Suddenly... philosophy.
Evil
Evil. What was it anyway? A philosophy, a label, a word. An insult, an excuse. Something to use to justify actions, to condemn innocents, to smear opponents. What did it matter? And, really, was it so bad?
Vlad contemplated the glass of deep red wine in his hands as he sat before the fire. A lit cigar languished in an ashtray, its potent smoke wreathing the darkened room. Stone walls lined with tapestries and bookshelves stretched around him, enclosing him in wealth and prestige. Power dripped from the walls, from his own fingertips. The world dangled in front of him like low hanging fruit. All he had to do was reach out and pluck it.
So why hadn't he yet?
Evil. Good and evil. One couldn't exist without the other, that dichotomy of two otherwise useless words. Meaningless words. Concepts that belonged to lesser creatures. Here above the delusional masses there was nothing to hold him down. No words, no obligations, nothing to prevent him from flinging his power over the world and reeling it in like a fish in a net. Except...
The only thing in his way. Only one other being in the realms who held power akin to his own. One who insisted on clinging to those words. Couldn't understand that they were just words. That there was nothing behind those words, not here. Not anymore.
But Daniel wouldn't listen.
And so Vlad would play the "evil" to the boy's "good" until Daniel learned as he had.
There was no such thing as evil.