What makes a person care about someone else? Is it because they have something to offer? Or maybe because of an ingrained reaction – being taught to care about others? Is it something about sharing the same blood, or perhaps simple familiarity? Or is it simply a desire not to be alone?
It doesn’t matter who you are. We all die alone. Even when there’s someone there with us. In some cases, it’s because that very person with you as you die is the one killing you. That’s a fact of life I learned when I was six years old. That’s when my sister died alone. In the end, though it was another person who ended her life, I was the one who killed her.
It has become a relatively well known secret that in Cheliax, many employ the powers of devils. A better kept secret is that there are those few who control other beings of power from beyond the veil between the planes. My family is one such group of people.
Long have we worked for the good of our nation. House Promeio has produced some of the greatest assassins and spies that no one has ever heard of. We are staunch guardians of our people. Those few who know of us call us the Black Hounds of the Empire. If one of our number is called into service, it is because of the security of Cheliax can risk no lesser measure.
We practice a type of magic foreign to even some of the greatest wizards of the world. Through rituals arcane and terrifying, we bind a being from another realm to our service, shaping their very essence to our whim. They serve us unfailingly and unquestioningly. A guardsman may be bribed, a horse may be killed, but an eidolon is unwaveringly under our command and if slain will return the next day to serve again. Some of our strongest members can even bring back a slain eidolon immediately.
It takes strength to serve our empire, and so it is that the greatest summoner in a generation becomes head of the Promeio family when his or her predecessor dies. So it is that one who lacks the same power but instead holds enough ambition may find themselves feeling unfairly denied what they perceive as their birthright.
I don’t know the name of the first Promeio to slay one of their kin to ascend the ranks, but it started something bigger than that one act. Within a generation, it became all out warfare amongst the children of Promeio. The family was nearly wiped out that generation, as brother slew sister and cousin slew cousin.
Only one heir remained, and he had survived only perhaps by luck. As the head of the household, he was called for a mission by the nation and used the skills he had learned to great effect, proving to him that there had perhaps indeed been merit within the games. At the same time, he realized just how close our family had come to extinction, so he knew that limits had to be set. He got together with his two remaining siblings and they hammered together a set of guidelines.
The rules he set were simple. The older generation could not become directly involved. People under the age of fifteen were not to be harmed. No witnesses could be left, though members of the same generation could not act as witnesses, nor could servants, so it was fine if they saw something. And finally, while venom coated weapons were fine, ingestible and contact poisons were not allowed, due to the risk of accidentally killing the wrong target.
He and each of his siblings proved to be quite fecund, each having at least ten children. It was they who codified the final practice. His children banded together, seeking to eliminate their rivals from the other families. By doing so, they ensured that they would survive until the end. Once they stood unopposed, they worked out their pecking order using less final means than murder, until one of them was crowned the heir.
As I have mentioned, there’s some kind of inherent fertility amongst the Promeio family that means that every married member ends up with at least half a dozen children, if not more, though the ten children each of the first generation is not uncommon. So it was strange that our family only had three. This wasn’t for lack of trying, as mother and father loved each other dearly, but it was a fact nonetheless.
I suspect that it was because of mother, if I’m being honest. She wasn’t human. Not exactly, anyway. She was an Aasimar, one whose bloodline was touched by a celestial being. I still have some memories of her, though she died when I was young. Her hair looked like it was ablaze, though it was never hot to the touch. And I’m not waxing metaphorically. It wasn’t just red, it literally looked to be on fire.
She was a gentle soul, though the fire on her head burned within her heart as well. She used to take her bow and hunt down bandits and others who would prey upon the weak. It was during one such excursion that she met my father. He had been sent to deal with a nobleman across the border in Nidal who had been preying on peasants on the Chelish side of the border. Diplomatic efforts had slowed to a grinding halt, so rather than mass troops on the border and risk an incident, my father was called in to deal with the threat discreetly.
My mother, who had been traveling in the area and heard of the problem from locals, had decided to take matters into her own hands as well. When they met and realized they had the same goal, they teamed up. They were married two months later. My eldest sister, Alena, was born roughly seven months after that. Mother was never a very good fit for the family, but she stuck around for father.
Anyway, back on topic. The fact that there were only three of us meant that we were at a disadvantage. We had larger families all around us. In all, we were three of eighty-seven. Add in the fact that we were so far apart in age – when Alena turned fifteen, Alessia was eleven and I was two, and it basically meant that each member of the family was alone, surrounded by others who wanted them dead.
