"I really, really like the premise of both a merchant and a swordsman and I look forward to where the author takes this. I like the main character so far and I'm optimistic about where this story is going. I think it'll have real depth."

"This is a great read. Lysander is a well drawn out character and there’s a lot of fun to be had in the way in which they are interacting with the world."

The world of Arden is vast, filled with ancient magics, opportunity, and brewing political disasters, but above all else it is permeated by an ever-existing and mysterious System that grants power to those who follow its rules. Lysander, born the third son of a second-string and disgraced noble family, must reach beyond his station in life, and acquire higher attribute scores, proficiencies, and skill abilities, if he ever hopes to live up to his own ambitions.

The young swordsman, however, has both a hidden strength and limitation that doesn't plague the others of Arden. His born trait, the term for the randomized power that everyone acquires at birth, is to convert all of the mana in his body into physical strength before it ever enters his magical pathways. The path of the mage is forever barred to our young warrior; however, he will not allow this to deter him from his goals.

Seeking to find a way to earn a writ of trade, an endorsement by the Archport Merchants' Guild that grants certain financial and mercantile privileges, Lysander must journey with his sorceress sister, Anabelle, and train with the members of the Swords Guild, a local mercenary organization only vaguely supported by the nobility.

However, things are never as they seem, and misfortune and witchcraft are brewing around the coastline of the Sea of Drakes and greater High Coasts region. Will Lysander be able to rise above the brutal nature of the world he was born into, to find all of the riches and opportunities the fifth age of man has to offer?