The Prince & the Promise - Chapter 1

A short story written by Matt Gardner with PlotWeaver: Cards of Creation, a storytelling game made by Mod Hob Cooperative.

This story uses a Frame Tale Plot Pattern, written in 15-minute timed acts with all story cards drawn at random. For more information, visit www.plotweavergame.com

Act 1: Outer Frame Introduction

(Story Element Cards: The Maverick, The Explorer, Village Market, and Fairy Tale)

In the heart of the Luminous Bazaar, where floating lanterns dance to music only they can hear and the scent of enchanted pastries changes with your mood, a boy in a patched cloak sweeps the cobblestone floor. He looks ordinary, until you notice the way stallkeepers nod with respect and how the tiger-sized housecat at the potion booth refuses to sleep anywhere but his feet.

This is Jonas.

He was once a prince.

A year ago, his face was stamped on coins and stitched into royal banners. But Jonas walked away from all that. He left the velvet halls, the tutors, the council chambers, and traded them for the steam and sparkle of the magical marketplace.

Now he works the morning shift at the Midnight Cauldron, sleeps in the rafters above a spice stall, and has sworn never to wear gold again.

Most people leave him alone, except Ameera.

Ameera is the opposite of quiet. She’s a wide-eyed, fast-talking explorer from the Windreach Isles, a mapmaker’s daughter who came to the bazaar to chart things that can’t be drawn: emotions, enchantments, and everything between. She’s fascinated by Jonas, not just who he was, but who he’s trying to become.

When Ameera sees him climb the crate by the tea tent, festival crowds parting around him, she ditches her sketchpad and elbow-wiggles her way to the front.

“Finally,” she whispers. “He’s going to talk.”

Jonas pulls back his hood. The crowd quiets.