Melarnic

(Melarnic has broken my predictive text: colorolorolorolorolorolorolorolorolorolorolorolorolorolorolorolo greenreenreenreenreenreen purpleurpleurpleurple . When Lore transcends Reality...)

"Pick a card, any card.

Thirteen? How lucky you are!"

I've said those words many times in my life. The card is always thirteen. I fear the day that it is not.

I dabble in magic most find dark or grim, occasionally downright evil. I resurrect the dead, I breathe new life into the broken, I play with dark powers in hopes to defeat the Shade. For this and more, I have been called "Shade Touched" by those who don't care to understand.

You have to fight evil with evil. Good only goes so far.

But I'm not completely evil.

Some of my experiments are grim, yes, and I may have had dealings with evil, but I do what I must for the greater good of us all.

I found Cadwal, broken, left for dead, an Imperial with a strength of spirit I'd never seen before. I know my lore, that dead Imperials can become Emperors. So, I fixed him. He stands just on this side of the living, rebuilt with the finest steam engines, boilers, and mechanical wings I could build. He fights so that others don't have to, and I built him better than nature made him.

Nacht has an obsession with flying fast. I used Cadwal's wings as the prototype, and built Nacht a set of sleek mechanical wings. I hope to sell these to dragons who lost their original wings, and to dragons who have a hard time flying.

Perhaps the most evil thing I have done is to bring the soul of a powerful Sorceress from another world here, and to put her soul into a Gaoler. Jenifer is my evil-to-fight-evil, a former Hero gone bad, but there's still the tiniest shred of good in her. At least, I certainly hope so. Otherwise, I've unleashed an evil on this world that is worse than the Shade, with no way to easily get rid of her!

I'm not a hero. I'm the villain with a kind heart.