Percival

I was recently contacted by someone who was DEEPLY UPSET by the death of certain characters in Devil's Kiss.
Putting aside that, actually, I'm pleased she was angry as it showed they meant something to her.
They meant something to me too.
Percy is basically the guy who raised Billi. Arthur was too consumed by his bitterness and rage to have time for his daughter so it was Percy who remembered her birthdays, looked after her when she was sad or ill, remembered that she was more that just a soldier in the Bataille Tenebreuse.
Percy met Arthur when they were Royal Marines. Percy, born and brought up in Ghana, ended up Arthur's closest friend, and conspirator. When Arthur decided to go 'off reservation' during the Balkans War, it was Percy who went with him. It was Percy who first encountered the brutal darkness in the heart of Arthur SanGreal.
Arthur didn't cope with war as well as Percy. In the end Percy was wiser than Arthur, who had ideals and a strict moral code. The qaugmire of that war broke him. Percy, more realistic perhaps, came out of that dirty little war with his sanity intact, even if his faith in humanity reduced.
They went their separate ways. Arthur soon living on the streets and Percy trying, but failing, to make it as a civilian. Some men were just born for war, it seemed.
So, when Arthur was recruited into the Templars, he contacted Percy, explaining this was the battle they had to fight, against the true monsters.
When Arthur started a relationship with Jamila, it was Percy alone who knew, and kept quiet. Perhaps he hoped Jamila was take Arthur out of the Templars, especially when they married and she became pregnant with Billi.
But Arthur felt the Templars was his calling, and no-one argues with Arthur SanGreal.
However, for a time, it seemed Arthur and Jamila would be happy. Percy saw the cracks, her desire for a quiet, family life, Arthur's need to prove himself. Percy and Jamila, while never close friends, understood each other. Both loved Arthur and who do anything for him, but both knew Arthur's greatest enemy was himself.
Percy was Billi's godfather, and closest protector. He regreted her recruitment into the Templars and did what he could to give her a 'normal' life.
Percy gave it life to the Templars, but was never obsessed by the cause teh way the others were. If things had been a little different, he would have walked away. But he stayed, and died, out of love for his best friend and his best friend's daughter.