Gruel has one of those Grimm Fairy Tales origins where the punishment keeps following the person into the larger story. He begins as a boy whose cruelty turns a chance at a magi…

Gruel has one of those Grimm Fairy Tales origins where the punishment keeps following the person into the larger story. He begins as a boy whose cruelty turns a chance at a magical reward into a curse. By the time he is serving Orcus, the damage from that earlier story has become part of the danger he poses to everybody else. His stepbrother Arthur helps an elderly woman who asks for water. She is a fairy, and Arthur is rewarded with diamonds appearing when he speaks. Gruel and his mother see a way to benefit from the same magic. Arthur is killed, and Gruel tries to imitate the act of kindness that earned the reward. But imitating the gesture doesn't give him the same intention. A different fairy recognizes what he is doing. His speech produces reptiles, and his appearance worsens with his cruelty. He even kills his mother, blaming her for what has happened to him. There is something particularly unpleasant about that response. He is already being punished for hurting other people, and he answers the punishment by hurting someone else. Each attempt to put the blame outside himself pushes him further into the thing he has become. The wizard Morgarzera can halt the worsening transformation, although he can't restore Gruel's original appearance. Gruel becomes his servant. After Morgarzera's death, Orcus gains that service and gives Gruel something much more dangerous: the last Shadow Dragon Claw. At Tallus, that object lets him become a shadow dragon. His role changes from a subordinate doing another person's bidding to a major threat against everyone defending the city. The defenders need their combined efforts to stop him, with Blake's enchanted arrow playing a decisive part. What makes Gruel worth remembering is how directly the small fairy-tale story follows him into the war. The encounter at the river isn't disconnected background. His choices leave him vulnerable to people who can offer control over his condition or a new kind of power. Morgarzera can stop the curse from worsening. Orcus can turn him into something fearsome. Neither relationship asks him to become a better person, and that seems to suit him much more than accepting responsibility ever did.