Henry Arkhewer

**Biography:** The last son of House Arkhewer, the hereditary rulers of Ech’kent, Henry grew up with his parents and sister in their manor house in Jdinrma-Hash, and as a little boy had to watch as his parents were forced to capitulate to the invading Sorcerer King for the safety of everyone in the plateau. Henry always told himself that he would be the one to return his house to its former status, right up until Solomon decided that House Arkhewer was a thorn in his side and had Henry’s family burned alive as a demonstration. Henry escaped with the help of his sword teacher Terry, who agreed to help Henry defeat the man who’d had his family killed and take back the plateau for House Arkhewer. This didn’t work out quite how they’d planned and Henry ended up in a dungeon, but he’s well on his way to achieving his goals now.

**Notes:**

* Henry has had many opportunities to leave Ech’kent but refused to abandon his homeland. The presence of his husband in his homeland may or may not now be part of that refusal
* Henry never considered himself attracted to boys or men until he’d spent some time with Sam. He’s still not sure if he actually likes men or if he’s just emulating Sam
* Henry believes that there is a right and wrong thing to do. He has evolved recently into believing that sometimes you must do a series of wrong things in service to the right thing
* Henry knows people throughout Ech’kent and was able to very quickly set up a network of loyal people when he started working with Sam
* Henry is afraid of fire
* Henry is left-handed
* Henry has always had nightmares since he was a small boy; back then they were about dragons. Now they’re about Solomon. He’s never had a nightmare about Sam
* Henry has considered killing himself several times. The idea that Ech’kent needed him used to be what stopped him. Then it was the idea that it would be admitting defeat to Sam. Now it’s the idea of what Sam would do without him
* Henry has no ambitions outside of Ech’kent. Any politics he plays outside of the plateau are only to further the stability of his home
* Despite everything that has happened, Henry still hopes to have children someday

**Quotes:**

* “I got hit in the hand!”
* “There is a right way to do things.”
* “There are a lot of things wrong with you, Sam. You’re a broken, fucked-up excuse for a human in so many ways I can’t even count them all. But this isn’t one of them.”
* “The overall plan is to wean you off torture altogether.”
* “Yeah, well. You’re my favourite psychopath, how’s that?”
* “Slapping you was kind of fun.”
* “You left this for me. In my prison cell, in the pile of my clothes after you tore them up. Remember?”
* “Yeah, well. What’s the point of trying to be good anymore?”
* “What the hell’s the world coming to if you’re threatening not to rape me?”
* “There’s someone else we could try it on.”
* “I didn’t do it. You didn’t do it. We did it. Together.”
* “Because I need you. Not for the power or the status—though I do. But just…I need you. I do. I can’t picture my life without you in it, Sam. I think I’d go crazy. I think I’d kill myself.”
* “Plans are nice, but they never go like you want them to.”

**Trivia:**

* As a punishment for misbehaviour, Henry’s father used to spank him. Henry always promised he’d never do that to his son
* Henry doesn’t like beets. He eats them because they’re a primary crop in Ech’kent
* Terry was always Henry’s least-favourite teacher because Henry never wanted to learn to fight, but Henry turned around on him and on violence pretty quickly after Terry rescued him
* As a young boy, Henry was curious about naked bodies and pulled down his pants or got naked with a number of children he had access to. He was punished for this, not for the display of sexual curiosity, but for initiating it with people who couldn’t reasonably say no to him, something both of his parents were very serious about
* When Henry was ten, he was swept away in the Chavek River while swimming, washed up fifteen kilometers away and had to walk home, camping overnight
* Henry used to teach Gina everything that he’d learned in his lessons so she would know just as much as him
* Henry loved both his parents, and was always a bit sad at how unhappy they were for most of his childhood. His mother taught him how to think and moralize and rule, and his father taught him how to read and write and ride horses
* Rare visits from his cousins when he was little often left Henry wishing he had a brother in addition to a sister
* Henry’s first ejaculation was when he was waiting in a carriage for his parents to finish talking to someone, started masturbating and made a mess unexpectedly, and then had to hope that his parents didn’t notice the whole ride home
* The last thing Henry ever said to his parents was “if I’m old enough to have a sword, then I should be old enough to have a cup of wine at supper.” The last thing he said to his sister was “Don’t get snot in your hair”

**Modern AU:** Modern Henry is the son of two small business owners who were killed by the mob, and went on to live with a former employee of theirs, an investigative journalist named Terry. Planning to go into journalism himself, Henry and Terry decided to find out what was really going on with Netzer Pharmaceuticals, only to be caught and made to disappear. After a long period of public absence, Henry reappeared one day after Solomon Netzer’s death as a member of Sam’s new organization. Officially, his job title is executive assistant to the CEO of Netzer Pharmaceuticals, though in reality he does about a third of Sam’s work in the company, and of course also servers as Sam’s right hand in the world of organized crime, which he took to far more rapidly than he or Sam expected. When not helping criminals commit crimes or participating in mob activities, Henry likes to work out, fix elections and donate huge sums of Sam’s money to charity.