The Minstrel and the Prophet

Times are strained in the Federated Kingdoms: animals are born deformed, crops fail overnight, and raiders strike from within the neighboring Kelmar Empire. In his backwater village, Lauren dreams of becoming a minstrel, the itinerant musician scholars of the Federated Kingdoms. His father, though, demands that Lauren train to be a warrior. When his father attacks him in a drunken rage, Lauren flees his village in the company of Ryan, a minstrel. Together, they go to the minstrel's college at So