An Intro of Sorts?

“Call me Storm.
No, I am not trying to be dramatic. That’s my actual, honest, self-given name. What’s my real name? Eh, I probably wouldn’t tell you if I could—I don’t like personal questions.
But you, tell me this: what would you do, if you lost the person who always supported you, one of those fatherly sort of folks, and were left to fend for yourself in a city like Fort Exalder? What if you carried this secret, a curse shall we say, that would turn anyone who found out about it against you? And, just suppose, this curse compelled you to collect the shiniest coins, or to warm yourself by setting things on fire, sometimes, or, you know…transformed you into a vicious monster with no impulse control?
If you suddenly had the chance to save people—a fair amount of people—to make a certain powerful figure with a legion of soldiers and ballistae stop hunting you…wouldn’t you? Despite the risk?
This is all theoretical, of course. I am certainly not in that situation, facing some primordial threat to Skylia, or being forced to work with a motley assortment of ‘friends’ who would run screaming in the opposite direction once they found out the truth…
Anyway, if Lord Adelric’s men ask, I was never here.”

In case you are suspicious of this “situation” Storm was hinting about, here is a fuller description of what is going down in Volume 1: ‘The Dragon’s Curse.’