Role

Chapter 1

The first question I ever remember asking myself was, "Did she kill him"?
These simple words bespoke a complex problem, for she was my mother and he
was my father. I never knew my father, though not a day has gone by I haven't
longed for a look into his eyes or a word from his lips. I imagine he was a
cunning man, one with wisdom and strength, a man who could have taught me to
be a man. Every day spent without him was a day that stoked the fires of my
mental acquisitiveness, my burning desire to know if she took him from me.

Call me Arbrarn Green. Call me Arbrarn for the obvious reasons, but call me
Green for the color of those I question. I shall speak more upon the manner
of my questioning later, but know the core of my worth is my ability to use
toxicants to compel the tongue to truth or to death, if no truth is to be
heard.

Why then did I not use my malignant gifts to force the truth from my mother's
mouth? I shall tell you why. Love. Not love for my mother, but love for my
dear younger brother, Elbio. Elbio loved mother, and I could never bear the
guilt of hurting him with the pain my questioning would visit upon her.

Half a decade my junior, Elbio did not struggle without a strong man in his
life, for he had me. He didn't harbor my resentments, my anger. Sure as the
world, he was a typical duergar snot, but he was to grow to greatness, of
that I am sure.

Mother was a wretch, far from her own greatness and thus without cognate by
which to inspire the greatness of her offspring. Even the provision of basic
means was beyond her. Thus, I provided those means. I put Elbio in clothes,
soothed his nightmares, made his meals. I was his father, mother, brother and
confidant. He was my dearest friend.

I am sure by now you notice I speak of dear Elbio in tense past. His demise
was untimely. His potential was stolen from me and from the world. I will
soon tell the painful story of his end, but first I return to the beginning.

My early years were spent in Aran'gird, as is common for my kind. And, as is
also common, I began an apprenticeship in my teen years. However, mine was an
uncommon apprenticeship among the Inquisitors. As one of their number I was
trained in the particular specialty of poisons. I studied poisons that kill,
certainly, but those are the least useful. Poisons to loosen the tongue and
harvest Knowledge far surpass their lethal counterparts.