Messo entered the Information Guild long before he understood what the Guild was. At six years old, he was taken from a cash-strapped orphanage in Setreed and apprenticed into the Guild’s lowest ranks. For most children, such an arrangement meant a lifetime of clerical drudgery. For Messo, it became the only home he would remember.
By twenty-two, he had become one of the brightest analytic minds in Orudara. He solved puzzles that had lingered in Guild archives for generations, seeing structure where others saw chaos. Trade patterns, weather cycles, political tremors, dialect changes—to Messo, they all spoke with the same quiet logic. His predictions earned a reputation for precision that bordered on uncanny.
But brilliance was not the only thing that set him apart. Messo possessed a dangerous kindness, a trait the Information Guild regarded as a liability. Where the Guild prized detachment, he felt responsibility. Where they insulated themselves from consequence, he considered the cost to ordinary people. Mission came second to mercy, and the Guild never entirely trusted him for it.
When the first signs of an unprecedented uprising flickered across Orudara, Messo recognized the pattern faster than anyone else—and understood, with a weight the Guild refused to shoulder, exactly how many lives the prediction would claim.
Books
Sketch Versions
Messo - After Before the Seven Kingdoms
Messo had lived a long and fruitful life. The survivors of Orudara revered him throughout their lives. He had, however, outlived most of the survivors. The remaining survivors had been too young during the scourge and flight to remember. This reverence had been earned by his courage, hard work, compassion, foresight, and leadership for more than seven decades. He had sacrificed home, profession, love, and certainty for the cause. As he approached the end of his life, however, Messo felt a sense of discouragement. Now that survival was all but assured, the new generation of Ognenstrovans were forgetting the behaviors that led to the scourge. He feared that selfish attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs may be something that simply could not be left behind.