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kaylinneyaPLAYER
Name: Chicklet
Age: Adult
Personal Journal: Chicklet
E-mail: Dwlogs@writeme.com
AIM/MSN/etc:
Yahoo: Chicklet_Royal
Plurk: ChickletLARP
Please note, there are a lot of unique names and races in this series, and I am dyslexic. I will try to spell things consistently, and apologize if I fail. I know from experience, given the length of this, that proofreading might not get everything.
Also: Massive spoilers ahead. You have been warned.
CHARACTER
Name: Kaylin Neya
Canon: The Chronicles of Elantra
Age: Mid twenties
Timeline: in the middle of Cast In Peril
If playing another character from the same canon, how will you deal with this?: N/A
Personality:
Kaylin Neya has a nasty habit of attracting what she dislikes most: Magic. She really hates magic, even though everyone she cares about tells her not to. "It's a part of you" Severn says at one point, when he explains how he can't hate it, and she shouldn't. And to be honest, it's most magic she hates, not all magic. She hates the magic that hurts, that makes her skin prickle, that is used to hurt other people, or to make it hard to investigate a crime. Doorwards, which are used almost everywhere in her world, have earned a special hatred in her heart.
But she attracts magic. Not as an ability, but as a side effect of being her, mixed with some very... odd... luck. This has lead to some very interesting people becoming part of her life, both for good and for ill, and they have all left their mark on her, have all shaped her.
But there are some base traits to Kaylin that no one will ever be able to change. Her instinct to heal those who are hurt, her desire to be doing SOMETHING, her disdain for classroom learning, and most of all... the way that children act as giant blinders for her.
She forgets pretty much everything... for the sake of a child. If a child is in danger, saving them becomes her sole focus. (there is one strong exception, which I will get into in the powers section, but it has only happened twice, and children in danger were the trigger, both times) If not child is in danger, but one is running towards her, gleefully, everything gets dropped, shouldered, or sheathed so she can lift up the child.
Kaylin used to be very prejudiced against one of the races on her world. The Tha'alani scared the life out of her, and she hated them. She thought she hated them with all her being. But the Castelord of the Tha'alani is impossible to hate, and she knew what Kaylin needed to break the last of the hatred and fear. She invited her to the Quarter... where Kaylin met the Tha'alani children. And there is no way Kaylin could ever fear children. She played with them swept them up, and accepted the child even touching her with the amphorae that had one scared her so badly. (They are used for mind reading, and Kaylin had once said in an office memo "if the other races can't walk around waving their weapons, how come the Tha'alani can?" Thankfully Marcus had the wit not to let that memo go any further than the Hawks office pool.)
Kaylin discovered in all the Tha'alani a child like innocence that made her protective over them, as if most of them were children still despite their apparent ages.
Kaylin shapes herself, and sees herself based on her failures. She does not see the fifteen people she saved, she sees the two who she did not. She does not see the cases she's helped to solve, she sees the one in front of her causing trouble NOW. She has a hard time visualizing the future, and has spent most of her time running from the past.
She also always drives herself too hard. Too many things are too important to her for her to pick and choose. So even if she is due in at work, if the midwives call in the middle of the night, she goes, no matter what it costs her physically, mentally, emotionally, or financially.
This leads into Kaylin's issue with punctuality. There are always office betting pools about her punctuality, and she finds it very irksome that she is not allowed to bet on herself. Her teacher, Lord Sanabalis, has taken to showing up more than an hour after their class time is scheduled to begin, because waiting for her might irritate him. He is the "court of last resort" and her teacher because she intentionally teed off every teacher before him. She actually likes Sanabalis, but often wonders if it IS possible to irritate him. He's avuncular enough that her annoyance is usually fixed more on the lesson than on the dragon delivering it. Given that the lessons are in magic, this is impressive indeed.
