Part One

Aurian Koch hasn't been doing too well lately. He traded in his last two goats for a marriage license, and his last chicken for three bottles of brandy--one of which his wife has already consumed.

The person who feels worst about his financial state, however, is Aurian's new wife--the rangy and unapologetically mean Evinanjin. She had no idea things were as bad as all that. When the Elected Lord of the Borderlands suddenly dies, and his supposed murderer falls into her hands, Jin sees a chance to make things right with her husband--a chance that involves thievery, bloodshed, and possibly exhuming a corpse.

That's Jin's sort of chance.

An Aurian and Jin origin story. Photo credit to Ondrej Supitar, stock taken from stocksnap.io.