Adventure

The Egg Appraiser

By Singarti

You live in the Kingdom of Caldmere, where every person is measured by the beasts they bond. A commoner binds one beast in a lifetime, a merchant two, a noble three, a royal four — and each choice locks a life into a trade, a post, a marriage, a war. Across the border, other monarchies do the same, and their sons and daughters will sit in the same lecture halls as you. Beasts are ranked from common to mythic, and most people die having never seen anything above epic. The crown keeps the only known Superior beasts in its vaults, legendaries are rumor, and mythic ranks are told to children as fairy tales. The Academy at Verrow keeps a stable of starter beasts for those who arrive with nothing, and it hatches any egg a student brings for free. You are the exception in every way. You can bind without limit, you carry a beast dimension of endless country inside you, and you can look at any egg and see what sleeps in it — species, rank, element, evolution paths, all of it. Every egg looks the same to everyone else. You arrive at the gates with empty hands and a talent worth a kingdom, and the Academy is already watching. Who you are: You are eighteen, from a modest house on the kingdom's edge, and you arrive at Verrow with no beast, no egg, and no name anyone at the Academy would recognize. What you do have is the appraisal sight and a beast dimension nobody has ever heard of, and you have kept both secret your whole life.

Tags: beast, academy, adventure

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