is Kefier, who was once
the young boy her brother took under his wing—driven by guilt after his murder
of Oji, he escapes to the city, where he gazes out at the sea to the island
where Sume and her family lived, trying to muster up the courage to admit what
he had done. Sume learns that Oji is dead and that Kefier is wanted by the
other mercenaries.

### Return to Kago

It seems as
if Kefier caused more deaths after the events in the mines, when he kills the
officer who gave him the job—his actions cause a chain reaction that results in
the deaths of many of his and Oji’s companions. The mercenary who takes him
prisoner, Gaven, blames him for everything. While in town, a traveller
overhears Kefier’s story, and realizes he was once acquainted with him back in
Kefier’s old village, when they were still children.

The
traveller meets a client of the mercenaries and explains his concerns for
Kefier—the client assures him that everything is taken care of. It turns out
that this client is Ylir, a merchant and associate of a big company in the
Kag—Yn Garr Industries. One of the secrets of the company involves their
attempt to revive a creature from legend—the exact same one that Kefier
encountered in the mines.

Ylir uses
the creature’s slime and his own skill with enchantment in order to coerce
Gaven into setting Kefier free. It is an experiment that works; Kefier wakes up
on a cart heading to safety. Ylir, in disguise, even hitches a ride with him in
order to leave him a gift—an blanket imbued with a “look away” spell that later
protects Kefier from the mercenaries who are now after him in cold blood. It
also protects him from an encounter with a creature in the forest, one of the
many that plague the wilderness and were left behind by the same witch who
created the more powerful one that Yn Garr Industries is trying to revive.

### The Kusyani Village

Kefier
attempts to return to the nation of Jin-Sayeng and Sume—though he doesn’t think
about what he’s done, the guilt drives him and is about the only thing he has
left to live for. But with mercenaries at his tail, he decides to go through
the mountains to Gaspar, the nation bordering Jin-Sayeng.

He comes
upon several spells that take him to a *kusyani*
*village. The* kusyani *are an ancient*
people of those mountains, and Kefier learns that the elder has been hosting a *part* of the creature within himself. He
learns that this particular creature is difficult, almost impossible, to kill,
and that it was separated into several pieces by mages before being sealed
away. Each “part” can grow individually. The elder *kusyan*, with his strong connection to the *agan*, is able to destroy his part with his death. The act brings
forth a surge of *agan* which calls
back the past Kefier has been trying to escape.

As Kefier
leaves the village, he encounters two mages who have been trying to learn about
the witch and her creature. Events unfold, and they finally stumble upon the
mercenaries who have been struggling to control the creature—which proceeds to
eat a dragon and gain its power and form. The mages take Kefier to their home,
where he learns that they’ve been tasked with keeping an eye on this creature
and its individual parts to make sure it never returns to the world.

### Journey to Gaspar

While all of
this has been happening, Sume finds herself in the service of Ylir in exchange
for her nephew’s life after her nephew attempts to steal from the merchant. They
journey to Gaspar, where Ylir—despite taking an interest in Sume—sells her as a
concubine to a powerful Gasparian lord, in exchange for support in Yn Garr
Industries’ activities in the region. Sume, realizing what such a position
could do for her family, decides to carry through with it, but Ylir changes his
mind at the last moment and attempts to “rescue” her.

He injures
himself and she ends up rescuing him and nursing him back to health. She forms
a relationship with him during this time until Ylir’s master Yn Garr returns to
remind him of his duties. Angrily, he joins up with the mercenaries, where he
learns that they are currently attacking the mages where Kefier is staying.

### The Mages of Enji

The leader
of the mages takes Kefier aside and forces his memories out of him, back to the
day when his brother has an accident. We learn that the accident occurred
because Gorrhen yn Garr arrived at their village and took the creature from the
temple—then a single eye, no bigger than a box—along with Kefier’s brother
Enosh. The mage reveals that Ylir was Kefier’s brother all along, and that both
of them are descended from a mage, Jaeth, who had been tasked with the part of
the creature hidden in their village. Enosh has been keeping an eye out for
Kefier, but his own selfishness means he has been more interested in his own
affairs than reuniting with his brother.

The
mercenaries and the mages clash. In the ensuing chaos, Kefier escapes with Sume
and her nephew Dai. Gaven—now a shell of a man, half-mad from the creature’s
influence—tries to stop them and injures Dai during the process. Kefier manages
to defeat Gaven, but before he dies, the mercenary reminds him that *he* was the one who killed Oji.