Books. Very few things had shaped the life of the youthful Governor of Myrken Wood quite as much. As a child, sold to a twisted, controlling clergy, he spent his days taught and raised to bureaucratic cog in their theocratic regime. It was through books that he learned of a greater world, of heroism and freedom and things worth fighting for. Those lessons drove him to escape, to find a life of his own. They also drove him into a universe of darkness and pain, to a binding of another sort, and then eventually, as if emerging from a cave only to find the light you had been crawling towards was a raging inferno of blistering death and destruction, to Myrken Wood.
He did not blame the books, nor their authors. There were far better targets. There were ALWAYS far better targets. In Myrken, the targets practically lined up. Aeryn Karolinger was one. Pompous, selfish, blind to the emotions of those around him, immature. A stalwart friend, a man who could speak for the people, who would help someone rise to their potential. Aeryn Karolinger had been a complicated man. He had risen high and fallen so much farther, and when it seemed as if he could fall no more, he surprised everyone by returning, possessed, maligned and transformed by dark gods, empowered.
And so he was dealt with. Burnie had been hands off on the matter, just pushing agents of his reign here or there, indirectly affecting things, bringing things to a head. He had good reason to avoid Karolinger, but also not to ignore him. That hadn't gone well for Helstone. Not well at all. In the end, despite his bluster, his ability to survive, his status as a man of action, Aeryn Karolinger had ultimately been a pawn. The Eight. Had they preyed upon him, taken control of his broken mind and spirit or had he come to them, a supplicant, a man with nothing to lose, whose tied had all burnt to ash, seeking a way back to a life with meaning?
In the end, it didn't matter. Karolinger was gone now. Whether this was a Thessilanian trap or a trap set for Thessilane did not matter either. Karolinger was gone. The Eight remained. This book, this dark grimoire sent by the Thessholes to HELP them fight the Eight, seemed to be the key to everything. It could seal them. It could release them. It could destroy them, or destroy all of Myrken.
Oh, Glenn had an archmage for such things, so much as the government of Myrken ever had such a man, but Aleksei had first been overwhelmed by chance and circumstance (or the subtle manipulations of the Book) and then, in striking down Karolinger, by the darkness itself. He was too close, too powerful. And really, why not Burnie? If a man was to declare a duel with young Glenn, his immense skill with the rapier would not be the truest weapon he could choose. No, it would be knowledge, wit, cunning... a book. Information was Glenn Burnie's ultimate weapon and here he was, ready to duel against Dark and Ancient Beings. It may not have been what he was born for, but it was certainly what he had lived to become. His soul dangled within him by a string, protected save for the smallest of leaks by the spiritual might left behind by Lamai. Who else but him for this exact danger?
"Magic." So far as opening gambits went, this one, in the very center of the previously sealed chamber of the Meetinghouse, was not entirely dignified. A spit. Upon the floor next to the table the book rested upon. He did not mince even a little with his feelings. "No offense. Not much." Then a little pause as he looked to the scarred girl, the only other occupant in the room with him. The scarred young woman, though not hardly a lady. "I consider whatever you have to be more along the lines of carefully focused 'power.' There's a distinction." She tattooed her own body, and don't think he didn't have some idea when a new one appeared, at least one that was visible to him or others. Niall was a threat. A huge threat. Perhaps others didn't see it due to her age, due to her previous affiliation with Kyra, the blind patronizing magus who had seen them all as her sheep to guide and protect. She was uncontrollable, impossible to influence. That she was here with him now was a testament to how desperate he was, desperate and convincing.
Aleksei had unsealed the room, and then was encouraged to leave, something he had already previously agreed to. Agnieszka Kaczmarek was watching the door, something she had previously agreed to. Niall was there with him. Typical Governor Burnie arrangements. Ducks in a row. "So then," his most charming smile, specifically for the one female in this world most likely to glower at it. "Let's begin our reading."