Author notes

Characters: Justicar Maxis Cane.

Doctor Shadow

on May 27, 2008

One of the things I haven't really done yet is shown you a proper snippet of Fate's Hand, the book that inspired the webcomic. So here's something for you until tomorrow's actual story update. This is a short snippet that introduces two characters in the book, the Justicar Maxis Cane and his Inquisitor friend, the female nubian, Vass Drae. The art for this is again another of Reva's early concept sketches based on my original description for Maxis.

It was not however a book that drew Vass to the shadows of the library, but something else and as she stopped at the third section by the fourth shelf she caught a glimpse of a figure lurking in the darkness, out of sight and out of mind.

"This had better be worth it," she whispered to the hidden observer and halted just a few feet from the hiding place. "Or I will be most annoyed if you've wasted my time."

"Oh this is priceless, Inquisitor," the voice belonged to a thin woman dressed in simple servitors clothes, she had gaunt features and even thinner lips, she reminded Drae of a female version of Gwillis and that was enough to momentarily chill the woman's blood.

"Your note indicated it was something that could be ruinous to the Order, if it was ever leaked beyond these walls," Drae's voice dropped into a low and dangerous tone, she moved a hand slightly to one side and there was a click that followed it, "define how ruinous?"

"Don't Inquisitor, I have no desire to test my marksmanship against your obvious love of knives," the woman said with a growl letting Vass see the tip of her concealed gun. "Let us leave this conversation as it is, pleasant and guarded. You wanted to know or you wouldn't have come, I wanted you to come or I wouldn't have contacted you, if I didn't think I could trust you…you'd not be here."

"That makes sense," Vass said with obvious sarcasm dripping from her lips. "But I can assure you, your marksmanship is a little thing compared to the skills of myself and my companion."

"Companion?" the woman looked around wildly and that's all it took for Drae to strike. With a swift movement one of her knives slipped into the easy grip of her hand and she held it just under the woman's throat.

"Put the gun away and we'll talk," Vass said into her ear and smiled a little, thinly. "I've come here because I am interested in learning what you and the other rebellious elements in the church have to say."

"So you can see if it's worth our lives?" the woman sneered and spat as she dropped the gun. "That was a lousy trick to pull, I should have known you'd be too arrogant to bring backup."

A tall man stepped from the other side of the darkest bookcase and shook his head; he cut an imposing figure just by the motion of his robed body. He did not smile as he made his presence known, a single pistol held down towards the ground. He looked in his early thirties with short cropped dark hair, almost cut in a military style.

"She was not," when he spoke it was with a great deal of emotion in his voice, something Catherana had not expected, she was expecting a dark monotone voice as befits a church Inquisitor. "We will conduct this particular meeting under my terms," now he looked at the nubian Inquisitor. "Vass Drae, stand down and let her go."

"Understood," Vass reacted as if she'd been physically slapped across the face; she withdrew and let Catherana go immediately. Then she stepped back out of striking range. "See…I follow orders."

"You do," Maxis Cane smiled a welcome kind of smile and this unnerved Catherana even more than the emotion in his voice. "Now, before we begin, let me introduce myself…you can call me Maxis Cane."