Sigil: City of Doors

(( Please note that this information is kept exceptionally private and confidential, and any knowledge garnered from this is PURELY OOC, any in-game knowledge of this, other than by Rith Fiddir and NPC Harmonium and Bleaker Factotums, Factols, and Factors will be considered metagame. ))

Some time ago Rith Fiddir had been in trouble with the Harmonium. He had, however, shared some information with them regarding a number of item caches held by the Cartel. As a result of his cooperation, and due to the lack of evidence of anything more than misdemeanor possession, Rith Fiddir was released from criminal prosecution. There were, however, conditions for his release:

1) Rith Fiddir could never again openly associate with the Cartel or it's members.

2) Rith would allow the Harmonium and the Takers access to his books and financial records at all time to guarantee the legitimacy of his income.

3) Finally: Rith Fiddir would be subject to mandatory Counseling every six months in order to validate that he was in good mental health and in good standing with the law. This counseling would include at least 24 hours of interrogation including, but not limited to, a full psychological evaluation.

his was par for the course for most criminals. Rith, however, was far from an ordinary criminal, as Bleaker Psychiatrist Maximillion Krieg was about to find out.

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It was a dark and cold night outside of the Gatehouse. Set within the confines of Dr. Maximillion Krieg's office the Changeling Jester Rith Fiddir sat sprawled upon his leather couch. The mood was one of serenity: the faint echo of opera music in the background, the room lit only by the roaring fire within the hearth and the occasional flicker of candlelight that danced upon the walls.

Bleaker Factotum Maximillion Krieg, a elderly and long-respected Tiefling Psychiatrist within the Gatehouse, had seen the best and worst that Sigil had to offer. Murderers, Rapists, Schizophrenics, Sociopaths, all had passed through these hallowed halls. Halls that echoed with the desperate ravings of madmen and the criminally insane. ))

"Now" said Maximillion Krieg, "Let us see, Mr. Fiddir, if we cannot get into the core of your being. To find out who you truly are. I want to know everything, Mr. Fiddir. Lean back in the chair. Relax. Listen to the sound of my voice, only the sound of my voice. Let your troubles leave you, your problems left behind. Close your eyes, count to three....and sleep."

Rith leaned back within the couch. It was comfortable, exceedingly so, and Rith had no trouble relaxing. He allowed the Doctor to Hypnotize him, though he could have resisted should he chose. But no, Rith was willing to cooperate with his sentencing. More than that, Rith was curious. Curious to see if this Doctor could indeed get to the core of his being, to understand him. Perhaps he might gain some insight, some inner self-discovery that would help him better understand the chaotic nature of his own mind.

"Now, I would like you to state your name, for the record." said the Doctor calmly.

"Rith. Rith Fiddir." said the Changeling, a look of calm serenity upon his face.

"Very good" the doctor replied. "Now, tell me a little about yourself. What is it you do for a living?"

"I own a Casino." said the Changeling. "I'm a professional Gambler and games-master."

"Indeed, that is now." said Dr. Krieg, as he pushed his glasses back upon his nose, they had a nasty tendency to slip as he was taking notes. "Tell me, what did you do before all of this? Vat you did back while you were employed by the Cartel, hm?"

"I was a smuggler" said Rith "and an Information Gatherer"

"And a Spy?" the Doctor inquired.

"Yes...and a Spy." Rith begrudgingly admitted.

The doctor gazed at Rith for a brief moment through his thick glasses, the light from the candles reflecting upon them, a sight which made his eyes seemingly glow red within the darkness.

"Assassin..?" asked the Doctor, finally.

"NO!" replied Rith, with the innermost hint of anger in his voice "No blood! That was my rule!"

The doctor nodded, writing down the notes in his dossier. The Doctor knew he wasn't lying. It was impossible to lie under Hypnosis, a fact the Doctor prided himself in. The doctor was a master of Hypnosis. He could do with the Mundane what powerful Enchanters could do with magic, bend people to his will. He had Rith on a leash...for a time at least.

"I see." Max mused. "So you refuse to kill...refuse to shed blood in the line of duty. And why is that, Mr. Fiddir?"

"Because I'm not a monster." Rith exclaimed. "I'm a Charlatan, a Thief, a Gambler, a whore-monger and a lush...but I'm not a taker of lives."

"Ah" the doctor nodded as he wrote in his notes "So you value life? You believe people are precious, yes? That people deserve to live?"

