Character...
His mother and grandfather had tried, tried so very diligently, to shield him from the rumors, from the ugly comments made by those who knew, or believed they knew, the full truth behind his conception and birth; he was ‘the king’s bastard’ cursed with mismatched eyes, which were, people speculated, certainly some indication he had been touched by the hand of something undeniably evil. “They say the queen is quite unstable…maybe she cursed the child when she learned her husband had strayed from their marriage bed.” As he grew older, he understood he wasn’t cursed, there was nothing evil or even remotely supernatural regarding his eyes, but he was indeed the king’s bastard and the queen was more than unstable, she was, viciously, coldly calculating and she gleefully used threats against his life and even the lives of her own children, the siblings he had had never had opportunity to encounter, to keep the king chained to her side, when beside her was exactly where the king didn’t want to be.