You knew I would come.”

“I suppose so.”

“What do you want?”

“Exactly what I said in my letter. I want to talk with you.”

“About your father?”

“Yes. Rumour has it that you encountered him recently.”

“I did.”

“And how is he?”

“Dead.”

“Are you sure? People have thought that before but he always returned.”

“I killed him myself.”

She laughed in a way suggested that she did not believe him. There was also something about her expression that suggested that she might want to. “You killed him?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“With a truesilver bullet just like the one in this pistol. Then Asea cut him into little pieces and buried his remains in lead lined caskets in five different places.”

She shook her head. Her expression was a little dazed. “I don’t believe you.”

“Believe what you choose. It does not alter the truth one little bit.”

“It’s not possible. He was a great sorcerer and a greater assassin. You are only a half-breed soldier.”

“He under-estimated me. You people have a habit of doing that.”

She cocked her head to one side and studied him for a long moment. “That I know. I have done it myself. Still it does not seem possible that he’s actually dead. He was one of the First. He had walked Al’Terra. He served…”

“He served the Princes of Shadow.”

“Yes. How did you know that?”

“He told me. He told me a lot of things before he died.”

“And why would he do that?”

“He was my father.”

She just looked at him, then she sheathed the blade and leaned against the workbench, arms folded across her chest.

“He always wanted a son. He told me that often enough. He did not think it was possible though.”

“Apparently it was. He killed my mother or had her killed before he found out about me.”

“So you have the power too?”

“I believe so.”

“Which would explain how you knew about my arrival. Only another Shadowblood would have known that and then only one with peculiar gifts.” She spoke slowly as if putting things together for the first time in her own mind. She glanced at the glowglobe. “And Asea has been teaching you, which explains why you are not afraid of me.”

“I am very much afraid of you, which is why I have this pistol trained on your belly. Please be very careful. A gut shot is a painful way to die and I would rather not see it happen to you.”

“That makes two of us.”

“I would appreciate it if you would make no sudden moves. I have bad memories of the last time the two of us fought.”

“It would seem you’ve come a long way since -unless you were only pretending then.”

He said nothing, not bothered if she wished to jump to the wrong conclusions.

“I can understand why Lady Asea has taken such an interest in you now. Did she ask you to kill me?”

“You mean the way you asked me to kill her.”

“She is the enemy of my nation and she was the enemy of my father.”

“She is not my enemy.”

“I can see that you believe that.