"I guess so" Rith Shrugged "I guess I've just always believed that there was no item or amount of money worth killing over. I guess you just...I dunno..."

"...you can't put a price on Guilt" finished Dr. Krieg.

"Yes...yes, that's it." noddled the Shapeshifter. He nodded so hard that he had to adjust his hat.

"I have to ask, Mr. Fiddir. Your dossier says that you are almost never seen without that Tophat of yours. Please...tell me about it. For a man so infamous for changing his appearance, the one thing that has remained constant is that old hat." said the Doctor with a friendly and loving smile.

A small tear rolled from the eye of the usually jovial Changeling. This did not escape the Doctor's notice, who offered the man a handkerchief with a tender hand.

"It belonged to my mother." the boy Jester finally admitted.

"Tell me about her." said Dr. Krieg, leaning back in his chair and adjusting his glasses. As he did so, he reached over and stoked the fire within the hearth, a small bit of smoke and ash rising to give the room a flicker of light among the ambient shadows.

"She was the best mother anybody could ever ask for" Rith chuckled, a smile across his boyish face. "She was a Carnie. Just like me. A juggler, and a sleight of hand magician. Her name was Ravennekah, but she went by the stage-name Raven the Black."

A friendly smile and a chuckle escaped the kind Doctor's lips.

"And what was life like, living in the Carnival?" asked the Doctor, a curious look on his face. "I can imagine it was fun, and exciting."

"Sometimes" mused Rith. "It had it's dark side too. Carnivals don't get a good reputation because of the Vagrants that take up with them. I guess...we were no exception to that rule. We were poor, very poor. Let's just say that my sleight of hand skills were developed as much to lift wallets as they were to entertain." Rith sighed at this admission.

"It wasn't right, or fair...but hungry is hungry." The Changeling admitted.

"That is oftentimes how a life of crime begins, unfortunately." said Dr. Krieg as he once again pushed up his glasses. "Most criminals do not simply wake up one day and say to themselves that they want to be criminals. I would use a metaphor I'm sure a Casino-owner can appreciate: The hands they were dealt in life turned up a six high against a full house stacked against them."

Both Rith and the Doctor had hearty chuckle at this. They had already built a Rapport, a mutual respect for one another. This was something common for the Doctor, his natural ability to empathize with those he was called upon to serve.

"I'm sure being a Changeling didn't help either" said Krieg "They are naturally untrusted by the general populace. It must have been hard, being a changeling child."

"I wouldn't know" replied Rith "I didn't know I was a Changeling until....until after my mother died."

"Peculiar" mused Krieg as he wrote down in his journal. "Would you tell me how she died?"

"The War" said Rith . "Always that damned war.."

"Yes, the War of Blades" mused the Doctor. "I'm somewhat familiar with Eberron, I know of the War. Your mother was a foot-soldier then?"

"A Spy" chimed in Rith. "Raven the Black was the alias she used with the Carnival. She would gather information on our enemies as the Carnival made it's way through Khorvaire. She would also smuggle supplies to families of those lost in the war. She was eventually caught and..."

The Doctor sighed deeply "Before she was Executed?"

Rith grimaced at the bluntness of the doctor for a moment. "Aye...executed."

The doctor reached over to touch Rith's hat. Rith, naturally, shirked away.

"I'm not going to steal it...please, allow me. You'll get it back." the Doctor smiled. With that Rith, begrudgingly, offered the old, tattered Tophat to the Doctor.

"It's a lovely piece" Krieg mused as he examined the hat thoroughly. "False bottom, probably for a Rabbit, yes?" he asked politely. Rith simply nodded, as if to say 'yes'. "Amazingly well-kept for a man who has been through such adventures. It seems to be freshly washed, and..." the doctor sniffed it "Is that the scent of Lilac I notice?"

Rith noddled "Lilac perfume. It was her favorite scent. Everytime I smell Lilac I think of her."

The doctor nodded, putting the hat back on top of Rith's head. "You really miss her, don't you?"

"Every single day..." Rith sighed.

"I think, there-in, lies the core of your behavior Mr. Fiddir." said the Doctor as he leaned forward in his chair, his eyes changing from the compassionate listener to the stern observer.

"You have trouble letting go of her. It's why you constantly find the need to sleep around, to joke around, to non-chalantly cause chaos wherever you go. It's because of something you are missing in your life, Rith. Something you need." the doctor proclaimed as he leaned back in his big chair. He crossed his legs and his fingers, examining the Changeling as he lay there.

