Excerpt: Balance of Powers

They would be here to take me back to hell shortly. My shield was hung on my back, my sword in its sheath. I had no intention of resisting. Not this time. Likely they would see I never had another chance, but there should be enough time. Iria would not miss me until the morning, and by then it would be too late for her to do anything about it. It was well enough. It would never do for her to realize how much she had increased my own torment. How much her revelation of who I cannot be any longer. Who I once was and am no more. I don’t think even my Master understands that torment. If I am lucky he will destroy me. Then at least there will be silence. In death I would only return to Hell by another means, for I have never died. Not even in going to Hell did I die. They dragged me there, and this time I will go willingly, to finish one last thing one piece of hope I can give someone else as the light that was my past destroyed even the function I had found in the present. If only I had known what waited when I walked into the Tavern, I would have argued the mission I was given. The mission that failed me.