It’s not surprising that Alena fled on the eve of her fifteenth birthday. I was too young to remember it, but as I understand it, she simply snuck out her window, joined a group of Desnan pilgrims and was gone. I’ve heard rumors that she’s now a cleric of the Goddess of Luck and Travel, but nothing concrete. It was probably all for the best. As I understand it, she was never able to conjure an eidolon anyway. She would have been easy prey for our cousins.
When Alessia turned fifteen, she abused the rules to stay alive. She made sure never to give the others an opportunity to strike at her. There was always a witness to prevent conflict. She was smart.
If it hadn’t been for me, she’d probably still be alive today. I was six years old and fearless when I caused my sister’s death.
Alone among my sisters, I had been born with mother’s gift, the mark of the Aasimar, and I thought the heavens protected me from everything. My eyes glow blue, though it’s hard to see it in daylight, and when I’m upset, my blond hair burns like my mother’s.
So, while we were at the fifteenth birthday celebration of one of our cousins, when my seven year old cousin suggested we sneak off to play in the family cemetery, I rushed off with him, pleased with my defiance of authority.
Fifteenth birthdays are a huge celebration in our family. On dawn the following day, you’re no longer considered a child. Instead, you are now a valid target for the ambitions of your cousins. It’s then that the time to sink or swim comes. So, it’s not surprising that there’s always a big bash for fifteenth birthdays. Everyone attends. The only bigger event is the yearly birthday party for the head of the household.
That meant that there were no witnesses outside the party.
Once I was gone, my cousin’s older brother told Alessia that I had been taken to the cemetery and that if she didn’t come alone, they would kill me and have the body taken so far away that the family would never find it. I wasn’t a valid target for the family war, but if they didn’t have my body, it’s not like they could revive me to testify anyway. I’d just be the stupid girl who wandered off and got eaten by wolves or something.
Alessia, panicked with worry, summoned her eidolon and rushed to my aid. She was no match for the five cousins who waited for her.
The cousin who had lured me away held me down and forced me to watch as his five older siblings had their eidolons tear Alessia limb from limb slowly. It took her almost ten minutes to die as they inflicted agonizing wound after agonizing wound. With her dying breath, she told me to grow up strong, so I would never suffer the same fate.
With my sister dead, the others knew that killing me would invite suspicion on them for something they could actually be punished for, so they left me there. I cried on the broken and torn corpse of my sister for over an hour before someone came for me.
I felt someone picking me up. Terrified, I looked and saw the face of Walter, my grandfather’s manservant. He told me that I was safe now and shot off a flare arrow into the sky, the signal that another had fallen to the deadly game.
My mother broke down when she saw the corpse of my sister. She didn’t eat nor sleep for three days as she stood vigil over the corpse in the Shrine of Pharasma. At dusk on the third day, she drank a dose of hemlock and died beside her daughter. So much for the protection of the heavens.
The death of his wife and daughter destroyed my father. He turned to drink and never escaped it. He barely talked to me after that. If it hadn’t been for the household servants, I would have died for lack of proper care and feeding.
Meanwhile, with no one to comfort me, I was left alone with my newfound fear. I would wake up in the middle of the night, crying and shaking with terror. I even began wetting the bed again. I hadn’t done that since I was three.
After a month too afraid to leave my room, I finally had an epiphany. This wasn’t what Alessia would have wanted. She told me to be strong, too strong for them to hurt me like they had hurt her. At the age of six, my innocence gone, I made a vow. I swore that I would live, no matter the cost, and that I would find a way to make them pay for what they had done to Alessia.
The only problem was that I had no idea how to do it.
I took almost a week to consider just how I would make my first move. Right now, I was a terrified and grieving child. What first step would give me the best chance at succeeding? I decided that my best bet was to make sure that as few people wanted me dead as possible, at least at the moment. I had to appear weak, or at least non-threatening. I didn’t want them planning their moves before my fifteenth birthday. I wanted to appear like someone they could deal with another time.
So it was that, as difficult as it was, I emerged from my room acting as though nothing had happened. I acted as sweet as candy and as friendly as possible to everyone around me. I acted like a vapid twit. I was nothing more than a sweet little princess, to be ignored.