Kaylin knows she is not supposed to use her power. She has a bracer that restrains her power, leaving her magic-less for the most part. She knows how to remove it, and will. Often. With great vehemence. The fact that she works for one of the Halls of law, and that it i by IMPERIAL LAW that she wears it at all times... It speaks to how deeply the need to heal runs. She can't do what she has to do wearing it, and choosing between someone's life and keeping the bracer on... life always wins in the end.
But the bracer is there for good reason. There is a darkness to her power, a darkness that was meant to BE her power. She has lost control of it before, and it makes her a danger. She hates that darkness, that potential to loose control, and that is why she submits to the cuff in the first place. Well, that and the fact that the alternative was suicide via dragon.
Kaylin likes things to be straightforward, and the fact that they never are is a constant source of frustration for her. And she would like a promotion and a better pay check. Given her punctuality issues however, that's not in the cards. She did however learn that among the Leontines (the large cat like race to which her Sargent Marcus Kassan belongs) there is actually a rank below private. Corpse. He says that whenever she needs a reminder to be glad she's a private.
She will do nearly anything for the people she cares about, though. For the Hawk (which is an deal, a goal, a belief all in one... but also largely is about the Hawklord himself, to Kaylin) she actually managed to get to work on time (with help) so that acting Sargent Mallory had no cause to kick her out. She did this while investigating the crime Marcus was accused of against orders on her own time, doing her daily schedule at the palace with Rennick, and trying to help the Tha'alani recover from the rampant hatred and bigotry aimed at them as a reward for their assistance in saving the city.
No one ever said life was fair, least of all Kaylin.
For Clint, she learned to speak Aerian, because he loved it so much when she TRIED. For Marcus and his wives, she learned Leontine, though honestly it is also the language of choice for cursing in the office... She learned High Barranai because all the laws were written in it, but she learned low because she loved Teela and Tain so much. For Evernton, she holds her tongue - more or less. Even Bellusdeo gets some of that, despite being such a recent addition to Kaylin's life. Kaylin accepts her as a roommate in her already too small one room flat, and when someone blows it up trying to kill Bellusdeo Kaylin passes up the opportunity to get a place that is just hers again, and moves in to the (insert curses in 4 languages here, said really quietly because dragons have disturbingly good hearing) Imperial Palace; despite the fact that she hates the place, that she's sure that living there will make her stop... living.
On and on the list goes. Parts of herself, parts of her life, shaped for the sake of those she loves.
Kaylin is all spines on the surface. Sharp tongue, sharp knives, first to curse, first to bet what little she has, says the first thing on her mind... but inside she is a good and kind person, even if she works hard to not see it.
Background:
Kaylin was born in the fief of Nightshade, just across the Alblyne river from the CITY of Elantra. Technically the fiefs are outside the jurisdiction of the Emperor and his laws. In the fiefs the only laws belong to the lord for whom the fief is named, and he or she is the one who metes out punishment. Justice is a fairy tale.
Her father is never mentioned, but she was raised by her mother, Tara, who did her best for the little girl. When Tara was getting ill, Kaylin met Severn. He was a few years older, 13 in total, and she thought of him as a grown man. He saved her from the Ferals - monsters that live in the fiefs - by throwing away meat "actual meat. That had to hurt." to distract them so they could get away. He understood what she couldn't, that her mother was dying.
Severn started taking care if them, never discussed his own family situation. He stole enough to keep them fed, and when Kaylin's mother died, he took her away, and they found a new room to squat in. It was the fiefs, someone else would find the room, and would be willing to deal with the body in exchange for shelter. Save the fief lord, no one really owned ANYTHING in the fiefs. Doors had no locks. If you could defend your home, you kept it. And they were kids.
It seemed, to Kaylin when she was forced to look back, like she lived her whole life in Winter in the fiefs, everything seemed to happen then. Like finding her "kids". One a year over 2 years, she found small children, desperate children, and she and Severn saved them from Ferals, took them in... She learned to steal to help feed them. They were hers. She loved them with all she had, and she learned to fight to defend them. Steffi. Jade. Hers.
