Luxley Cyrtal

"'You cannot kill a man who was born from smoke and stone.'""-- Luxley Cyrtal to Andria of Aramore"Adviser Luxley Cyrtal, also called the Tyrant King, is a POV antagonist throughout all four books of the Princess and the Guardian series.

Background
Luxley was born of an affair between Zivon Davennor, High King of Kyrasha, and Melisante Cyrtal, a handmaiden to Queen Ksenia of Rrothnor. His mother kept him a secret in the Citadel until he reached the age of five. Melisante begged Zivon to raise the boy as his son, to which he agreed only with the understanding that Luxley would make a strong alternative heir to Marek Davennor.

Despite being Zivon's firstborn son, Luxley was seen as nothing more than a bastard given special privilege. From an early age, he envied his half-brother Marek, who was endlessly spoiled and treated like a true heir to the Crown. Feeling cheated out of his rightful place on the throne, young Luxley vowed revenge on the Davennors in the name of karmic justice. Though he convinced young, buffoonish Marek that he was his closest friend, he often made fun of the boy and plotted behind his back, criticizing his "cry baby" nature as a child and giving him the renown nickname, the Brat King.

In his adolescence, Luxley continued to refine his art of manipulation and outline his ghastly plans with the ultimate goal of eliminating anyone "fit for the throne" in order to acquire divine power.

As the years pass, Luxley becomes an advisor to Marek, eventually earning the title Master of Bones from his father for his achievements as warden of the Kyrashan dungeons. However, Luxley continues to work behind the Davennors' backs, albeit sometimes to their present benefit. He advises Marek that he should supplant spies in Alargon's Grove to identify a means of destabilizing the Kingdom of Aramore and its allies.

Book I
Prince Marek receives word from a Davennor spy named Dain that Andria of Aramore is known to be alive and in hiding. In an attempt to prove himself worthy to his father, Luxley suggests that he take a ship across the Sea of the Dead to Aramore. There, Luxley will live in disguise until he convenes with the Davennor spy to plot a coup in a display of Davennor supremacy.

A month later, Luxley arrives in Eastern Aramore by ship. He lies low while traveling to Galadhor, quickly adopting the local dialect and seamlessly blending into the Aramorian public. In a dank pub, his spy confirms that Prince Benedict knows his sister is still alive. Luxley crafts a letter addressed to Prince Marek and sends Dain on his way, intending for Dain and his letter to be intercepted by House Alargon. His plan succeeds, causing Prince Benedict III to imprison Dain, release Xavier Weston from the Iron Keep, and send the young Guardian on a journey to retrieve Andria.

On the night of the next Mirum's Moon, Luxley follows Xavier and his companion, Caolan Northwood (whom Luxley has yet to recognize) on their trek through the Black Valley and Alargon's Pass, to Kildred's Oasis. Once in Skunatt, Luxley watches the pair and Andria of Aramore from a nearby forest, waiting for a chance to capture the lost princess.

In private, Caolan shares with Xavier a brief recollection of Luxley's character, detailing the day they met: young Luxley had captured a wounded bird and proceeded to keep it alive while he plucked its feathers, removed its beak, and finally bashed in its skull. It is Caolan's warning to Xavier that they ought not underestimate the extent of Luxley's cruelty and must keep Andria safe from him.

Before the oasis returns to normal, Luxley ambushes Andria, Xavier, and Caolan. Andria is able to outsmart him, however, and they escape. Luxley stumbles behind them, stuck once again in Aramore.

Once finding evidence of Luxley's whereabouts in Aramore, Caolan makes it his mission to track him down and end him. In the palace, Caolan manages to fatally wound Luxley, who dies upon the chapel's stone altar. Oliver allows Benedict to decide what to do with Luxley's body; Benedict, Andria, and Edmund each come to the conclusion to throw Luxley's body into the Rotter. However, unknown to the royals, Luxley has already created a bond with Kyrik, who revives him before the Banquet of Blood, just as Rùna revives Andria of Aramore.

At the banquet, Luxley murders King Frederick II and proceeds to take the Aldhavish crown. However, Edmund reclaims it. In the chase that ensues, Andria tosses her knife at Luxley in defense, scarring his face.

Book II
Luxley appears primarily in several of Caolan's flashbacks of his life as Kalar Davennor, Prince of Kyrasha. Each of them depict Luxley - much older than young Kalar - being endlessly mean to the boy and his mother, Lamya.

In the first, teenaged Luxley and Marek Davennor had stolen real swords from the War Room and decided to have a spar in the gardens. After finding that young Kalar had been spying on their duel from the bushes, they challenge the clumsy ten-year-old to a duel. The bullying comes to a bleak end for both parties when Kalar and Marek end up sporting bleeding cuts. After Kalar slashes open Marek's arm, Luxley proceeds to beat him up. Princess Lamya arrives to stop the boys and protect her son, but she can't leave before Luxley has a few choicely innappropriate words for her.

Despite Luxley's clear display of cruelty towards Kalar, Prince Zivon takes the side of his sons. Luxley continues to bully Kalar. When Kalar finally decides to fight back, Luxley is taken by surprise - by chance, Kalar had broken Luxley's nose. Enraged, Luxley threatens to "silence" him and earns a slap from the doting Princess Lamya.

After telling King Zivon what happened, Luxley convinces his father to get rid of Kalar. He accompanies the guards himself only to find that Lamya had fled with Kalar. He leads the hunt to find them. However, he only discovers Lamya in the woods. He wouldn't know until several years later that Kalar successfully made it to Aramore.

Appearance
While it is common knowledge that Luxley Cyrtal is an illegitimate son of King Zivon, he looks nothing like Zivon: he is tall, muscular, and with long dark hair and steel blue eyes. Rya describes him to have a sharp, crooked nose, strong browline, narrow eyes, and stubble; he is nevertheless considered to be one of the Citadel's handsomest men.

In A Royal Reborn, Luxley receives a ghastly scar over his right eye from Andria's dagger. He sports this scar for the rest of his life.

Personality
At his best, Luxley has prove himself to be adaptable, cunning, witty, and charismatic. Having grown up in the Kyrashan Citadel as a bastard of the high king, Luxley never had the luxury of feeling safe. Thus, he learned to thrive in an environment that was cruel and threatening to him. Since boyhood, Luxley has been the champion of riddles, wordplay, chess, and other strategy games whenever he plays against Marek. Furthermore, he is a well-liked man with a strong reputation despite his unpreferable upbringings.

On the contrary, when Luxley unveils his mask of charisma and devotion to House Davennor, one discovers this man is a ruthless, power-hungry, mysoginistic sadist. After Luxley became of age, King Zivon put him in charge of manning the dungeons and treating any prisoners of war, thus granting him the title Master of Bones. Luxley's cruelty has no bounds when given the order to torture his dungeon victims.

All in all, Luxley is a highly selfish, manipulative man, intense and moody in nature despite his detachment from society and its laws.