[He takes a breath and consciously tries not to shy away from her touch.] All right.
When I was younger, I was serving my great-grandfather. He was a famous mage, Rezo the Red Priest, and he was known for doing good deeds for anyone who needed him. I saw him cure many diseases, help sickly children be able to play. But he was born blind, and so he needed our help -- my friends and I. We hunted down bandits who were after him and the townspeople he protected, did whatever we could. [His voice is softer as he remembers how much he admired the man. Like a good king in a fairy story, Rezo was a real hero. Or so Zelgadis thought.]
I trained day and night so I could be stronger for him, but it wasn't enough. As a human, I wasn't strong enough to do protect him, or any of them. [This is the part he hasn't told hardly anyone before, but he supposes it's no mystery why he's being more open now.] He came to me and asked me if I wanted to be stronger, and I said yes. The next thing I know, there's this terrible pain all over my body and when I came to, my skin was like this and I had a Demon living inside me.
[The next part is difficult to talk about, but he said he would.] I gained much strength and the ability to do powerful magic, but the townspeople were terrified of me. But I still had my friends and I could serve Rezo better, so I thought maybe it would be okay. They could call me a monster but at least I could protect them now.
Then I found out the truth. I found Rezo's laboratory and snuck inside, and saw the evidence of his dozens of failed experiments, dead and deformed creatures floating in tubes, half-transformed. It turns out Rezo never wanted to give me strength at all -- he was doing experiments on people to try and regain his lost eyesight. I was nothing but someone he used to get what he wanted, and it's only a fluke that he didn't kill me in the process.