William King: Shadowblood

In those days he had been a private soldier, unaware of his deadly heritage, unsuspecting of the part he would play in the future of the realm. As the voices whispered in his skull, it all seemed like a much more innocent time to him. He had succeeded beyond his wildest dreams in achieving his ambitions from those days. He was rich. He was a sorcerer of power, familiar with magic that not even Lady Asea had mastered. He had climbed out of the gutter and touched the stars he had reached for and he still was not entirely happy. He wondered if it was even possible now for him to be so.

There were times when he wished that he had never learned those secrets and had never become familiar with the practice of magic. There were times when he wished that he could be anonymous again. High Inquisitor Joran sometimes visited. Although he was affable he gave Rik strange looks, as if he suspected Rik indulged in forbidden practices. For the moment, Asea was too powerful for the Inquisitor to do anything about those suspicions but things had a way of changing. If he had learned anything, it was that there was nothing certain in Terrarch politics.

He supposed he should be grateful that he was still alive. There had been times during the long trip back from Askander when he had doubted that he would survive. The ship had carried them all the way to Harven and there had been a nerve-wracking period when it had taken all of Tamara and his skills to get them out of the seaport city. It had taken a great deal more effort to get them across the undead haunted lands and back to where the Talorean army waited. Since then he had lived very quietly. He had studied magic under the tutelage of both Asea and Tamara and he had learned a great deal.

He knew that sometime soon he was going to be called upon to use those spells and skills that he had learned. Things were changing in Terrarch realms. The humans were restless. The Terrarchs were uncertain. Rumours of what Xephan and his clique had planned circulated and many of the more progressive Terrarchs had been appalled.

Even those who secretly approved of that mad scheme claimed to be. It was unsafe to do anything else with Asea in the ascendancy.

If she called upon him to assassinate her enemies he would do it and not just because he owed her a great debt. He would do it because he agreed with her and he felt that those enemies were worth removing. He had finally reached a place from which he could change the world. The path that had led him there was a long one and a strange one. There were times when he wondered whether the Shadow had touched him after all when he thought so casually of murder. It was always possible. The Shadow worked in subtle ways; he had experience of that.

All he could do was his best. He could try and make the world a better place for humans because he was on their side and because they were the majority and deserved better than they had got so far. If that was the work of the Shadow then so be it. He smiled.

He lived in interesting times.