And then the marks appeared. They started one winter, on the longest night. Black, so black. "The marks would forever redefine black to her." They started on her arms and legs, filled her inner thighs, filled arms from shoulder to wrist. They didn't know what the marks were, but Severn was smart enough to realize they had to be hidden, secret.
They found soon after a dead child. Someone she knew. The dead child was marked as she was marked. They were all sure she would die next. When more and more children turned up dead they kept waiting for it to be her, for they were all marked, and all killed the same way, all gutted. They thought it was happening everywhere.
This was about when she discovered that she could heal. Severn could not stop her from healing, but helped her keep it secret as best as possible. And they lived. They survived, always sure she would be dead and soon.
Then came the time when Severn gave her instructions, he was going away, maybe for more than a day and a night. No one was stupid to be out at night in the fiefs. Kaylin feared for him, but she trusted him. She followed his instructions. She protected Steffi and Jade. She didn't know he had gone to the fief lord. She didn't know what he asked or what her had been told.
But when he returned, he sent her off to the market, with actual coins, to buy food. When she returned, the room was filled with blood, blood everywhere. And her children, her girls, Steffi and Jade were dead. Severn, covered in their blood, still held the knife that had slit their throats.
She fled. She never quite forgave herself for not killing him, not asking him why... she fled. Her Severn had killer HER girls...
She wound up crossing the fief border from the inside, which should have been impossible, and wound up in Barren, at the base of a tower that hadn't been used in years.
Morse found her. Short haired, short tempered, foul mouthed Morse. And Kaylin, then under a different name, said "I want to learn how to kill a man." It was the right thing to say to Morse. Morse was Barren's second, and she took Eli (Kaylin) on as hers. Trained her, didn't hesitate to smack her or worse if she was being sentimental, soft, or stupid.
Then Barren assigned Kaylin an assassination. Against Morse's warnings, she tried to find out the WHYs of the situation instead of just doing as she was told. Which was how she found out that the man had done what he did to protect his sister. She helped them escape. Morse found them later and killed them.
Barren sent her on another assassination, and she was the only one that didn't realize that it was a death sentence. He sent her across the river, into the city, to assassinate the Lord of Hawks, Lord Greymere.
The Hawks are one of the three branches of law in Elantra. The Swords keep the peace, the Hawks investigate the crimes, and the Wolves hunt anyone too dangerous or crafty for the Hawks to nail.
So the little 13 year old girl, covered in marks that she thought would kill her went to go murder a man who stood for law and justice but let a river stop him from helping people like Steffi and Jade.
She studied the Halls, she planned, she was surprised at the fact that no one immediately knew her for a fiefling. Finally she picked a time when the dome should be open and climbed the tower.
She honestly did try to kill the Hawklord. She really did try. But by the time she left the tower, she had a new name - Kaylin Neya - and a dream. She was going to be a Hawk.
The Hawks helped her find a place, and despite the fact that she couldn't actually BE a Hawk until she turned 18. She wound up helping on cases anyway, begging all the Aerian Hawks to take her flying. She found a home, a family with the Hawks. A new life.
And then, years later, when she had officially been a Hawk for just a short time, Severn re-entered her life. While she had become a Hawk, he had joined the Wolves, and was being seconded to the Hawk while they investigated a strong of deaths in the fief of Nightshade... Children dying marked with marks like Kaylin's, in the same age range. But at a faster rate. Also on their team is the first ever Dragon Hawk, Lord Tiamaris, who had personally spoken up in Court that Kaylin should be killed over the power she wields.
The end result of that conversation was the acquisition of an irreplaceable ancient bracelet from the hoard of the Arkon that keeps Kaylin from most magic. (She can still -painfully - sense it, she just can't use it) Tiamaris is not overly thrilled to find out that she knows how to take the cuff (she calls it a shackle or a cage) off herself.
While technically the law does not extend into the fiefs, in this case, the fief lord allows them entry into his domain wearing the Hawk, and she has to go back to a place she left behind, with Severn at her side.
