Everyone knew of the rebellion. The way it failed. The way Aretia got burned down to the ground. How all rebels got executed except for their children, who then proceeded to live with that burden and a mark ok their wrists to remind them of it.

Xaden was one of those children. As everyone knew of course. He was the son of the leader of that great rebellion. But that wasn’t news. Everyone knew. And that could either be a curse of a blessing.

Being sent to basgiath was a blessing. A cruel blessing. But it worked out for Xaden of course. As he became wingleader in his third year, and had his own group of other marked ones. All of them loyal to one another.

Not much could go wrong. All he had to do was graduate. And not let anything distract him. Thought graduation was months away. His third year had just begun, and first years had just started arriving. What could go wrong?