I began looking around me for every advantage I could. I spotted my first one in the family servants. To most of the family, they were beneath notice. They came and went without anyone batting an eye. People talked and plotted like they weren’t there. I began doing my best to befriend them. As used to being ignored as they were, my attention won them over fairly quickly. It took less than two years before I had servants from most of the families wrapped around my little finger.
I hit my first growth spurt at the age of ten. I was never going to be tall. Like mother, I would probably never grow much beyond five foot nine, but the height increase meant I was now large enough to begin learning how to use mother’s bow. It normally hung over the fireplace, so I took it down, erected a small firing range in our mansion’s dining hall, and began practicing.
It became quickly apparent that I had no idea what I was doing, so I sent one of our servants to the nearby town to quietly enlist the services of an instructor. He taught me much, and I quickly became fairly proficient in the weapon, though I was still too weak to draw it properly.
Once I was certain I had nothing more to learn from him, we had a “training accident” and he caught an arrow in the throat. I put on my best act and told the family servants that I was terrified that I would get in trouble for the accident, so they quietly buried him in a shallow grave in the woods behind the house and no one but me and a few select servants ever knew he had been there. Now I no longer had to worry that he would blab about my new skill to anyone.
The servants thought I was too traumatized by the incident to pick up the bow again. I started practicing at night, in secret.
Lessons in the art of summoning were held jointly, among all the cousins. I did my best while there to learn as much as possible while appearing to be learning nothing. I also did my best to be friendly and appear moronic to the others. I wanted them to think I was trying to find someone to protect me.
I actually progressed faster in knowledge than anyone else. I managed to contact a being from another world at the age of twelve, two years younger than most of the others. He agreed that he would become my eidolon. All I needed to do was give him form.
I hesitated. I needed to not only hide what I could do, but I wanted to make sure I chose the best form to match the situation I found myself in. It took me over two years to finally decide. Meanwhile, I continued learning everything I could. I had the servants teach me household chores, acrobatics, anything they knew that I did not. One servant’s elderly father had been a lieutenant in the army, so I would sit and listen for hours as he talked, learning what I could about military history and tactics. I had no idea what would be the key to my salvation, so I learned everything I could.
A month before my fifteenth birthday, I began doubting myself. Even with everything I had learned, I was still outnumbered. Even the smallest other family had five living children to stand against me. To make matters worse, I still hadn’t decided on what form to give my eidolon.
I needed to be away from home, to go somewhere where I could think clearly. I took a purse of platinum coins from my father’s vault and headed into town, taking two of our house guards with me. I decided that by the end of the month I would either figure out a form for my eidolon that would give me a chance to survive, or I would chart passage on a boat and flee like Alena had.
Alone in my room at the inn, I began to commune with my the faceless presence that had agreed to become my eidolon. We spoke at length about all the possibilities I could shape it into. Would I decide to make it a flying terror, a calamity from the sky? Perhaps a pouncing fiend, like a cat from one of the great jungles? A stealthy serpent, capable of striking from a hidden place to constrict and devour its foes? A great gorilla, capable of pummeling its targets to death with massive paws?
“No,” I told the being. “None of those can possibly overcome the strengths of the others. One on one, perhaps, but I doubt I’ll ever face better than three to one odds.”
“Then perhaps you’re looking at it all wrong,” its voice said within my mind.
“What do you mean?”
“You have looked to make a protector based on how great its strengths make it. Perhaps what you need is to use the form of something that is great because of its weaknesses.”
“What do you mean by that?” I asked, but the presence was gone.
I may never have gotten the answer had it not been for an accident. I was sitting near the docks, watching the sun set, when I witnessed a line break, sending a cage flying. A large cat, no doubt bound for some private collection, broke free and began attacking the people around it. Several people fell, hopeless in the face of the deadly predator, until a lone guardsman in chainmail brought the thing down with a spear.
I sat in awe. That was the answer I needed. Compared to the other creatures of the world, man is pathetically weak. He has no claws. His body is soft and fragile, with no scales or tough hide to protect him. His ability to swim is average at best, as is his ability to climb. He runs more slowly than many creatures and doesn’t burrow well either.