The fief lord himself decides to meet these Hawks, and... what isn't clear until later is that he knows all three of them. Tiamaris he had met previously when Tiamaris had been researching the nature of the fiefs. Severn he remembered from all those years back, from the conversation that lead to the deaths of Steffi and Jade. And Kaylin... he met her in her future, his past, when the trio of Hawks wound up sucked back in time, later on. Of course, he is Barrenai, and gave nothing away when he "met" each of them that he knew who they were.
But in his memory, Kaylin bore a mark. HIS mark. So he marked her in that "first" meeting.
Over the course of the investigation, Kaylin spoke with an Old One, gained Lord Nightshade's true name, gained more marks, healed a young girl named Catti which lead to Catti being kidnapped, Kaylin loosing control of her power in her desperation to save her... and... Severn saving her. Saving all the children for her. From her. And oh yeah, undead Barenai? That's apparently a thing. A taboo thing that she should not have mentioned in front of the Arcanists.
And she found out WHY the children were being killed. They were sacrifices, offerings to fuel the awakening of the Chosen, of a Dark God. Her. Mukeron, the only outcaste Dragon was trying to turn her into a Dark God bound to his will.
She nearly killed Murkon, could have, but Severn stopped her, because the power that was flowing through her was also killing the children. She had lost the ability to hear or see them.
Murkon got away, badly injured, fleeing for the heart of the fiefs. The Hawks, Kaylin with them, brought Catti and the other kids back.
After Tiamaris went to court, this time to argue for her being allowed to live despite direct evidence that she took off the cuff and became a danger.
The end result was that she was required to take magic lessons, if she wanted to remain a Hawk.
She ticked off, insulted, and chased away every magic tutor who came to the Halls of law... until they sent a Dragon. She is pretty certain that it is impossible to intentionally irritate Lord Sanabalis, but... she does like him. It's the lessons she hates, though what she does wind up learning from him is so much more than just lighting a candle. He did however, wind up loaning her his medallion, a mark just shy of ownership. It was to balance the mark of Lord Nightshade.
Kaylin drew the attention of the Barrani Arcanist, Lord Evarrim, and her friends Teela and Tain tried to keep them apart, but when the High Lord of the High court, the Lord of the West March falls... "ill"... with no explanation and no signs of poison, Teela has to make use of the only healer in the Empire that wasn't seconded to the Emporor. Kaylin.
Kaylin already had the true name of Lord Nightshade after a "talk" with an "old one" went sour. The only way to awaken the Lord of the West March... was to take his name as well.
He called her Kyuthe, publicly, and invited her to the Leoswuld. She didn't fully understand it, but she did understand that she couldn't refuse. While she was his guest in the High Halls she and Severn became the first mortals to pass the test of name; which meant they got true names and that they became Lords of the High Halls. the only non-Barani to hold that title. As though that weren't enough, she also helped the Lord of the West March save the life of his older brother, getting him, the Lord of the Green to the Leoswuld in time to save the world.
Then she got called to the shop of one of the few magic users she liked, Evanton "The purveyor of odd junk and the occasional piece of real magic". It turns out he is the Keeper, a guardian of "Garden" that houses the Elements, well their cores. The Garden is what keeps the Elements from running wild, and something was stolen from it. A reliquary of water. And all the Oracles and portents spoke of the destruction of the city. By water.
Over the course of this book, Kaylin wound up befriending the core of the Elements Water and Fire. And comes to loose her hatred of the Tha'alani, and through water, the Tha'aalan, the mind that connects all the Tha'alani, their communal memories... through Water. To Kaylin, Water will always look like the little girl that the Tha'aalan presented itself as to her, to get her to save a Tha'alani child, Mayalee.
Kaylin became a beloved fixture among the Tha'alani, and she came to love them as though they were themselves children. The Tha'alani saved the city from the tidalwave that threatened, standing against it, while Kaylin, Severn. Eventon, and Tiamaris fought the mage who had the reliquary.
