Nightlord: Orb by Garon Whited Page A

my head, I resisted it.  I took his hands and we went into my mental study.
     
    The place was a mess.  It needed a good cleaning and reorganization.  Whatever else my dark side might be, it was also a lousy housekeeper.
    I noted the trapdoor in the floor was still there.  Later, when I had a moment and some attention to spare, that was getting deleted.
    “Now we may have enough time for the short form,” T’yl fretted.  “The Church of Light was not destroyed when you killed Tobias and buried the Hand compound in rubble.  It was merely out of favor.  Their kingdom-wide power was broken, but the religion continued to exist.  Your other self has been a prime recruiter for them; he was everything they needed in a persecutor.  He rather enjoyed priests of their persuasion—more than criminals or other sorts your pet giants brought him.
    “He also intimidated, killed, angered, or humiliated much of the nobility during the re-conquering of old Rethven.  While we have reunited Rethven, it was a brutal campaign of conquest and slaughter, not the gentler, more patient expansion into those territories you indicated to me.  This left many of the old guard in many city-states disgruntled and bitter, but they dare not rebel against their conqueror.
    “Lastly—and perhaps worst—is Thomen.  I am well aware he and Tort once shared affections.  He was disgruntled when she chose to be with you; you salved his pride, somehow, and made him an ally, although not a friend.  Your darker side has not kept him as an ally.  It mistreated Tort and used her, but she stayed with him because ‘her angel’ wanted it so—and her devotion to you infuriated Thomen.
    “When Tort discovered the reason for the apparent change in you, she still bore it with a smile, for your sake, to stay close to that thing so she could work its downfall.
    “Tort never told Thomen of your circumstances.  She feared he would work to have you killed in the procedure, rather than restored.  Not knowing why Tort would be so loving and devoted to such a monster, Thomen moved from infuriation to hatred.  He has many in his Guild who will follow his orders without question, and more who will follow him in good cause against a tyrant.  I believe he was—and is—actively working against the reign of your darker self, possibly in conjunction with the Queen, but I know only what little Tort has told me of that.
    “Now, with the King in Karvalen and alone—having left his personal killers and his two pet giants, Torvil and Kammen, back in Carrillon to keep order among his court—these factions now see their chance to attack and destroy what they think is still a monster.  How they have managed to raise such support in Karvalen with lightning swiftness, I do not know, but there are, plainly, over a hundred armed men trying to find you and kill you.  Those men, along with several priests of the Church of Light, as well as some unknown number of wizards, are charging down the empty corridors this moment!” he finished, shouting.
    “Look, T’yl, this is all a misunderstanding.  I’m sure that once we explain what happened—”
    “No!” he cut me off.  “You still fail to understand!  Ye gods and demons, how can you be so slow ?  They do not want an explanation; they do not want to talk.  There will be neither parley nor truce while you work some trickery to their downfall.  They have seized what they see as an opportunity to kill you for what they believe you have done.  It does not matter that you are innocent.  It does not matter that you are an entirely different person!  When they blast down that door, they will see only the tyrant nightlord.  The priests will pray at you; the wizards will cast spells at you; the warriors will attack you.  By all their powers combined, they will cut you down! ”
    Ah.
    Well.
    That certainly put a different spin on things.  I thought about it for a moment.  If T’yl was right, then, yes, this