Waking up on a new day, Noble Born began by making his sister’s breakfast. He left the house with a smile, stopped to chat with the neighbour and then made his way into town. The young Phony helped an elderly lady across the street, stopped in the café and bought himself a hot chocolate, making sure to leave enough money for an extra drink should anyone come in and not have the money. He volunteered at the local soup kitchen for two hours, joined his mother for lunch and then went to the park. There he defended a young kid from bullies, helped a baby bird back to its nest and enjoyed the calm atmosphere.
When he got home, he went to his room and the smile dropped like a stone. With nightshade, three drops of blood and a hair from each of the bullies he invented a curse that would give the nightmares for a week. He flicked through books on demon summoning, memorizing the words just in case and imagined using the spell to tear apart his enemies. Next he catalogued his collection of poisonous mushrooms, putting some of the nicer specimens aside as a gift to his sister.
Then Noble Born went to dinner. He smiled, complimented the food and made idle chit-chat about his day.
Later on the doorbell rang and as his mother answered. The conversation drifted to his ears as he made his way back towards his room.
“Such a gentleman, you should be so proud.”
Noble Born firmly shut the door to his room and sighed with pleasure. This was his purpose; his game. Nevermore didn’t hide who she was, but one of them had to. His enemies would never see their end coming from the gentle, princely Phony that was always there to lend a helping hoof. No, his life was the double act, the mask, the grand deception. He wasn’t ashamed of what he was, not in the slightest, but there were some things nobody needed to know until he was ready to reveal it.
They would never see him coming.
