The life of a noble bastard can vary as much as any other. Some are treated as surrogate sons, given unofficial places in the household and grudgingly respected. Others are disappeared and never heard from again. What's notable about Lukas was that he started as the latter and ended up the former. His mother was young, beautiful, gamine. A lady's maid, she caught the eye of Lord Asifrith II and within the week was bedded and discarded. Three months later her new condition was discovered, and she was bundled back to her father's inn without her last two weeks' pay.
Lukas grew up on the streets, his mother working hard day and night at his grandfather's establishment. He didn't mind. His was the bright avaricious delight in life of a small predator. He was a shadow that ducked through the streets, wise to its rhythms and rules, avoiding greater predators as he established his own turf. He was large for his age, but that didn't stop the older boys from knocking him down. Lukas, though, always got back up. The harder you hit him, the brighter his smile. Soon he was big enough to drop his old oppressors, and with his blithe smile and wicked eyes he began to form his own street gang. Its members changed with the seasons, but Lukas was always at the center, growing more violent, more adept at terrorizing his competitors.
He was finally arrested at the age of fifteen and tried for murder, belonging to a criminal organization, drug trafficking and racketeering. He'd have swung but for a locket they found around his neck; when pressed he admitted it had belonged to his mother, who was in turn forced to admit Lukas' parentage. Outrage followed, and though a big show was made of sending him to the gallows anyway, a messenger was sent to Lord Asifrith to discretely seek the noble's blessings.
It was his uncle who came to inspect him in his cell, and there Lord Bartomeu was impressed by the young boy's sangfroid and confidence. Acting on instinct, he ordered the youth freed, paid his blood debt, and took the youth back to his estate, where he had the boy enrolled with his rangers. That lasted for but a year, until it became evident that Lukas was being wasted in the forests; Lord Bartomeu came to an understanding with the boy. In exchange for martial training, quality gear, and a warm, clean bed, the youth would pledge his service to the Lord and agree to perform whatever unsavory acts the Asifrith household needed doing. Lukas was amenable, and so passed the next three years, with his training and being sent out on the occasional covert mission.
Having earned the trust of his masters, he was called in one night for his greatest task yet. A royal lodge was being built in the Verduran Forest, and Lord Asifrith wished to explore the possibility of an accidental attack on the lodge once it was established. Should the royal family perish in that attack? A tragic loss. Lukas was to be inserted into the company of guards who would clear the nearby environs, and keep an eye out for any opportunities that the Asifrith rangers could exploit when the time was ripe for tragedy.
Lukas didn't mind. Such was life. He did what he was told. And as long as he enjoyed himself, benefited from the circumstances, and had no reason to act otherwise? He'd be a seemingly loyal and patriotic member of the royal survey team, right up till the bitter end.
