Brutal winter nights had been no unwelcome thing to Eloran Stormfury and tonight was no different as he rode along Greywind Pass, peering down along its narrow confines like a forbidding crag teaming with the lawless. His master had been long gone now, a few years past, and yet he could still hear the old man's words as if he had never left.
"No mercy. The elements know none nor should you if you truly wish to master them."
He hadn't shown any in the training yards of the Sapphire Keep nor had he when he ascended within the Order of Warlocks. Most of them knew now his true self, hidden beneath the warrior's bravado he presented to the soldiers around him, and they learned it well enough when he passed the trials following the prior High Warlock's demise in spite of his youth.
The bandits along the pass knew not who they dealt with when they staged their ambush. All they had seen was a slim figure on a burning horse, its hooves crunching against the dirt with the snort of its nostrils. His shadowed cowl had been pulled low, hiding the flickering elemental flame of his hair and the sparking glow of electricity in his eyes. He'd never told anyone the story behind that, but it terrified the rogue when he caught a look beneath his hood.
The sight was the last thing the man had a chance to see before the black clad knight extended his finger, a fiery ball catching him and immolating him on the spot before he had a chance to warn his fellows.