Hugo Dupuis was once a man of finance; controlled, brilliant, exacting, he read the markets as well as anyone alive.

Now he is a dead man.  And mad.

Driven insane by the Embrace, Hugo has become a genius, an artist, a whisper at the edge of the collectors' world.  His paintings emerge from time to time; sought after, fought over, they reveal the world as it actually is.  Stories circulate among the well to do, the in-the-know, of a disheveled figure on the fringes of high-society parties, in the shadows of bohemian cafes.  The ignorant seek him out, but it never ends well.

Seemingly abandoned by his Sire, Hugo struggled with his new-found madness, and threw himself into his art.  His paintings reveal more than just his vision; they reveal the truth, even truths best unknown.  He finally painted the wrong thing, saw what was not meant to be seen, and has been driven from the home and solace he found into a new world in the North.  His life was bought at the cost of his Sire's protection, a shield he never saw held over him until it was gone.