Who was he? He was many things, to be picked up and left by the waysides as needed. He'd been a scientist, and before that a quiet young boy. He was a schemer and illusionist. He was far more people than the city might have ever guessed, walking around (as he was now) under a respectable and healthy set of illusions. Misplaced spark-mage or curious scholar or sometimes even simply (as now) one of the blue-eyed, blond-haired citizens of the city. Or nothing, if he wanted to not be seen, though that was a rare occasion.

And he was part of the darker undercurrent of the city. The hidden side, pulling threads together like a spider sitting at the seat of its web. A secret of the dark places, that, since that was a tale never to be told. It was only to be guessed at by those who saw him for who he truly was and those precious few who were in on the grand schemes that played out behind the 'skin' of the city.

Needless to say, The Master was none of the these, and so the answer his (Praetoris'-but-not) lips gave was a far more simple one.

"I'm a citizen of the city."

For once, it was the truth. Perfect and utter truth, though he hadn't applied for citizenry under the name he was born under or the one he was pretending to. But when you got right down to it, it had still been him in the registry office that day and that was enough for his purposes.