Mershane Bringer - his life and times

Xavron Marlexian Collinador Linshalquellant, Kar det Corrain, High Keeper of Rha and Warward of the Corrain, was born on Rha to Keevan, his father, and Leachainia Macord, a woman of Urholm and daughter of one of the Five ruling Families of the Urthan Unity. His exceptional powers became manifest at an early age, and the then Kroon thought to see in him a fatal resemblance to the long-dead Kar Dras. At the age of seven he was tested and marked la-may, outcast. The boy's reaction seemed to confirm the Kroon's worst fears, and in an attempt to protect him, Keevan spirited him away from Rha and placed him in the care of Papa Vardis, a tavern-keeper on Galloway in the Fringes. By this time Mershane, as he became known, was already familiar with the operation of the smuggling network Keevan had set up, and when Keevan lost his life Mer took over as the mysterious Merodach.

Mer was helping out in the taverna when he caught the attention of Dirk Sourton, a Blaine worker. Believing him to be a female mutant, Dirk struck up a conversation, fed Mer from his plate and took him home. The discovery of Mer's true gender was traumatic for them both. Embarrassed by Mer's continued attentions, Dirk was nevertheless an unwilling party to his gang's decision to ambush Mer and perform a brutal gang-rape upon him. Left for dead on the walkway, Mer was found by Severin Torrent, Commander Elect of the Fringes, and taken back to Severin's Residency where Severin nursed him back to physical health: but the mental scars would be years in the healing, both for Mershane and for Sourton.

Torrent, for his part, was as fascinated by the boy's alien beauty as Dirk had been, but was under no illusions about his gender. A confirmed bisexual with sadistic tendencies, the Commander Elect waited patiently for three years, not daring to broach the subject of a possible liaison with Mer. Eventually Mer took the initiative and, by mutual consent, Mershane became Severin's Pet, a pampered love slave on whom Torrent could exercise his sadism whenever the need arose.

During this period of his life, Mer was juggling three major commitments: his duty as High Keeper and Kar det Corrain on Rha, his contract with Severin, and his work as the Merodach. In practice, each commitment benefited the others--Mer's position close to Torrent made him privy to information which the Merodach could use to smuggle Rhagan goods across the Edge, thus aiding the faltering economy of the Rhagan Protectorates--but the stress involved must have been horrendous, especially as his presence on Rha was still anathema to the Kroon and the Emmeran. In addition, Severin insisted that he enter the Fleet Academy and train as an officer, and the Clanley throughout the Fringes began to look to Mer as a kind of unofficial leader.

Mer was not without allies, though. Hal Heavitree, Thabulan trader, became his lover and later one of his staunchest friends: Senator Aden Moncrieff, Torrent's previous lover, pursued Mer only half-playfully and defended him against his detractors among the Elite on many occasions: Karan, Severin's wife, came to love him and later bore his children: Marilla Jones, chief of the Scats, treated him as a son, as did the ever-loyal Papa Vardis; and Kieft Ecart, an influential Blaine, though hostile at first, was forced to rely on Mer to find a missing child, and, like many others before and after, learned to respect and even like him in the process.

At this time in his life Mershane was over seven feet tall and skeletally thin, with masses of black hair that reached the floor, a greenish tinge to his skin and large eyes that could be pools of blackness filled with stars, or flat silver discs when he was under stress. He wore fantastically ornate female clothing, or a simple tunic and kilt, or sometimes nothing but earrings and a shabby black cloak. He had seven fingers on each hand, and was an accomplished musician and dancer in addition to all his other talents. Although prone to anxieties and sudden fits of depression, he was largely content with his life, and wished for nothing more than to remain with Severin and Karan indefinitely.

But it was not to be. An age-old injustice was waiting to be unearthed, a bitter enemy was plotting against him, and war was on the horizon; and Dirk Sourton, embittered and alone, was following a path that would bring him and his nemesis together once more...

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