When they first brought him in I could see right away his spirit had been broken. I'm good at that.... Like the chains of defeat or something. Some of them are like that. Others come in, ready to leave on a moment's notice. I could almost have guessed.

I was a little curious. I mean, I've seen more than my share of criminals and murders. Or nobility and royalty for that matter. But to have the blood of an entire House, not to mention the king himself, on your hands... well, that's something. Can you imagine? Not just Swayvil (Abyss keep him), his three brothers, and their sons, but good old Dame Swayvil, all the wives, and the little ones too. In the house proper, that'd have been 29 direct decendents, plus all the cousins made upwards of seventy. Even anyone who'd married into the house. By the third purge they got anyone of the blood who was left in Chaos. Then they started through friends and acquaintances but things had slowed down some. It picked up again when the quest moved into shadow, but they didn't turn up many there. Even so, that's a whole lot of blood. I reckon he'd have filled the Abyss if he hadn't run out of bodies.

So I actually stared. Uriel wasn't a large man. Especially not then. He had the same reddish blonde hair they all had, but his was nowhere near as pretty as the queen's.

He stared back, sad. I'd never gotten to see him so close before. When they pushed him in, he stumbled and I would've reached out to steady him except for the sudden revulsion that gripped me. In my mind's eye I could see the rivers of blood that would stain me too, if I touched him. It was gone as soon as it came, but by then he was on the floor. The guards laughed and kicked him several more times, cursing him. As we left, someone spat on him. He didn't turn or flinch, and calmly wiping his face with a handful of the greyish straw. Yep, he was cool, that one. I hear he came quietly when the passel of 'em showed up at Thelbane.

Before the heavy door shut, I looked back. He was looking at me. I don't spook easy, this being my livelihood 'n all, but I shivered. It was like looking into the Abyss and having it look back. Empty.

Where was the fire? The Uriel who had beheaded the King himself for the honor of his sister? The Uriel who had been, for a time, the Emperor of the center of Creation? The Uriel who led us against the only force in the infinite multiverse which might oppose us?

I think of things, down here. There's not much else to do. After we put him away, I mulled it over. I wondered if it had been my sister. I don't have one, so I had a hard time with that. Hours crawled by and I turned it over and over. Finally, I gave up trying to sleep. I went over to his cell. Figured he might be up too. He was.

So I asked him about her. He began, "Sive..." but right away his voice broke. After the coughing subsided he resumed. In an offhand way he remarked that this might be the last chance he'd get to remember her, since Staffan was unlikely to delay matters long enough for a trial. Call me a shadow man, but I had to agree. I went and got him the cup of water he wasn't supposed to have for many more hours yet.

He thanked me. Then he told me how it was with her, that she was his baby sister. How she had to be protected since she had always been somewhat frail. He told me how she had this way of making anything you told her seem like the most amazing thing, and how she was never ever mean. How she sang high and pure with a voice like crystal singing. And when she turned her attention on you, you knew she was facinated by you. He adored her and she loved him back, the way family should be. She delighted in pretty things and he took pleasure in surprising her with baubles. She was so beautiful. She was his little angel.

"I trusted her to Swayvil. I gave her away, shining and pure, to him. And that demon, that evil..." Uriel's voice broke again, "He murdered her." The anguish in his voice was apparent even to the likes of me. Then he was silent for a while.

I thought that over. It made a little more sense to me then, but still, the entire house? Even by marriage?

I figured he'd ask me for something next and sure enough he did. But all he wanted to know was if Morganna had made it out. The way he said her name, it was just like when he spoke of Sive. I was touched in spite of myself. He could've asked for lots of things, for a visitor, for me to get a note out (lots of times I get that one), even another cup of water (and that at least I would have), but no. Just a father's concern for his beloved only child. So I told him all I knew, that they didn't find her in Thelbane and she wasn't in here. I was sorry that I had no more to give.

He sighed and thanked me again. Through the hole in the door I could hear sounds of someone settling down. He bade me a cordial good night and that was the last I heard from him.

I found him in the morning. His face was peaceful and pale, though a little bluish in that way that they get. He hung rotating very very slowly. Noone knows where he managed to find the rope from. I cut him down without flinching.

In the end, he was just a man.