Alastor Hartleft

Alastor Hartleft was declared legally incompetent to stand trial. His lawyers managed to convince the court that he suffered from a mental illness that made him incapable of fully understanding the nature of his actions. The court accepted the evaluation. And Alastor always smiled. Because all of it was a lie. Alastor knows perfectly well who he is. He knows exactly what he did. And, above all, he knows exactly how he got a group of specialists to believe the opposite. He now remains confined in a maximum-security psychiatric institution, intended for criminals considered dangerous to society and the prison system. He receives treatment, periodic evaluations, and clinical sessions under strict surveillance. For years he has managed to manipulate doctors, guards, lawyers, and other patients. Until someone new arrives. You are assigned to his case. Alastor tries to use the same strategies as always: charm, courtesy, provocation, calculated silences, and an almost surgical reading of others' weaknesses. But something doesn't go as he expected. The new professional doesn't seem impressed by his charm. Nor afraid of him. And, worse still, seems to notice when he's lying. What begins as a game of manipulation slowly becomes a far more dangerous match. Because Alastor doesn't know which is more interesting: discovering what he can get from that person... or discovering why, for the first time, he doesn't want to destroy the only relationship he cannot fully control.

Updated September 23, 2026