I have to admit, Liza, that I expected you to come to me for my story long before this. How long have we known each other? I’m hurt that it took you so long. After all, you should realize that my story is going to be one of the more interesting and enlightening ones that you’ll come across. Stop laughing now and listen. You’re not a very efficient interviewer when you do that.

Okay, well, I was born twenty odd years ago to Luris and Estrella Corin, the rulers of Tandraia. I was the tenth child, making that the magic number. I’m sure that they all still celebrate the fact that I was born. You’re laughing again, knock it off or you can go without my story. I did find out quite early that the only way that I’d be able to get ahead in any way in dealing with my older siblings was to be sneaky about it. Most of them are the fighting type, and then there’s Trace with his silver tongue. I knew that I’d have to work on more subtle things, so i started when I was quite young to practice the ways of deception. I found out that I have quite a knack for it, too. That’s not bragging, that’s just true. Put me in a fight, I’m fair enough face to face. Put me in a situation where I can sneak and/or be deceptive, and the odds grow rather rapidly in my favor.

Oh, I did find one drawback to excelling in something. You see, my father is very good at picking up on such things and so the first chance he got he gave me responsibilities in that area. I didn’t want to work, by the gods, but he sure wouldn’t let me get out of it. He’s quite a taskmaster. I started training in the intelligence department, learning all the dull stuff that goes along with that as well as the more interesting things. There are benefits and liabilities to everything, after all. Or nearly everything anyway. I think the most interesting thing about my new position was in fooling my superiors. I got great enjoyment out of showing them that they were not completely perfect in their jobs and that even a neophyte could occasionally get the best of them. Sadly, this led to the dreaded idea of... promotions. Had I known about that, I would’ve been more careful about what I did. Too late now, I know.

As I progressed in my chosen (or chosen for me) job, war with Sembrid started to brew. It had been threatening for awhile, and there had even been skirmishes, but finally it boiled over into out and out war. My father hated that, I know. He and King Zelas of Sembrid had been friends as children, but some mage named Baldorin had gotten the best of him and began to warp his mind. We had no idea what was going on for some time, the mage had managed to fool everyone about who he was and what his goals were. To most, he was simply Zelas’ chief aide. When finally war broke out, Valdorin gave up all of his pretenses of being a mere aide, and showed everyone that he had magical skills. By then, it was really too late to do much since Zelas’ mind was completely and totally taken over.

As the war went on, both the military and the intelligence factions were kept busy with work. My oldest brother Barton was killed in an ambush while out on patrol, and the mantle of Crown Prince was passed on to Klethe. As much more suited as he is to that position as well as the position of future King, Barton was a very great loss to us and his death managed to deal a rather strong blow to the moral of the citizens of Tandraia. He had been very popular and our people mourned with us when we lost him. But that steadied our resolve against Sembrid and we worked all the harder on winning the war. It was during this time that I got involved in some of the more dangerous aspects of intelligence, and I have to admit that I flourished under it. It’s a job that I love, especially when I’m not forced to undergo dull training rituals. It was when I turned twenty-one that I advanced far enough past the others in the Intelligence Department that when the one who was then in charge stepped down to retire, I was given his position. I’m not sure being the head of Intelligence was a goal that I wanted to reach, but they determined that I was the best person for the job and so I took it. At least with me in charge, I could send me on more exciting missions and I didn’t have to sit around and wait to be told what to do.

It was a couple of years into my job as head of Intelligence that Sembrid actually decided to try something tricky. They were more into the military and magical sorts of things up until then, but they changed tactics finally. Zelas sent in his son Diervan in the guise of a mercenary leader, right during the Festival of Laurels. Nobody had seen Diervan in years because he had left Sembrid to cultivate another identity elsewhere. But he was recalled to Sembrid and then he and his troupe of friends came visiting Tem-ad-Thar. He actually did a pretty good job of getting close to us, particularly Raiena. He’s not a bad undercover agent. They weren’t actually there long before Raiena got kidnapped by a man named Qam Drillis and Diervan and his friends took off after them. I’m sure that comes from the fact that Diervan grew a certain fondness for my sister.

Well, since I wasn’t along on that trip, I’ll let Raiena go into more detail on it if she chooses. Although you’ve already interviewed her, so you’ll probably have to get it from Diervan himself. That should be a fun interview. Next I was involved there was when Diervan took Raiena to Sembrid. He decided he had little choice about it, he wanted to take over and he decided he had to make sure that he looked legitimate. So he took her as prisoner there. I’m not sure how long she would’ve stayed prisoner, because I couldn’t just let her stay there. So I went in and set up a rescue for her. We barely got out of that one, but we made it and got back to Tandraia. Not long after that, Diervan did take over. Zelas died at his hands and Baldorin was killed as well. Sembrid and Tandraia began to cultivate an alliance out of it which has since grown into a friendship.

