For years, ever since he could remember, Tertius had been blind in one eye. Blind, yes...yet sometimes he could swear that he could see something through his right eye, something he could not describe, a vast darkness, a void of power and fear, shards of things he could not think of nor imagine. Still, what troubled him most was the pain, for ever since he had been a child, he could feel a searing, stinging pain in his eye from time to time, coupled with severe headaches no medicine seemed to be able to cope with. Today was no different, with his head feeling like someone had driven a dagger through his right eye and twisting it into his eyesocket with reckless abandon.
Sitting in his chair, looking at the flames of the fireplace within the large room he used as his personal study inside the massive Valkan Citadel he called home, the Marquis of Valkan let out a deep sigh, followed by an equally deep groan as the pain once again ravaged his eye and his skull. He almost hadn't noticed how his personal assistant Amalia had entered the room, gently placing her slender hand upon his shoulder, not saying a single word for several seconds.
"Should I perhaps send an invitation to Liin Terallo ?" Amalia's voice was smooth and silky, yet also seemed somewhat hollow. Sometimes it was as if she was not just one person, but two people...as if she had a reflection within herself, as if her soul was mirrored. "You know she wouldn't mind keeping you company if you were to ask."
"No, there is no need for that, Director Terallo is a respected member of the board and a woman of many talents and many duties, it would be counterproductive for me to pull her away from said duties," Groaning again, the Marquis reached for the side of his head, frantically rubbing with his fingers against his temples. As he groaned, he could feel how Amalia's hand seemed to grip his shoulder tighter.
"Sleep, Marquis... the pain will subside when you rest a bit," As Amalia spoke those words, Tertius could feel his eyelids becoming heavy, as if her words forced him, compelled him to close off his mind and his eyes, to allow himself to wander into the embrace that sleep represented to him...
"You truly are the most useful amongst all of us Children of C, my dear Tertius," Amalia moved towards the seat opposite to the one the Marquis had fallen asleep into. As she sat down in her seat, she leaned a bit forward, softly grinning as she playfully started poking the Marquis of Valkan's cheek with her index finger. "I remember the day we came to this place all too well, the day in which we made you. You didn't cry, you didn't protest. Even before we turned you into a child of C, you already carried His resemblance, His face and His mind. It was as if the Force itself had deemed it a necessity for His will to be enacted."
Leaning back in her chair, Amalia tilted her head a bit and smiled at the sleeping Marquis, almost as if she were looking over a child of her own. "You will discover your purpose soon enough, your place in all of it...but not yet, for now, just be glad you have me watching over you. For as long as I am around, no harm will come to you and no one will figure out exactly WHAT you truly are, my dear Tertius."
