Character Breakdown - Blood of the Prince: Xadik
Tuesday, January 8, 2019
Xadik, the farmer …
Not much is know about Xadik’s life prior to Greater Things than Thou. He was the son of a poor farmer, and while Patrin’s narration is never precise his family farm was somewhere on the north side of the Grandwood, probably near Woodpoint. It’s not certain when he became part of Galin’s network of agents in Northern Denion, but it’s reasonable to assume he was recruited prior to Garret’s rescue of Patrin at Emondford. We know that he was at Idra’s home in the Grandwood previous to Patrin’s stay.
WHITEFIELD
Xadik’s first appearance is in Whitefield, where Patrin meets him on Elsina’s estate. His cybernetic package makes him incredibly strong and durable and Galin has sent him to be Patrin’s ’secondman’, or shieldman, for the final portion of his mission. He was present with Patrin at Brenit, and at the palace wall.
THE TOWER
As there was no reasonable way for Serin to include Xadik in Patrin’s summons to the tower his role was relegated to ensuring that Patrin would be able to escape from the palace, and continue on out of the city. This proved disastrous.
Patrin, faced with the Sentinels, the sixteen traditional guardsmen of the King, was sorely pressed to complete his mission. In a desperate attempt to ensure Patrin’s survival, Xadik single-handedly withstood Asaul and his men at the palace’s sally port.
LIFE LONG FRIENDS …
Xadik was a large part of Patrin’s life in those early years as Galin’s agents in securing the kingdom. Their’s was a friendship that transcended the ‘job’ and in reflection as he writes he laments Xadik’s eventual death. At some point we know that Patrin visits Xadik’s farm, where he finds it long abandoned and fallen to ruin. This maybe the reason he titles the second volume of his story All Things Ruin.