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Aghovar Soma

"He was the brother who could look Drahas in the eye. We forgot that meant Drahas could look back."
— Vanho Soma, in private to a senior magician

The middle of the three Soma brothers and the previous Grand Master of the Guild of Thieves. Killed by Sophet Drahas personally, in an act so brazen that the city's underworld is still recalibrating around the wound. The Devil card and the Talisman of Shadows were taken from his body. The Soma family vendetta — against Drahas and the Guild of Usurers — has its second and deepest origin in him.

The Inheritance He Was

Born middle of three brothers. By Cadwë inheritance custom, that meant he was never going to be Peer of Soma — that fell to his eldest brother Anon (and then to his youngest brother Vanho, after the wounds). Aghovar's path was the guild track, and he excelled.

  • Joined the Guild of Thieves as a young man — the house's traditional path for non-heir Soma sons
  • Rose to Grand Master — by his early forties; the youngest in the guild's modern history
  • Held the Talisman of Shadows — the Soma family's hereditary protective artifact, traditionally passed to whichever brother held the most dangerous post
  • Held the Devil card — one of the 22 arcana, inherited from the Soma founding line. Two cards in one hand is unusual. That he had both was widely known in the underworld.

How He Died

Drahas killed him personally, in a meeting Aghovar agreed to. The site of the killing is not public knowledge — the body was returned, the meeting was denied, and the Talisman of Shadows + the Devil card went with Drahas into the Court of Ashes. The Soma family's public position is that Aghovar was murdered in a robbery; the family's private knowledge runs all the way to Drahas's throne.

The Cadwë underworld read it as a declaration of war. Drahas had operated in the shadows for centuries; killing the Grand Master of the Guild of Thieves face-to-face was a step into the light, and a calculated one. Whatever Drahas wanted from Aghovar — the cards, the Talisman, information — he wanted enough to surface for it.

What He Was Like

The Cadwë underworld remembers Aghovar as the brother who could negotiate with anyone. Where eldest brother Anon was a public diplomat and youngest Vanho is a warrior-mage, Aghovar was the family's operator — fluent in three languages, on first-name terms with smugglers and embassy attachés alike, comfortable in the catacrypts and at Whitehaven. He could look Drahas in the eye. That was, in the end, why Drahas killed him.

Relations

  • Vanho Soma — his younger brother; now Peer, now alone with the vendetta
  • Anon Soma — his elder brother; assassinated by Usurer agents (the first wound); died first
  • Isabeau Soma — niece (Anon's daughter); inherited the active hunt against Drahas
  • Sayuri Soma — half-elf cousin; runs Cameon Mansion; was close to Aghovar
  • Sophet Drahas — his killer
  • The Guild of Thieves — his guild; still divided over whether his death is properly avenged

What Drahas took from him

Drahas killed Aghovar for the Talisman of Shadows, not the Devil card. The card was a bonus. The Talisman is what Drahas needed: it stabilizes the curse Feyd Mantis laid on him at the founding, letting Drahas reach further from the Court of Ashes than he could otherwise. The Devil card is what Drahas wanted — one of the 22, and a specific one whose meaning resonates with the Court of Shadows. Aghovar suspected this and tried to negotiate access without surrendering either artifact. He miscalculated Drahas's patience by approximately one meeting.

Aghovar's vault

A senior Soma magician has located what may be Aghovar's personal vault — an unmarked door in the catacrypts under Soma. It is rumored to contain his operational notes from the months before his death: who he met, what he learned about Drahas, what the Talisman was actually capable of. Vanho has not yet been told the vault has been found. The magician fears Vanho's pride will push the family into open war the moment he reads the notes. (see Vanho Soma)

The man returned

Someone matching Anon Soma's description has been seen at night in Heaven Heights. He is not a ghost. If Anon can come back, can Aghovar? A free league quietly hired to investigate the Anon sighting may stumble on a second figure — Aghovar, also returned, and very deliberately not approaching his family.

See Also