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| Actor: Castellito I think he would be able to play Newel |
Alton and Newel worked out a relationship of polite distrust. Always proper in appearances, always saying appropriate things with their lips, always watching the other for a misstep. Each were convinced of the other's hatred. Alton believed Newel was seeking his first opportunity to cause harm to the royal family in some way. Newel believed that Alton was ever ready to humiliate or destroy him. But they lacked either the proof or the power that would allow them to openly denounce the other. And so they smiled at each other while their eyes warned, "one wrong move from you and I will barely let you live long enough to regret it."
Newel's Rats were his fondest project. He continued to develop its members, taking whatever talents suited him. The Rats came from every station in life -- some were outcasts of the lowest caste, others were sons of noblemen. Among them, he had fighters, spies, inventors, hunters, and more. Brilliance and brawn were drawn to him in every despicable form.
Newel was secretly becoming a very powerful man. He had wealth, force, and some measure of intrigue on his side. Newel found some of the fulfillment he sought in amassing this power in the shadows, under Alton's nose.
The only drawback to Newel's happiness was that his wife was not all that he expected her to be. She tried to be all that he wanted her to be, but she was unhappy. It irked him. It irked him almost as much as it irked him that Alton had a son while Newel had no heir.
But, then, came the news that made Newel feel that he had finally reaped the good things that were due him. His wife was with child.
With power, wealth, and a child on the way, Newel felt that at last he could look Alton in the face and say, "Ha! You think you are great, but you are not. I have everything that you have."
And with that in mind, Newel stepped out into the sunshine and called for his horse.
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