A Thief's Love.

For Paragon, life as a professional thief was more than repayment for his debts. He truly enjoyed the thrill of the art itself. He loved that alluring call of danger attached to every heist, the bubbling sense of uneasiness in his stomach as he wondered if this was the time he would finally be caught; meticulously spending long hours laboring over his plans, sometimes over months, all on a thief's hope that his careful planning would lead him to the treasure he desired.

No matter how high the risk was with every job, nothing could ever compare to that infinite feeling of success to a well executed heist. That feeling alone was its own payoff.

It was all he had in the world to keep him going. Always thinking, will I be able to pull this off one more time?

Until the time came for his newest contract, one that was different than any he had taken in the past and the target, a familiar ghost from his past. The target of this acquisition happened to be the Princess herself. 

Princess Esnia. His former lover. 

And he needed her bounty to trade for his freedom.

The Queen's crown. A signet worth untold amounts and a worthy bounty to finalize the debt owed.

Paragon's life was spared from a life of slavery in the mining outpost that supplied the kingdom with its prized military and economy. As an orphan, from his earliest memories Paragon survived by relying mostly on petty theft, pilfering through the unsuspecting the affluent denizens pockets and coin purses.

It was enough to survive on, buying a modicum of food and shelter at local inns when he could afford it, until one day ending up with the wrong crowd of vagabonds in the imperial city. Taking on a bad job with them that landed him in the hands of the underworld criminal Nautilus, his job's target. 

Only through his devil's luck, and quickness of wit was he able to negotiate his indentured servitude to Nautilus instead of the mine. No one came back from the mines. No one.

A lifetime spent honing his skills to the utmost perfection, yet he considered himself no criminal. He never killed, and stole from poor or rich alike. Over time, and at much pleading to Nautilus, wished to formalized his profession as a treasure hunter; The dangerous defacto trade for those not born within the upper caste of the Imperial city.

Allowing him to go beyond the boundaries of the kingdom into the neighboring territories. He justified his ask by high risk, high reward.

It was a dangerous trade, for all manner of lawlessness existed beyond the safe borders of the kingdom and imperial city, chocked full of bandits and magical creatures that lay in wait for the unsuspecting traveller. 

It didn't matter to him either way, working for Nautilus didn't come without any perks of its own. A criminal he may be, but one shrewd collector of rarified artifacts. Throughout the years Paragon had acquired a modicum of thief's tools and magical artifacts that aided him in his increasingly risky exploits.

Tools that would allow him to breath underwater, walk on the outside of a structure as it were common ground, and see through walls. These magical totems, some gifts from Nautilus, others he kept for himself from his adventures. All of which helped him pull one successful job after another. 

And it was Nautilus' longing for the mythical Falcon's Feather, said to bestow upon the holder visions of the future, made from kiln of glass and gold, heated by the fires of the Numa volcano that led to Paragon meeting Princess Esnia in the first place.

A fair-eyed maiden of untold beauty and kindness from the citizens, both rich and poor alike, she would be next to ascend the throne once her hand in marriage was complete.

He remembered it fondly as he snaked his way through one of the main routes between the neighboring kingdoms. Spotting Princess Esnia's escort through the safety of the forest that flanked the road, taking her back to the imperial city after her time spent in diplomatic affairs over border disputes when her envoy was attacked by a host of bandits. 

Having tracked the Princess's wearabouts on his way back from recovering the feather, when he noticed the telltale signs of an ambush. Yelling out to her unaware guardsmen moments before the attack.

Rushing in to assist the Princess and her vanguard to defend against the attacking marauders, successfully repelling them, even going so far as to offer her men information on who might've been behind the bandit's ambush.

Thanking him for his assistance, and offering him much praise and adoration, she bestowed upon him a dutiful reward to be reclaimed once she arrived back at her palace. Graciously supplying him with gold and a befitting property in the well off portion of the city. 

However, that wasn't her only reward.

After their first night together, nothing could separate the two and their secret love affair. 

That is until the time came for her prearranged marriage to the kingdom's closest ally forced Paragon's reality to shift, ultimately he disappeared altogether to spare her the painful choice of rejecting him for her duty as future Queen. A decision that weighed on him as much as anything else he had done in the past. 

And now Nautilus had set his designs upon the would be Queen... He needed to know why. 

A hefty trade-off. His personal freedom for the Queen's signet. 

Resolving himself to break into Nautilus' vault of possessions, quite an easy task from his years of breaking and entering, he would use the feather's power to divine the future. He had to know what was Nautilus' plans, what would happen to him and Esnia, would everything work out or come to ruin?

He desperately needed to know. And so he did.

Peering far into the future, and in doing so, what he saw disturbed him...Yet made him smile, he knew what he needed to do next—what he was best at.  

Pocketing the feather, he headed for Esnia's chambers under the cover of night.