Quinn’s life really began when he swore an oath to serve Lastwall, to serve the Watcher-Lord, and to serve Iomedae to his dying breath.
He was 10. He was just starting his squiring, well-placed and well-supplied by his family, a prestigious breeder of excellent horses for the famed Lastwall Cavalry.
He broke his oath 6 years later. Her name was Gwen.
They met in the training yard, both squires, both with promise and eyes full of glory. They became inseparable friends, mucking the stables together, sharing rumors about the knights, eventually taking long rides through the country together. The sparkle in her eyes in the moonlight changed his world. He gave her his horse at Armasse, a dun courser named he named Luna. Quinn’s family could provide him with another, but Gwen would never have been able to afford as beautiful a creature as Luna, not as a squire. He knew they would treat each other well.
At 16, Quinn and Gwen both received orders. Quinn was to accompany his knight to Vigil; Gwen, hers to Vellumis. How could the knights be so cruel? The news was enough to give a name to years of feelings: they were in love. An unstoppable love, like none before had ever known. Together, the knight before they were both to deploy, they broke their oaths. Under cover of night, they fled towards Caliphas, to a new life, anywhere but Lastwall.
Galloping the road high above the Path river, perhaps Luna tripped over an obstacle, or perhaps the ground gave way. Perhaps the gods take a dim view of oathbreakers. Whatever the cause, Luna and Gwen plunged into the rapids below. They were gone before Quinn could reach them. He cried into the night, cursing his fate and beseeching anyone who would listen, “Bring her back! I can’t go on without her!”
Whoever was listening had a cruel sense of humor.
When he woke the next morning, shivering in the cold on the rocks beside the river, he felt a familiar if unnerving presence. His own horse had left him in the night, and wolves paced the shores, but none dared approach the unnatural specter of the horse standing protectively over him, shimmering like in dim moonlight.
Together, they made their way to Caliphas. A mile from the gates, he tried to cast her from his life, dismiss her. She went away for a time, but eventually she back. She always comes back. If Quinn is in danger, she has a knack for appearing in the nick of time. On the nights when the memories of Gwen are more than he can bear, Luna is there, her eyes sparkling in the moonlight, and he curses the reminder of his greatest loss even more.
Eventually, Quinn sought out the advice of Professor Lorrimor to rid him of his curse. The Professor advised to embrace the gift of a soul bound so strongly to him to transcend death, but Quinn wasn’t ready to hear it. He decided to move on.
10 years since his oathbreaking and the worst night of his life, Quinn has made a quiet life for himself in Caliphas as a barrister of moderate skill. He has even helped Lorrimor with local affairs a few times over the years, and maintains a casual correspondence. He hopes the gods have forgotten about his oathbreaking, and that the local attitude that things can always be worse is just quaint superstition.