But the first day back to work after that brought too many changes, too much bad news. The city had no clue the Tha'alani had placed themselves in the way of the wave. The people thought they CAUSED the wave, and rose against them in angry mobs. But everywhere Kaylin went to help the Swords people kept expressing sympathy. She had no clue why...
Her Sargent, Marcass Kassan, who practically raised her since she "joined" the Hawks at 13 had been arrested for murder, and his replacement, acting Sargent Mallory Hated him, hated her, and would do anything he could, by the books, to fire her.
Her job, which she equates with her life, was saved by 2 things, Severn making sure she gets to work on time by dragging her out of bed in person every morning, and all but dragging her through the streets (at least he brought breakfast, so she actually got to EAT, unlike most "mornings" which constitute her rolling out of bed as soon as she can, often some time after noon, to the snarls in her mirror of an angry Leontine - Marcus - spurring her on to dress and race to work as fast as she can). The other thing that saved her was that she and Severn were specifically requested, by the Emperor for a special assignment at the palace. Even Mallory couldn't override that.
Thankfully the assignment at the palace was babysitting an ill tempered playwright named Richard Rennick who was himself tasked with writing a play that would make people hate the Tha'alani less. What was good about the assignment was that he viewed mornings the same way Kaylin did, and so they had the time between checking in at work, and when Rennick woke up to investigate Marcus' case. Despite being told not to.
In this book she learned that the marks that now covered her back to the nape of her neck, her front to under the best, the whole of her arms and her upper legs, were Words. Not words, but Words. The Language used by the Old Ones to CREATE. These Words gave life, and are very like the True Names of the immortals. These Words were formed into stories that shaped the whole of a race, and in that shaping, created the Leontines from wild cats. And a different story, with different Words could twist some of them into monsters. There was a reason there were no Leontine mages, because the ones with the potential were to be killed at birth. Like one of Marcus' wives.
Lord Sanabalis spoke to the Leontines in the Quarter. He told them one of their oldest Stories, reaffirming with the Old Words what they are, anchoring them. This was about when Kaylin discovered that when the Old Tongue was spoken... She could see the words, though no one else could until she touched them. And throughout the books she also learned to change them, reshape them, reshape life.
She was able to save Marcus' wife, and the baby that was born which triggered this whole mess, which gave Maurkuron the Black a foothold into Elantra again, but could not save the baby's parents. Not their lives. Though she did bring the mother back to herself, and the mother chose to die helping Kaylin save their son. (Odd quirk of Leontine culture led to Kaylin being one of the child's mothers.)
She left the baby safely with Marin, the Leontine woman who takes care of all the human orphans in the city. The play was a success, and peace... more or less returned to Elantra, insomuch as it ever exists.
Peace did not last long, of course.
The boundaries of the fiefs were weakening. Ravellon, the darkness of the final fief, encircled by the others, was pushing through... in Barren. A face from the past showed up on Elani street to deliver a message to Kaylin. Morse.
Morse had a message from Barren, Blackmail. Barren figured that the only way Kaylin was still alive was because she never tried to kill the Hawklord, and threatened to tell the city why she had crossed the bridge if she didn't come for a meeting. She went anyway. With Severn. And Tiamaris.
The monsters that spilled from the fief's borders made Ferals look like puppies. Morse called them One-offs. And there were Shadow Storms. One touches you and you're no longer you when you come out, and the effect is spread by touch. So of course a Shadowstorm swallowed Kaylin, Severn, and Tiamaris.
They were dropped into the past. Into a time before the fiefs were the fiefs. Before there WERE shadows in the heart of Ravellon, and they met a young Nightshade, before he was fief lord, before he was outcaste.
Just as the test of Name in the High Halls had made Kaylin face her past, the history and the truth behind the deaths of Steffi and Jade, the trip into the past taught them the true nature of the fiefs, and how they work and Kaylin and Tiamaris would up waking the Tower of Illien. What would have been Barren's tower if he had taken the fief correctly. But he hadn't, so instead of the fief of Illien taking his name, he and the fief BOTH took the name Barren. Because Illien was among the undead, the undying, but Barren could not take the fief fully, and leaderless, it was, in the most important way, Barren.