Yet, in spite of, or perhaps because of, his weaknesses, man stands dominant over this world. His lack of claws forced man to learn to forge weapons of stone and sticks and metal to be his claws. His lack of scales taught man to gird himself in scales and plates of steel. His lack of swimming ability forced him to build ships to travel the waters, while his weakness at climbing forced man to build ropes and pitons and other tools to aid him there. He had built spades to burrow and had taught horses to carry him to make up for his lack of speed.
Man was great not in spite of his weakness, but because of it. That was the answer the being had hinted at. No form would serve my purposes like the form of a man. I sent home the guards who had traveled with me, then went to a nearby tailor and purchased clothing for tall, strong man as well as a scarf, a large coat and a wide brimmed hat. I then returned to my room and called to the presence.
“Have you decided?” it asked.
“Yes,” I said. “I will give you the form of a man. We will hide what you are with these clothes and strike at our foes while they believe that many of the spells used to disrupt eidolons to be useless upon you.”
“Excellent,” it said. “Tell me, mistress, as you give me shape and I search across the ether for skills to suit your purposes, what shall I keep a look out for?”
“Seek out the skills of a soldier. Learn the skills to run and jump and climb, but also the histories of other soldiers and what skills best served them.”
“And as a soldier, what weapon shall I wield?”
“Learn to wield the blade known as the falcata. It alone is known to hack like an axe while also slashing like a sword. It may not offer the reach of other weapons, but our fighting will become up close and brutal when we don’t use other weapons to strike from afar.”
“I understand. I shall seek out what you require as you prepare a body for me.”
I drew the runes upon the ground and began the work to forge a body for my minion, pushing the energies together to make a singular form as close as possible to that which I sought. Once that was done, I pushed the swirling energies of the being into this new form I could feel the rune on my forehead appear and begin to glow as I saw the one on my eidolon’s forehead appear as well.
“Mistress,” he said, kneeling before me. “I shall be your knight. I will serve to protect you in all things until you decide you no longer need me.”
“No, not a knight,” I said. “Knights have rules and codes. You shall be a mercenary, dark, mysterious and unfettered from the rules of society.”
“I understand,” he said, his deep voice filling the room. “Tell me, mistress, what shall I be called?”
“All shall know you as Belkross,” I said, the name coming to my mind unbidden. And so it was that I was now complete.
At Belkross’ suggestion, I visited an armorer and had him make for me a shirt of chain and a special helmet to hide the rune on my forehead while offering protection as well. I opted to have the armorer work with a jeweler to make it also look fashionable, allowing my hair to come out the back and sparkling with several gems. When intensity of purpose caused my hair to begin showing the flames I inherited from my mother, the play of light on the glinting metal could be mesmerising.
I also purchased a pair of falcatas for Belkross, one in steel and another in cold iron, in case he should need it. I had an ornate quiver and a number of arrows fashioned of different materials, in case I needed them as well. Finally, I visited a dressmaker and had her make for me a beautiful dress. It was almost my fifteenth birthday. I didn’t want to show up in some dress people had seen before.
The night of the party, Belkross and I quietly returned to my father’s home. With Belkross’ help, I put on my fancy dress, did my makeup and donned my mail shirt and fancy helmet. Normally, this wouldn’t have looked very good, with the armor on top, but another gift from my mother is that any metal I wear always looks like polished silver or gold. I focused my mind, willing it to look silver, like shining mithral, contrasting my blood red dress and blond hair. A few pieces of jewelry completed the look.
While the party was in full swing, Belkross helped me up onto a second floor balcony, one with no outside stairs, so that no one would expect me to come from that direction. There, I waited, listening in on the party within. I could hear people inside laughing at me while they drank their wine. They were certain I had fled, just like Alena.
It was all I could do to bide my time. I wanted to wait for the right moment. Just before midnight, one of my cousins, the one who had held me down as Alessia was killed, began to denounce me to my grandfather. “Do you see? She has fled, like the coward she is. She dishonors the family name and should be struck from the family records.”
As he spoke, his back was to the entrance to the second floor balcony on the level above him, so he didn’t see me enter, smiling serenely. The room fell silent as he continued to make an ass of himself. Some of the things he said are certainly best not repeated, and I took them as just more that I owed him for.
Based on the pacing of his obviously rehearsed speech, he was about halfway through when he turned and spotted me. He nearly leapt from his skin. I gave him my sweetest, most winsome smile. “HHHIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!” I said in the most sincere and vapid sounding tone I could manage. “Sorry I’m late, everyone. I just couldn’t get my hair to do what I wanted. But you all forgive me, right?”