"And...what do I need?" asked the Jester inquisitively.

"Someone to love" said the Doctor, flatly. "You sleep around with women, you dote on women, but in the end you only ever use them. You try to fill the gap that was left behind when you lost the only woman that ever truly cared for you. The only woman who genuinely cared about your well-being and saw you as more than an entertaining evening or someone to use. You allow yourself to be used. You allow your promiscuous nature to overtake your good senses, and to overwhelm your logic. You allow your generosity to be taken for granted, and you chase pursuits of the flesh in the hopes that the brief satisfaction that they bring will fill that void in both your mind and your soul that was so forcefully taken from you."

Rith merely sat back, completely shocked at this analysis from the otherwise friendly doctor.

"I've read your profile. After your mother died you were kicked around from foster home to foster home. Orphanage to orphanage. But they didn't love you. They didn't give you what you needed. You were just a kid to them, another mouth to feed. They raised you....but they didn't love you. Not the way she did. And so you left, didn't you?"

A shocked Rith visibly shuddered as he made the statement, but was unable to move due to the Hypnosis. Unable to lie. With a quiver in his voice he responded: "Yes..."

"And when you left on your own, after you discovered your power to Shapeshift...you realized you didn't have to live that life anymore! You could be anybody you wanted, GO anywhere you wanted...you left behind that life, left behind that identity that was so full of pain, so full of anguish, all those painful memories! You ran and you hid...from your own self!" said the Doctor as he rose from his chair, a fiery passion in his voice as he evangelically berated the Changeling.

"YES!" cried out Rith, visibly shaking in his chair.

"That is why you keep that Hat, Mr. Fiddir! That is why you refuse to let it go! It is not your MOTHER that you struggle to hold onto..." said the good Doctor as he kneeled down beside the boy, gently taking the Hat from his head and placing it upon his chest.

"What you struggle to hold onto, Mr. Fiddir" the doctor whispered "..is yourself. All that Shapeshifting. All that time pretending to be other people. All that time spent wearing the Masks of others...and you have forgotten what lies underneath. That scared little boy who just wants to be with his mama...that kind, sweet child who just wants to be good, but the world won't let him."

Tears visibly rolled down Rith's cheeks as he painfully accepted the harsh truth of the Doctor's words. They struck him like fists upon his very soul, and shattered his perceptions of reality. But Rith knew that these words were words of Truth.

And the truth can be far more damaging than any lie. The boy lay there, sobbing, his inner pain and inner turmoil finally brought to light for the Doctor to see. He lay there, clutching that old tattered hat to his chest, sweat and tears dripping from him as memory after painful memory rushed into his fragile psyche.

"Rith..." said the Doctor with a loving and compassionate voice "Rith....it's time to let her go. She is gone, and she is not coming back. And I know that it hurts you. And I know that it's not right. But you have to let go of your pain, and your grief. It is the only way you will ever grow. Ever mature. The only way that you will be able to get on with your life, and rise up to your full potential."

The loving Doctor massaged the boy's shoulder as he gently spoke to him, a measure of pity in his heart. "Today, Rith Fiddir, is the day you cast off weakness, and pain, and self-doubt....the day you reinvent your identity." He smiled as he spoke. "Today is the day you gain an identity of your own..not just another Mask that you wear. Today, Rith Fiddir, you truly become a man."

The Doctor gently reached down, grasping the old Tophat from Rith's hand. Even now, Rith clutched the Tophat with all of his strength.

"Rith..." said the doctor one final time. "...let her rest. Let her go. She'll always love you Rith. She always did. You don't need some damn hat to remind you of that."

Begrudgingly Rith finally relinquished the hat, letting the Doctor take it from his grasp.

"I will have this hat delivered to your house and put on display. I'm not going to take it from you...that would be too cruel. But I want you to put it in your house...and there is where it will stay." said the Doc. "You are your own man now, Rith Fiddir. You have your own identity and your own way of life. Go now, and discover new horizons, Rith. Go now, and discover yourself."

And with that the Doctor snapped his fingers, and Rith sprung forth from his hypnotic sleep. The doctor shook his hand, handed him a writ for a Clean Bill of Mental Health, and showed him out the front door. Rith would walk out of the Gatehouse a new man, seeing the world as he had never seen it before: through his OWN eyes, and not behind just another Mask. The Mask had been removed. The face that he was ready to show the world was now truly, for the first time, his own.

His true adventures were now ready to begin.