Valek

Valek
Name:	Valek
Alias(es):	Ghost (by Kiki)
Family:	Three older brothers : Victor and Viliam (17 year old twins) + and Vincent (15 years old) + , Three younger siblings : Zebulon (19 years old) and Zethan and Zohav (16 year old fraternal twins), Mother, Father, Yelena (heartmate/wife), Unborn Child
Magician:	Formerly; now has a permanent null shield over him
Appearance:	Sapphire-blue eyes, shoulder length ringlets of black hair, strong angular face
Home Territory:	Ixia
Occupation:	Commander's Personal Security Chief and Leader of the Ixian Intelligence Network
Status:	Alive
Allies	Commander Ambrose, Yelena, Janco, Ari, Maren
Age	33(poison study), 40(shadow study)

 Valek is Commander Ambrose's assassin and in charge of Ixia's spy-network. He is the love mate of Yelena Zaltana.

Biography

Early Life

Before the takeover, Valek lived in the Icefaren Province which would eventually become MD-1. A harsh winter collapsed the building that housed his father's leather business, when Valek was thirteen years old. The soldiers who collected taxes wouldn't listen to his father's pleas. When his father pleaded, they killed Valek's three older brothers, so his father wouldn't have the three extra mouths to feed.

The event inspired Valek to train as an assassin to kill the King because the soldiers were just "messengers". He earned money and the royals paid him to kill each other. Eventually they hired him to kill a man named Ambrose for his rebellious speeches. Ambushing him, Valek was soon fighting for his own life. After disarming Valek, Ambrose carved a C into Valek's chest with Valek's own knife. From then on Ambrose was his commander and Valek agreed to serve him if it got him close enough to kill the King.

During the takeover, Valek killed the King of Ixia and all of the Royal Family and Magicians using his favorite knife. When the King tried to curse Valek, the spell seeped into the knife instead of Valek because of Valek's immunity to magic. Because of this, the knife was no longer usable (as the blade was seeped with poison), although Valek still kept it, because he thought it 'did make a nice trophy.' 

For many years he was so loyal to the Commander that many such as Dilana thought he was gay. However, when he meets Yelena, he begins to fall in love with her. He describes his falling for her like a poison invading his heart.

At the end of Fire Study, Yelena reveals to believe that when Valek's brothers were killed, Valek pulled so much magical power to himself, that he created a permanent null shield.

Poison Study

After the death of Commander Ambrose's food-taster, Oscove, Valek is forced to taste the meals himself until a replacement can be found. At the beginning of the novel, Valek summons the next in line for the noose into his office to offer a choice of becoming the new food-taster. When he sees that it is a woman, Yelena, he acts surprised, and offers her the job. After some thought, she agrees to do it. It is implied that Valek purposefully planned that Yelena be made the new food-taster and that is why she was in the dungeon for almost a year.

In his office, Valek toasts to Yelena, the new food-taster, and as she drinks asks her to name the ingredients of her drink, which he had spiked with a poison named White Fright, and later tells her to roll the liquid in her mouth before swallowing. After she tastes the poison, Valek tells her that she has been poisoned with a dose of Butterfly's Dust, and that she will have to receive an antidote each morning or she will die. What he doesn't tell her is that the poison is only made up, and that the so-called antidote is the poison White Fright.

He starts Yelena's training immediately, forcing her to smell poisons until her body is strong enough for her to taste them. Two weeks later, Valek decides to give Yelena a poison to taste, My Love, claiming that if she can survive it, she can survive any poison.  

After surviving My Love, he protects her from General Brazell's guards when they chase her through the castle and convinces the Commander to keep her as is food taster after General Brazell demands for Yelena's life. Valek also transfer's Yelena to his suite to protect her from General Brazell while he remains in MD 1. The arrangement had become permanent until Yelena had to leave for Sitia to learn how to control her magic.  

Valek gives Yelena an assignment to play fugitive for an experiment and test of the guards for escaped prisoners. Later he tails and saves Yelena during the fire festival when a Master Magician appears to eliminate Yelena. He tails her again through the experiment when Yelena plays the fugitive.    

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