A laugh went through the crowd at the expense of my idiot cousin. He tried to save face. “So afraid that you wore armor to your own birthday party?”
“Oh, this stuff? I didn’t want to wear it, but he insisted.”
With that cue, Belkross entered the room behind me. He drew his falcata and pointed it before him, making a sweeping motion across the room. “I’m only going to say this once.” His voice boomed through the stunned silence, easily understood in spite of the scarf across his mouth. “Mistress Lillian has paid me a great deal to ensure her safety, and I will do so. Any who so much as attempt to harm her will know swift and merciless death followed by the sale of your broken corpse to ogres for stew. Do you understand me?”
No one dared speak, the look in Belkross’ eyes cowing them. I laughed sweetly. “Oh, don’t be such a grump, Belkie! This is a party. Besides, I’m sure no one wants to hurt me. Everyone here just adores me, right?” I flashed an innocent smile at the room.
After a few moments of stunned silence, my cousin once again spoke. “This is an outrage! How dare she bring an outsider into our business! Grandfather, I demand that she be cast out this instant for her treachery!”
My uncle struck his son. “You demand?! You watch your tone when speaking to your grandfather, boy. Or must I beat proper manners into you once more?” My cousin looked to be about to say something, but the look on Uncle’s face made him think better of it. My uncle turned to Grandfather. “Despite his rude manner, he does have a point, Father. What say you?”
My grandfather looked at me and Belkross for a moment. I gave him a beatific smile and Belkross nodded his head respectfully. After a moment, Grandfather began to laugh. It came from the belly and filled the room with sound. “My! What an interesting turn of events. Are you sure, my girl?” I nodded to him. “Well, then, if this is who she has chosen as her protector, then I will hear no one speak ill of her decision. Minstrels, resume playing. Let us enjoy our feast now that the guest of honor has arrived.”
As we mingled among the guests, many came to pay their respects, as is customary. I continued playing the idiot to all, smiling and appearing as though I was trying to win them over. As we left, my cousin sought me out. “I hope you enjoyed your birthday,” he said. “You won’t be getting another.”
For the first time that night, alone with only my cousin and Belkross, I dropped the act. “At the end, you will beg me for death. If I am feeling merciful, you will receive it. Come Belkross, let us leave.” I spun on my heel and left my stammering idiot of a cousin behind.
While we fight to the death, most of my cousins are cowards. They only strike when they have a decisive numerical advantage. I carefully made sure that none could catch me alone without witnesses. Meanwhile, I used the time I had spent cultivating friendships with the various household servants to my advantage. Wanting to protect me, they told me everything that was occurring, any plots they overheard. I used what I knew to engineer advantages or erase others.
I did much of this by manipulating my foolish cousins into situations they could not handle. Where two thought they would be ambushed by four, they brought six. When the ambush was six, they found themselves suddenly evenly matched and fighting desperately for their lives. A few well-placed arrows ensured that none survived to tell the tale of my involvement.
The usual cowardice meant that no more than six or eight fell a year. In my first year of involvement, nearly twenty of my cousins perished. I count about a third of those as dead by my direct hand or that of Belkross. The rest died by my words, rather than my deeds.
I didn’t always avoid attacks on me. Once, I allowed three of my cousins to ambush me. Knowing what they had planned, it was a calculated risk, but I felt that the threat was reasonably small. Belkross was ready for them and slew one, and we “just barely escaped with our lives”. I made sure that the servants spread the rumor that I was terrified by the ordeal, hoping someone would take the bait.
My idiot cousin, the one who had spoken out at my birthday, sent a messenger to me, saying that he wanted to meet with me to discuss a possible way that I could be safe. I met with him in a place with witnesses but where we could talk privately.
I could see that he was getting desperate and suspected that I had been involved in the deaths of some of the others. “I have found a loophole. There is a way you could join my family and thus be protected by us and work with us. Think of it, we could all be safe.”
I pretended to be excited by the suggestion. “What is it?”
“Marry me. That way, you’ll be a part of my household and my brothers and sisters would have to protect you too.”
“But, we’re cousins!” I said with a gasp, feigning shock.
“It’s not that unusual. After all, royal families do it all the time.
“No one would permit it. Your father would step in.”
“Then I’ll hire a cleric to wed us in secret. Once it’s done, it’ll be too late to stop it.”
