Archibald Degoré

  

Archibald was born in the slums of a city; he does not remember which one - his family ran away from there when he was very young, because of his father's debts. Since then, they lived in a remote village on the south, in area near Alaenar, the pirate city. Once, the village was pillaged by bandits; and they took all men and women that they liked to sell them as slaves (some ships were still powered by people captured in this way; and some lords liked to play with girls in a manner that left them unable to function after the games were done). The leader of the pack took a liking to the boy (who was now 12) and took him in, to teach him and make a courier and a spy out of him. The boy had no complaints; he thought it was the best way to live - taking from others, all for himself; and he gladly accepted all that the old man had taught him. And when the bandit leader died, during a big fight where they won only thanks to the boy (who grew into a man with fairly interesting tastes), it was only natural for the boy to succeed him - after all, he spent last ten years preparing for that.

But once he got that position, he realised how much of a burden it was; and after killing an innocent girl on the peak of his frustration, he decided to let go of those people (while getting as much as he could out of it, of course) and start anew. What could go wrong with that, anyways?

a memory, 1:

A boy is sitting on a tree in the forest surrounding his village. He sees three suspicious men riding horses, coming to the edge of the forest and then stopping, mumbling something between themselves. After some time, one of them went back, and the boy moved to the tree above head of the man standing in front.

"I know a better way into the village.", he said, still hidden in the crown of the tree.

The man showed no signs of surprise. "Do tell, boy.", he said, with a smirk, which boy could not see.

"Only if you promise to take me away from here, without taking my freedom, and teach me how to write and read.", the boy proclaimed.

"If you become my personal errand boy, then we have the deal.", the man was now grinning.

The boy jumped off, to the ground in front of the man. The horse calmly looked at him as he was standing up. "Call off your men, for now, and follow me. On foot. I'll show you the way, and I'll wait for you in the forest while you do your thing."

The man jumped off the horse, giving the reins to the other man, who looked slightly puzzled. "Take my horse back," the man said to his underling, "and tell them to wait."

Man on the horse nodded and went back the same way they came from. The man turned to the boy and said: "Lead the way."

And the boy did so.

today, 1:

Her face haunted him.

It's not that he felt guilty; no – why would he? She was the one who ran to them with a sword in her hand (the sword he took after that). No, he was repeating that moment as a reminder to not ever again let his emotions control him; and to not ever again let himself be trapped – whether by someone else, someone else's expectations, or his own foolishness.

Or, at least, that was what he was telling himself after waking up in the middle of the night with eyes full of tears, choking down a scream.

“Never again.”, he swore to himself.

“Never again will I kill with my own hand.”

a memory, 2:

The captain taught him how to read and write; how to sneak and fight; how to disguise himself, and how to see through disguises; and many other things a spy– pardon, captain’s personal errand boy, should know. And the boy was thankful.

When the boy grew, and became a young man; the captain knew it was his time to go.

And, he did so.

With a little help, of course; but he put up no fight at all.

 (probably because he was stabbed in the back.) (...details.)

a memory, 3:

 He didn’t remember his parent’s faces. Not because he was too young when he was taken away (actually, he went away willingly, however - who cares, anyway?), but because he did his best to forget them. He forgot their names, he forgot their faces, the way they walk and speak, their habits, colours of their eyes, he forgot everything but their mistakes. Because one should learn from others’ mistakes.

today, 2:

He was quite short-tempered, but he was good at putting up an act. Everybody in the gang loved him and everyone would give their lives to save him – he was their “little brother”; but little did they know – he didn’t care one bit about them, actually – he saw them as less than human beings. He never showed that, though. Who knows when he’d need allies.

But once his irritation reached its peak (and he took it out on an innocent passerby), he decided it is time to change his life goal and let go of that place; so he sold them out to a nearby village chief (who was more than happy to not tell a soul that it wasn’t his own discovery); and he left.

a memory, 4:

The captain taught him lots of things.

“We never kill the innocent. That is one sin we must not ever commit.”, was one of the things he repeated a lot, and whenever that happened, the boy always had the same thought: “But how do we know who’s innocent?”

Now he knew.

today, 3:

It was too hot on south for that nice coat he took (it didn’t have any sleeves, though), so he decided to go north.

Lands were full of barbarians, crazy mages, clans that were at war with everyone (including their own selves), monsters and demons summoned by stupid, ignorant novice mages, and stupid and ignorant people in general; so he thought about turning back and leaving this damned lands more than once (way more times than once).

But he didn’t.

Why? He couldn’t answer that.

So, he stopped thinking and he kept on going north, hoping that he will soon find a place to stay in peace...