Chapter 1: The Blade in the Night

I’m writing this because I thought you wanted to know about me. My name’s Ethan. No last name. I never knew my family. I was found by a blacksmith in a slum in Braavos and he raised my like his own. His wife died a year after their wedding and he refused to wed another. He raised me like the son he never had. Life was good and peaceful and surely, profitable.
His craftsmanship was one of the best in Bravos. He made many good friends and merchants from all across Essos would buy from him. He had many connections. The other smiths got jealous. One night, a group of assassins broke into our house. My senses have always been strong. I heard footsteps near my stepfather’s door. I snuck out of my room and closed in on them. I counted them.
“Three. Armed.”
I was just eighteen years old but I knew how to fight. Aside from an innate warrior talent, my father’s friends taught me how to swing a sword and shoot a bow whenever they visit.
“I could take two of them.”
As I was sneaking up on them, I felt a tingling sensation in my neck.
“Poison”
I didn’t realize that there was another behind me. I was so focused in drawing my dagger that I didn’t feel the one behind. My body felt heavy and hot. My eyesight became so faint that the only thing that I can see were their shadows. I fell to the ground. It was the last thing I remember that night.

“Ethan?”
A soothing and familiar voice rang across my head.
I opened my eyes. A girl with sharp violet eyes and a small face was staring down at me. Her shiny, black hair was carefully braided like a noble. She is rather small and petite and very feminine. You might even mistake her for royalty. She is very pretty and well sought out by suitors in the Free Cities. She is my childhood friend, Althea. She is the only daughter of a banker of the Iron Bank of Braavos, Auriel Lazos. Our fathers