I pretended to consider it. “And you’re sure it’ll keep me safe?” I asked, trying to sound as vulnerable as I could.
“I’ll protect you, and so will my family, once they have to.”
“Okay then,” I agreed.
“Alright, meet in three days at Illisar’s Meadow at midnight. You won’t regret this.”
I’m no idiot. His plan was immediately clear. It was also disgusting. He meant to have me, but not keep me. I would be ambushed, brutalized and broken if I fell for his ruse. He also intended to involve his brothers and sisters. Even if I saw it coming, the odds were against me.
That’s why it was so very important to prepare for them. They seemed to expect me to just wait around for the day to come, as if those were the rules or something. Those idiots had no idea what they had signed themselves up for.
When the night came, Belkross and I snuck out under cover of darkness. Near the meadow, Belkross split off and shadowed me from the trees, making his way quietly to the little surprise we had prepared. I stepped out onto the moonlit meadow and greeted my waiting cousin. “Where is the cleric?” I asked.
“I’m afraid he isn’t coming. But they are,” he said, indicating four figures stepping out from the shadows. I could hear their eidolons rustling the bushes behind them. “I’m going to have a lot of fun with you before I kill you. You should have brought your mercenary.”
I smiled. “Who says I didn’t?” Mentally, I commanded Belkross to attack. A sound could be heard across the meadow as Belkross fired the catapult. They never saw the barrel of alchemist’s fire sailing through the air before it slammed into the ground next to the massed quartet by the trees.
Still, one of them managed to dodge. As the others flailed about and burned to death, he rolled away. He stood and commanded his eidolon to attack. I had my bow in hand in an instant and launched an arrow into his throat. He died instantly and the eidolon vanished mid-air as it had been leaping to pounce on me. I then turned my attention to my lone remaining cousin, the fool who had tried to lure me here. “I’m afraid it’s over. I win.”
“No! I still have my eidolon. Kill her!”
The beast, like a great dog, snarled and leapt from the bushes. Belkross acted once more, letting fly with a well-aimed javelin from a hidden ballista. It pinned the beast to a tree, killing it instantly. Belkross sauntered across the meadow and I drew the curved sickle from my belt.
As I had promised, he begged for death at the end. He didn’t get it for four hours. I told him that I was tempted to leave him alive. “No, I will be merciful. I will not force you to spend your remaining nights waking up terrified as you relive the deaths of your loved ones. I will not let you suffer as your mother dies of grief and your father turns away from you. No, you’re simply going to become nothing more than a memory. An afterthought. Goodbye, cousin.” I must admit, I rather enjoyed slicing his throat.
Just before dawn, I shot five flare arrows into the air and my household servants came to wheel off the siege engines.
My efforts proved a bit destabilizing. While everyone thought they were relatively safe, no one took risks. But after rumors that Belkross and I had killed five in one night began spreading, panic ensued. One cousin stepped over the line and tried to summon a forbidden fiend to strike me down.
Normally, we of House Promeio call upon Devils to do our bidding when simple fiendish creatures will not do. Devils can be controlled by the bond that is their word if one is careful enough. Occasionally, we will also summon demons, as they can be controlled through displays of power.
Daemons, however, are another matter. It’s forbidden to call one. They can’t be controlled.
Nonetheless, he tried. He tried to conjure a Crucidaemon, embodiment of death by torture. But apparently he was too much of an idiot to even get that right. Instead, he managed to conjure an Astradaemon, fierce harvesters of souls said to be created by the Four Horsemen themselves. Naturally, this meant that the bindings he had placed to keep it in line were the wrong ones. He died quickly. And that left an Astradaemon to wreak havoc in the area.
Most of the family died not even knowing it was coming. Grandfather tried to fight it, but only held it back for a while. His servant Walter brought me word of what was going on and told me to flee. Belkross and I grabbed as much money as we could from my father’s vault and were on horseback within the hour. I’m told that my father didn’t even bother to look up when the daemon came for him.
Eventually, Hell Knights were dispatched to bring it down. Somehow, I was blamed for summoning it, so I had to leave Cheliax, a fugitive from my homeland. I moved about a bit at first, doing my best to stay ahead of the false accusations against me, but eventually I realized that I would have to flee much further to escape.
That’s why I got on that damned boat filled with fools. In hindsight, maybe I should have risked the law.
