Origin
They were born Valerius Oakhaven, into a high-tier Elven family in Neverwinter. Child prodigy. The Oakhaven Conservatory was their birthright, and for a time they filled it perfectly: the young musician whose fingers found notes before they were taught, whose voice could turn a room before the first verse ended.
Kaelen changed that. A rival at the conservatory, talented enough to be dangerous and jealous enough to act on it. The fire was ruled an accident. It was not. Half of Valerius's face and neck became a map of silver-red keloid scars. The voice survived. The family's interest did not.
The Oakhavens did not disown them outright. They simply stopped arriving. Stopped writing. Stopped mentioning the name. The conservatory offered condolences and a quiet exit. Kaelen received a commendation and, eventually, the title of Court Mage.
Valerius discarded the name. Became Cinder. Disappeared into the lower docks of Neverwinter, where the forgotten lived and no one asked about the scars. They found that music didn't need to be perfect to be powerful. A concertina played on rain-slicked planks for dock workers and drunks could do things the conservatory never imagined.
The Reveler's Concertina found them there. Fey-touched, humming even when silent, it arrived in a pawnshop crate that no one remembered receiving. Cinder knew what it was the moment their fingers touched the reeds. The instrument was waiting for someone who understood that beauty and damage are not opposites.
Old Bram taught them the rest. A blind half-orc who ran a rope-mending stall on the third pier. He couldn't see the scars and didn't care about the name. He taught Cinder how to listen instead of perform, how to read a crowd by its silences. He went missing three weeks ago. Cinder is looking.
