First and foremost, Coran is a thief.
He has assumed many identities and badges of honor over the expansive years of his lifetime. A defender of the universe, the kingās most trusted advisor, and a chairman of Alteaāhow grandiose! The titles adorning Coran are so respectable that heās often baffled at their association with him. Him? Coran, who had once spilled corrosive chemicals on his boss while trying to sneak them out of the lab. Coran, who raced through back alleys with scraped knees after being caught setting off fireworks for the umpteenth time. Coran, who danced brashly, laughed loudly, dug through trash bins, and stole. He stole all assortments of trinkets and valuables: medicine for the stray animals harboring illness, toys for the other streetkids, and books for himself.
Coran stole many, many books.
Storybooks, textbooks, comicbooks, and more. Whatever his nimble hands could grasp, heād snatch. Coran would steal books and hide them in burrows of crumbling walls that no Altean officer would think to rummage through. Then, when the coast was clear, heād toe his way around unkempt wreckage and feast on his goods.
Coran would peel the books open and stare. Heād stare until he could read, and heād read until he could understand. This was another kind of theft; knowledge and skill were luxurious delicacies forbidden for the likes of a dirty orphan boy, even in an elite and pompous empire like Altea.
āWhat if you get caught?ā A fellow streetkid asks Coran after he regales him with a Galran fairytale. āWhat happens to you then?ā
Coran tosses him a blithe grin. āThen I start all over again.ā
He nods firmly. āI can restart my life anytime I want.ā
And it was true. When agitated officers spewed arrant curses at him as they kicked him out of the third school he snuck into, Coran started over. He escaped to a new part of the world. Redid it all. Rinse and repeat. He had nothing to lose except for his stolen goodsāthe knowledge tucked into the folds of his brain. That was okay. Coran had long since conciliated with the indigent nature of his life. He was rich in other ways. As long as Coran stole, heād be forever rich.
Coran stole his way into the Royal Medical Academy through snatching another studentās ID. He stole his way into the Castleās hospital by being in the right place at the right time. He weasled his way onto King Alforās council by protecting him from Galran jingoists.
It was all theft, wasnāt it? Everything Coran cemented into his life, from his byzantine surgical patents to his position as baby Alluraās godfather, had been placed on the wobbling foundations of his crimes.
It would be okay, Coran decided, because he could start all over again. Redo it all. Rinse and repeat. He could leave his prestigious occupation and become a space pirate. He could be a dancer, a painter, or a chef. A sportsman, an assassin, or a pilot. Coran could do it all.
Then, Coran commits the most tremendous theft of all times:
He lives on, while others donāt. He seals himself into quiescence while the rest of his planet is rampaged and expunged. It is Coranās heart that beats on in place of King Alfor, other nobles, knights, doctors, criminals, or civilians. Coran, who has been chosen, perhaps as a salubrious blessing or saturnine punishment, to live. It couldāve been someone else in his place, guiding a princess and naive, doe-eyed aliens into war, while his ashes spread through the cosmos. Noāit wouldāve. Coran would not have been here were he not a thief.
Itās no matter pondering such fatuous concepts.
He starts over. Redoes it all.
Coran becomes an engineer. A medic. A strategist. A diplomat. He steals Galran soldiersā lives. He moves through the universe as a pariah.
And when the debris settles and the winds of violence pierce through Alluraās heart before dying down, Coran finds himself with scraps of an ancient empire that donāt truly belong to him. Here he stands as a new and shiny leader, in place of the girl who lent her soul to the universe. Another theft.
āWhat do we do now?ā Romelle pleads. Sheās such a young girl. His heart twangs with sympathy.
āNow,ā Coran says, āWe restart.ā
