had never known, and he kept his involvement in Descrimen firmly and stalwartly to himself. Despite overwhelming pain, humiliation, psychological pressure and constant fear, he even weathered the 'execution' of his fiancee at the hands of prison guards, and managed to survive long enough for Chartreaux to track him down and negotiate for his release.

Blind, physically broken and once again withdrawn, he was thrown before the gates of the nearest British consulate with his scant belongings and essentially left by the Chinese for dead. Few survived Drapchi prison, even those who were released. Again, he was nursed by Descrimen back to health, his eyesight restored by their Healers, then he was subjected to intensive debriefing. When returned to his cellmates, IC found him to be far colder and more distant than ever before. But he never lacked for efficiency. If anything, he was more precise and effecient than ever. He'd apparently taken his first sensei's advice, and simply shoved all emotion and personal interaction away, finding them too cumbersome to deal with, given the life he now led.

Ending humanity's suffering, administering what he would later come to know as 'The Good Death' became his all, his every waking moment. It consumed him as effectively as the rage and pain which had burned inside of him for so long. He began to excel at his studies and the use of his hedge paths. He was nigh on a preternatural force to encounter on the field of battle, a force with which to be quickly and thoroughly reckoned... and an unnerving one, at that.