The Black Sheep

Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to talk about my family. I have never met one of my sisters outside the Castel Mercure.

Him? Oh. That's different.

He's barely family as it is. There are no male Mercuries. He is an aberration. Yes, I know others of my sisters have had kids, but none of them got ideas above their station. Besides, he was born outside the Castel. Real blood Mercuries have to be born and raised there.

No, my mother never bore a male child. Never will. Goodness knows how many she has had over the ages... I met twelve of them while I was at the Castel. That's nothing.

He did some stuff, yeah. What do you want to know? He was a bastard. No style. The Mercury watchword is style. He liked to scare people, just for the hell of it. And he'd kick people's heads in for no reason. Nothing to gain from it; he'd just kick them about for his own amusement. Maybe he did it to scare them, to try to make his name. There certainly seem to be a lot of people who know his name, don't there. I'm sure he was too clever to just give it away for no reason. Seems he made a point of asserting it was his real name, too. It was as well, he took his father's name, whoever the hell he was. Mr. Refract as well, I guess. Lost to history, that one.

*Sigh*

And nobody remembers his mother, do they? Apparently being a six-armed demi-god isn't enough for you people.  Good day.

Conversation with Caradne Mercury, transcribed by the author; re-transcribed by someone with less shaky hands.

(We are not sure if Caradne is actually a demigod or not, and according to the recollections of Renderlark himself, she had no more than the usual number of arms. On the other hand, she has far outlived him (unless, heaven forbid, he is still out there somewhere) and spoke to us through a spider-infested cup of cold tea young Toby left on the workbench, so who can tell, really).