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prove he was indeed listening, but never turned to face either of them as he continued along at the rapid yet steady pace. He halted only once, to peek inside one particular room. There hung the ravaged carcass of the fat merchant Corzon had felt obligated to simply dispose of. Staring at the mostly eaten remains with quite a bit of exposed white bone, he nodded silent approval to himself before closing the door. With an effort he suppressed an emerging grin before marching on.
    They went a bit farther before reaching a thick, wooden door. “After you,” said Corzon, motioning towards it with a slight bow of his head. The guests hesitated just a moment to exchange reassuring glances. Then Grimton cautiously pushed it open, entering with Tamera right on his heels. Their expressions changed little while looking at the dead man hanging from the wall, his throat pierced by a sword, his eyes still open and glazed over.
    Tamera turned to Corzon and said, “You are sure he was the only witness to this deceitful illusion? The dark lie made up by the powers that be? We must be reassured no other fool will surface and give life to these ridiculous rumors. People tend to believe what they want to believe, especially if the lie is created to give the illusion of false hope.”
    “The only one who still drew breath,” said Corzon while struggling to keep suspicion from his voice. “Now, you two must forgive my constant questioning, but I am having a hard time understanding what all this trouble was for in the first place.”
    “What do you mean?” asked Grimton. “Surely you don’t believe these exaggerated tales.”
    “I said nothing of the sort!” he snapped back, clearly getting agitated. He was feeling a lot of pressure right now. There was so much riding his decisions these days. “What I’m saying is I don’t see the motive. What is the gain in trying to bring some fictional character from some ancient books to life? To go through all the trouble of leaking rumors here and there, hoping they spread like fire, trying to slowly make folk believe that this entity is real? So what if folk do start to think this...Gate Keeper...is actually real? I took this man’s life because you convinced me the ramblings of what he supposedly saw would be poison to our city. Now I’m asking you, what is to be gained by the city of Taron by making up all these lies?”
    Lord Corzon was as paranoid as they came, always sure some nearby city was planning an attack; constantly looking over his shoulder for the latest threat to his position of power. Both Tamera and Grimton were fully aware of this fact and knew exactly how to exploit it.
    Grimton stepped in close to Corzon, meeting his dark eyes easily he whispered, “Control, my lord. Control of the people. Control of their free will!” He backed off a step and let the cryptic remarks sink in, all the while reading Corzon’s eyes to be sure he was properly playing the man’s emotions. Corzon was certainly paranoid, but he was no fool. “She plans war against the great city of Dronin!”
    “What!?” Corzon shouted as his eyes widened, but he quickly composed himself, not used to revealing his emotions so freely. “Bah! What evidence do you have of such a traitorous thing? As large a city as Taron is, they could never best our soldiers in combat. Taron would cease to exist if they ever tried to!”
    “Exactly, my lord. Exactly,” Tamera cut him off. “The witch knows Dronin would never fall to her pitiful military. Unless...” It was clear she had Corzon’s full attention now, as his dark eyes stared a hole right through her. “Unless all the people believed they were fighting for a cause greater than their own survival, greater than merely the honor of Taron. If she could convince everyone this fable born from a time of darkness and superstition was not only real, but on their side as well—”
    “They would fight like cornered animals,” Corzon replied absently while his