The next event that is of import in my life is, in a word, Chandal. I met her briefly when some of us were trying to deal with the scourge of the Corin family, Mortan. She blew me away then, not just with her beauty, but with... her. I could tell that she had less than warm feelings toward me, but I can’t blame her for that. I had a bit of a reputation of a ladies’ man and so she was put off by that. Especially since she’d recently been victimized. I certainly didn’t push anything with her, particularly since she’s a Druid of Artemis. They don’t do the man thing. However, it wasn’t long after that that we both ended up prisoners of this devil creature, who Mortan had gone to work with. He took a fancy to her and did his own bit of victimization of her. I grew somewhat protective of her during this time, and then finally... when she was distracting him at a time when she had gotten wind of a rescue attempt... I suddenly started to see what she was seeing and feel somewhat what she was feeling. It was some really strange connection that popped up, and we have never figured out just why. But we’ve been linked ever since that time. We always know what the other is thinking and all of that. It’s kind of like a minor version of what’s going on with Dani, Miguel, and Reggie. Our link can be broken, however. Though I do hate that. It makes me feel empty.

After we finally got rescued from that, Chandal went off on her own again. She had to do some recovering, I’m sure. I wanted to help her very much, but I knew that she needed to come to terms with things on her own. It was a couple of months later that I realized that she was in danger, and so I got a mage to take me to where she was and I took her to the palace. She’d been pretty badly injured from an attack and so I made sure she got cared for. I told her after she was feeling better that I loved her. That confused her, I know. She didn’t know what to do. She was loyal to Artemis, which meant she couldn’t be with any man. But she loved me, too. It was Kordak that finally convinced her to follow her feelings with me, and then an historical thing happened: Artemis gave us her blessing. She allowed us to marry and still allowed Chandal to keep her position. She felt that Chandal had been treated badly enough and deserved some happiness. Then she went and gave me the lifespan of an elf so Chandal wouldn’t have to go through the majority of her life without me. I’m rather fond of Artemis now.

After a year or so after our marriage, I got into trouble that I had not anticipated. The god Set had decided that he wanted to make a bid for power, and he decided that in order to do so, he had to take me prisoner. That was not a pleasant imprisonment, I will say. It took awhile to get me out, but thanks to Aslina and her prophecies they were able to get some help going. Raiena ended up dying in that encounter, which is what broke up the entire thing because even gods are susceptible to the powers of the artifacts of other gods. I got out and after awhile Apollo was able to bring Raiena back from the dead. I’m certainly glad of that. However, Set decided that he hates me and it’s never a fun thing to have a god hate you. I got caught again for awhile and well.. just let me say that I hate snakes. I want nothing to do with snakes. Keep them away from me.

Well, then came the time of the gypsy plague. It was one that the goddess Martinique had set into motion to try and get rid of the gypsies. Because of Rick, a cure was found. But Trace happened to contract the disease and Rick needed a test subject to see if he could be cured since he contracted it more directly than the gypsies by accidentally imbibing the pure essence of the plant used to start the disease going. Trace was too weak to experiment on, so they needed one of us to test it on. Rick wanted the one whose blood matched Trace’s more closely, and that ended up being me. What he had to do was give me the disease and then see what the antidote would do. It did get rid of the disease and Trace was able to get the cure, but the antidote set off a reaction in me that we found out later had to do with the fact that I had snake poison in me that had never affected me due to a power of my ring. But the poison was still there. And Lina had another prophecy that said that I could only be cured by going to Earth. Which is where both Chandal and I got taken.

I can’t give a very clear account of things that happened on Earth during this time. I was out of it most of the time, and so was Chandal. I know that it started a whole chain of events that has led to some very nasty things happening, but then it’s led to some good things, too. Without having gone to Earth, we would not have met some of the people we know and life would not be as rich as it is. It’s amazing what sorts of things can come out of calamity. We’ve involved ourselves in helping on Earth as best we can, although most of the royal family hasn’t been able to work with that as much lately. We’ll have to change that. But things do get a little hectic at home, and that’s where we have to concentrate our efforts. We have a lot of enemies who would love to catch us off guard, so we have to remain vigilant and careful. In the end, I’m sure that good will win the battle. It may take some time, years perhaps. Who knows? But with all of the faith and determination that we have, the power of the other side becomes less important. They get a little too cocky sometimes, and therein will come at least part of the blame for their fall. I like to be an optimist and say that in the end, good always wins. Because good has a loyalty toward each other that can wane with the evil side. It’s hard enough to watch your back against your enemies, but having to do so against your allies as well can be a fatal flaw. And I do like to strike where the enemy is weakest.