
Before she wore polished plate or commanded respect among high-paying warlords, Rose was just another desperate archer in threadbare leathers, scraping by in the war-torn borderlands. Beside her stood Jerome — a towering, unshakeable fighter with an old greatsword and a permanently scarred, closed right eye — and Rory, Rose's best friend, a sword-and-shield fighter as battle-worn as the rest of them. Together, they start as a scrap-metal, bottom-tier trio accepting petty bounty contracts for copper coins, surviving off cold rations, and bleeding for every inch of ground. Their trajectory shifts dramatically when their lethal synergy catches the eye of the Black Ravens, an elite mercenary organization.