The town was suspicious of Walter, so to them it was a good thing he had been the one to suggest that they kill the child. He had dazzled them with referance to something called Okham's Razer, whatever that might be, and it was true that many in the Callas had claimed to see the child take on a much more sinister form. And it was true that a child speaking and growing so quickly was queer, but there was much queer in mid-world as reality grew thin and the world moved on.
The man in black humored the folks. He didn't know for sure whether this child was the one he sought, but one look at the strange birthmark on his leg confirmed it. Walter turned his back upon the child, putting on his most winning smile and faced the crowd to make his grand speech about ending evil. His words died on the air as the crowd gasped and surged back away from him. Turning quickly, he caught the very last bit of the boy transforming into a large black and red spider, hideous to look upon.
The boy-spider reached out with its power to compel him to obey, that it would be easy and painless to give himself up to the boy and feed his endless hunger. It cost Walter Padick a great measure of his protection to resist that compulsion, but he was able to resist and as the Spider scrambled in confusion that its prey didn't simply stand there assisting in its own demise, Walter Padick reached in and snatched away the marked leg he knew he would need, before fleeing through the crowd, who would follow if they had any good sense.
For the tower would open only to the line of Eld, and while Walter Padick was many things, born to that line he was not. He would need the leg when he ascended to the room at the top of the tower to take command of existence. There was an extra spring in his step and something a little too real about the normally false smile on his face as he made his way through town.
The boy-spider had been weakened ... but so had Walter.
Nobody has died. Caluin Graye has been weakened.
The man in black humored the folks. He didn't know for sure whether this child was the one he sought, but one look at the strange birthmark on his leg confirmed it. Walter turned his back upon the child, putting on his most winning smile and faced the crowd to make his grand speech about ending evil. His words died on the air as the crowd gasped and surged back away from him. Turning quickly, he caught the very last bit of the boy transforming into a large black and red spider, hideous to look upon.
The boy-spider reached out with its power to compel him to obey, that it would be easy and painless to give himself up to the boy and feed his endless hunger. It cost Walter Padick a great measure of his protection to resist that compulsion, but he was able to resist and as the Spider scrambled in confusion that its prey didn't simply stand there assisting in its own demise, Walter Padick reached in and snatched away the marked leg he knew he would need, before fleeing through the crowd, who would follow if they had any good sense.
For the tower would open only to the line of Eld, and while Walter Padick was many things, born to that line he was not. He would need the leg when he ascended to the room at the top of the tower to take command of existence. There was an extra spring in his step and something a little too real about the normally false smile on his face as he made his way through town.
The boy-spider had been weakened ... but so had Walter.
Nobody has died. Caluin Graye has been weakened.
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