They awoke the Tower and the Tower... tried to talk to them, tried to relate to them. The tower very much is not human. She took on a psudo-human form, first looking like Kaylin with wings and then when that failed... she took the form of a child. And she begged Kaylin to save her, to claim her, to become fief lord.
Kaylin helped her, helped Tiamaris and Severn save her, but in the end Tiamaris took the fief, and the fief took his name. The tower... took the name Tara. Kaylin named her Tara.
Since the fiefs are outside the law of the Emperor, Tiamaris was no longer beholden to the laws that restricted him from taking his true form and flying. He made clear his rule, and the one who needed it most kill Barren, and took Morse as his second. Together with Morse and Tara, Tiamaris settled into making his fief into the city writ small, his own empire, but one unlike any other fief. One with actual laws, where people would have enough to eat, safe places to live... Tara decided to start a garden. And Barren which held such horrible memories for Kaylin became Tiamaris... one of her favorite places to visit.
And then the Chaos came.
All manner of odd things happened. A rain of blood. Margot who was a fraud fortune teller told a true fortune with massive legal and political repercussions. A phony hair tonic actually cured baldness. The Elements in the Garden were in a frenzy. Odd births including an infant with a third eye, and one woman who gave birth to an egg. The egg went home with Kaylin, who kept meaning to bring it to Evernton, but never had a chance to.
And in the middle of all of this... Kaylin fell out of the world. She dropped into a place between worlds that was no place at all. A little like the road between in Kingdom Hearts. The theory that humans were not native to that world was given much more credence as the chaos proved to be the approach of travelers whose world had been devoured by a creature they simply called The Devourer.
To stop The Devourer from breaking through many people, including the Consort (female leader of the Barreni and wife/sister to the new High Lord who had been the Lord of the Green) wanted the portal closed firmly, leave these strangers to the Devourer. better than than letting them lead it to this world.
Kaylin could not let that stand and worked at odds to her friend, sure the bond between them would be broken forever. What she managed to do, however was to bring the Devourer where he belonged. He belonged in the Garden, he was a part of that world, he was what united the elements and kept them in check. She saved him, though he ate some of her marks in the process.
the new race was claimed quickly by Tiamaris, and since they spent their lives training against and fighting the very same shadows that plague the fiefs, they become invaluable in Tiamaris, helping to protect the boarders.
And then Tiamaris sends word to the city, a request for help from the Lords of Law. A woman has shown up dead in his fief. Not unusual at all for the fiefs, though it is not what he wants from his... except... Tara who should be able to see and be aware of EVERYTHING in the Fief has no clue who she is or where she came from. Oh... and she's also turned up dead more than once. The same woman, multiple identical bodies on slabs.
While investigating this crime, Kaylin learns the hard way that someone is practicing illegal magic to kidnap people from the fiefs sending them who only knows where.
Except it is kidnapping in Tiamaris. Nightshade SOLD his people to this. Finally they solved the mystery of the woman, but not before they had eight identical corpses. She was a Dragon, the only female dragon awake in the empire, and Murkeron the Black had been trying to manipulate her into what he desired. But she was as a God to the warriors of the new Race who had joined the world, and she had sundered her True Name to survive, joining it with a warrior and his blade.
Once that all got untangled, the Dragon, Bellusdeo, decided she was going to live with Kaylin. Kaylin who lived in a one room flat. Not one bedroom, one room. Her kitchen wasn't even a separate room from where she slept. A wall partially divided the space, but not fully. But Bellusdeo wedged her way in there, leaving Kaylin little way to refuse, though they were able to agree that her warrior had to stay in Tiamaris until they found a bigger place.
Kaylin didn't want bigger place, she wanted her own place to be hers again.
And then someone tried to kill Bellusdeo with an arcane bomb lobbed in through the window. The magical blast from the bomb leveled the apartment, as well as those above and below them... and packed enough magical punch to crack the egg Kaylin still took care of.
