“I am an occultist. I am a protector of the realm under the King’s seal. I am the twenty-third Glyde to carry out an extremely ancient duty, and I am also, faute de mieux, carrying out someone else’s extremely ancient duty because there’s nobody else to do it. Before the War, I was a wealthy and privileged scion of one of the great and ancient families. Now I’m half a ghost-hunter and half I don’t know what, with my world hanging in shreds around me, staring into a pit most people don’t even see, but it’s there. It’s bloody there.”
