‘The King knows this, and it is in my heart that he intends Cir to be his means to accomplish what his madness has led him to, and it is of this that I now must speak.’
He rose from his seat to stand at the window.
‘Long ago, as a child, the King, then the Prince of Valerian, witnessed death for the first time. His mother, whom he loved dearly, was struck with some illness that our healers were never able to identity. She died in agony, and her husband soon followed. Many thought the deaths suspicious, that they embodied some hidden purpose.
‘If there was some hidden purpose, it came to fruition when the young Prince was made King. The responsibilities of office came hard to him, for he was far too young and mired in grief. Over time, an unreasoning fear of his own death began to grow on him like a cancer, eating at his mind, his spirit.
‘Over the years, this fear became an obsession with him. He turned to the Lore for answers, but was unsatisfied with what the Loremasters told him. They said, of course, that death is a natural and necessary part of life, which it is.
‘His obsession drove him to cruelty and viciousness. He reviled his Loremasters, telling them that if the Lore could alter the course of the Seasons and the Weather, then it could also give him greater, if not infinite life.