"Suffering will always be with you!". Cold words, on that freezing morning and not what you expected the old man to say after he first set his eyes upon you, in such a long time. Looking you straight in the eyes, his long silence felt like a crooked blade that bit profoundly, down to your bone marrow.

"With your mindless soldiering, you have brought plenty of hurt into this world. Don't try to deny it! I can see the hurt that clings onto you and spills from your eyes. Yet, the time to rest, remember and lament those lost lives is not ripe for you, yet", he whispered bitterly.

"Your entire family is gone, enslaved by the wizard Khanddar. The news seem to surprise you, and I wonder why!? What did you expect to happen when you took the gold coins from his men and never paid them back? Know that the price of your weapon, armour and mount are a mother, a brother and a sister", he added, with anger in his voice.

You started to say something that could excuse your past choices. Anything that would have been accepted by the old man as both an apology and justification for how things turned out. Yet the words caught in your throat and nothing came out of your mouth, but the heavy dust of silence.

"I promise you there will be no end to your grief. Not until you pay Khanddar his due. Begone, now! I prohibit you from ever using the name that I gave you at birth! You are nameless to me and the world until I will have them back".

You felt choked by the poison in your father's curse and you left his house without uttering another word. You took no particular route as you've left the outskirts of your birthplace, as any road that took you away from it was as good as any other. Yet, you knew from that moment onwards that the sinuous path that you ended on will take you a long way through this land of sword-and-sorcery!