Khalsa

Khalsa has always been the opposite of all that darkin are known to be. Shy but never submissive, he saw no choice but to try to protect his brothers and sisters from their abusive father who kept them as slaves to help create the leather armor he was famous for. When the opportunity arose well into his adulthood, he made a desperate gamble to escape and seek the leader of the assassin and monster hunter guild controlled by the ruling council.

Morien was well-known enough even to him who had never been permitted to leave his home as not being in their favor, often acting only under duress and doing things his own way, as effective as it was. Khalsa infiltrated the walls of the guild only by protecting himself from poisonous fog with great willpower alone, the first to ever succeed though near the first to ever try, earning Morien's ear and curiosity. Though forbidden from even scouting a noble such as Khalsa's father, he complied, acting alone.

Morien declined to kill him as he had always intended to, but knew for certain that Khalsa spoke the truth and his desire for help was pure, so it was given in the form of a secret apprenticeship. It was more than that. Khalsa was taught to read and write both their native language and Tradespeech, spoken by most people above, and was taught to defend himself... and to kill. But as any secrets went in their city, it could not stay a secret forever and both of theirs were revealed: Khalsa's unsanctioned apprenticeship and Morien's treasonous assistance against his father.

Morien was punished severely with the cutting of his hair, something that their society viewed as a terrible fate only rivaled by being hung from the council house's wall by flesh hooks. Damaging another's or oneself's hair is a high crime because it grows slowly and thus tells of age and is used for help with identification. Morien, the third eldest of the city due to his unnatural longevity caused by a genetic disease, had hair to his feet and so that day became one of legend only to be outdone by the days after.

Khalsa's punishment, which Morien knew to be further punishment to himself, was to be slain by Morien. Most knew that he would refuse and were hoping for it. Morien decided to lie, knowing that with no proof he would be executed or worse, and granted Khalsa a chance to escape the city, though they both also knew there to be no hope. Both were detained. Khalsa was given a certain end his prosecutors believed fittingly ironic: to be sent to a coastal desert capitol city known for viciousness and slow executions of such cruelty that they were most of what the country was known for. Morien was stripped of his rank though spared death only due to his talents and value. He was reassigned as a spy and murderer-on-call to live (or die) in a Trade City named Abregond, one of six bound by world law to be tolerant to all peoples.

Khalsa felt he would be blinded by the painful brightness of the surface world but told himself in honesty, though while expecting to die, that he would not mind because he found all the sun shone on to be beautiful. He was captured quickly and accused of a crime that he did not commit in addition to the crime of being there and sentenced to be bound and left in the salt flats, a nearby area known for its deadly heat but also its brightness, and to have his eyes sewn open so that he may look upon the sun they worshiped and be judged before death.

Even the darkin people did not believe that Morien would so immediately and aggressively act to break the terms of his reassignment and continued life by seeking Khalsa as he was informed of the unexpected, perhaps fortunate for him, but cruel execution by abandonment. Morien demanded his reluctant handler Ragaza to help him with the rescue which had almost no chance of success. Ragaza agreed only because he despised being given 'babysitter' duty and hoped him to die for this fool's errand, knowing that he himself would not be punished with death if at all due to his father's favor.

Miraculously, all lived and for a long time their futures were none better for it. Morien meant to slay Khalsa in mercy for the permanent damage to his body and health and the loss of his eyes but to his disbelief, he begged for continued life, stubborn as ever. Morien could not understand, and so Khalsa's stated reason was to show him why life should always be the choice.