Role

Chapter 3

Freedom, finally, after all these years, I'm free. It is wonderment, amazing.
It took my breath away, and I wanted to shout to the world. It was a very
painful process, I should say. I had just finished praying to Lord Twist to
watch over my wife and Lord Corrlaan to guide me, as I do quite often, and
suddenly there was a terrible pain in my chest as it exploded, severely damaging
my clavin, and when I regained enough of my senses, I noticed the infernal
tattoo was gone. Gone at last, finally, it was gone.

I was ecstatic, euphoric. I told Gringora right away, and then told Tsyda, as
soon as she returned. Of course, Lyristeon tried to screw with me a bit more,
after that, sending in a prostitute to try to condemn me and giving me some sort
of rash in my, er, private areas, but a little ointment applied by my wife
helped soothe it immensely.

I'm almost certain it was Lyristeon who removed the tattoo, though I'm not
why He did it. Could be any number of reasons, really. One never knows with
Him, but then, I'm not even certain it needed to be gotten rid of in order to
spend my afterlife with Tsyda. I certainly couldn't take the Imp's word on it,
though. If there's one thing He isn't, it's trustworthy, and I just didn't want
to take the chance.

Speaking of such things, I've realized I still have feelings for Zaphie, and I
know she still has feelings for me, but I will never betray Tsyda. That much, I
know. Perhaps the three of us could work something out, if not in this life,
then the afterlife. I suppose it all depends on the future. Everything depends
on the future, but at least I'm happy, Tsyda's happy, and the people for whom I
care are, as well. That's what really matters.