From the egg hatched a familiar. (Kaylin ticked off almost every Dragon she knew by calling it a dragon, though it really really looked like one to her) A small transparent creature with sharp teeth that cast a shield around the women to protect them. He's the only reason they survived.
Kaylin wound up having to move into the Palace, which she HATED while they looked for a new place. She wasn't allowed to investigate the assassination, winch also irritated the life out of her. There was also another case, the one Margot almost jeopardized, which Kaylin was also kept away from - it dealt with the rich and politically powerful and Kaylin lacks tact to a painful degree - but Lord Nightshade had some information...and he traded it to the Hawklord... his price was that Kaylin accompany him on a journey to the West March.
A million and one political reasons why this was a BAD IDEA later, and Kaylin, Severn, and Teela joine the Barrani only caravan for the West march. A journey of months... if all went well.
Of course, no Barrani journey could be simple or uncomplicated. The "campsites" were living buildings called Hallione that catered to the needs of the guests, and kept them from killing each other.
The little not-dragon (who every now and again eats one of her marks) BIT one of the Hallione, waking it up in a rather spectacular fashion. And Kaylin... Kaylin found herself in possession of a magical dress that she could not refuse, that marked her as having a crucial role in the proceedings at the West March. Essentially the role translated into "Story Teller" though it was more a sorting than a telling.
I am dropping her on the train during this journey. She will have fallen asleep in the carriage, and have woken on the train with a number of her processions that had been left in the palace.
Abilities:
Here is where the list gets long.
Pyshical/mental (non-magical) skills: Kaylin ha trained for more than 7 years in law enforcement. So even though she is small, she has decent strength, and has learned a lot about how to use leverage in throws, speed, and a lower target area to her advantage. She is used to being quick on her feet, even in armor. She knows how to fall and get back to her feet in a single motion. She knows some pretty impressive acrobatics.
She also knows how to count things on the move, recognize faces in a crowd, and has trained hard to notice small details, small clues. They are constantly being told "You are a hawk, see like one".
She is GOOD at her job. Except for the paperwork. And the showing up on time. And the wearing a clean uniform that isn't wrinkled and torn...
She also has a natural gift for languages. She speaks Elantran, Aerian, Low Barreni, High Barreni, and Leontine fluently. She is learning a smattering of Dragon, though her ears nearly bleed listening to it. She knows some of the Old Tongue, not in any useful way, but more that she can recognize shapes sometimes, and how they were meant to be... and she sometimes starts speaking it without realizing she's doing so. She's also learning the tongue of the Norinarr - the new race living in Tiamaris. She is also gifted at inventive cursing. The foul language kind, not the magical kind.
Communication abilities - She holds the True Name of Lord Nightshade AND bears his mark. She holds the True Name of the Lord of the West March. Severn holds her True Name. Through these she can communicate with any of those notables over extreme distances, and see through their eyes or let them see through hers. I would need to know if this would work in RC if they are not there. I do not think it would. But if any of them arrive in RC, she would be able to communicate with them that way.
The magical list - Kaylin can summon the Elementals - the embodiments of the Elements - and converse with them. Water and Fire come easiest to her. She has the potential to master Air, but has not yet done so. Through Water she can communicate to the Tha'alani, any of them, and that I do believe would span the worlds, since it is cannon that all the Elements are rooted in her world, in that Garden, and that the elements in other worlds are parts of that whole, all connected to their source and root. So Water here would be as Water there. But Water is not all of one mind, so she can;t just magically know anything that happens near water, and while she theoretically COULD command Water and Fire at the least, she asks. Because she asks instead of commands, they still listen to her. I honestly do not recall how much progress she made with Elemental Earth.
Kaylin can sense magic. Elemental magic is a slight tingle, more of a subconscious awareness, and does not bother her. All of the magic that Eventon does feels like Elemental magic to her. ALL OTHER MAGIC... It's a painful buzzing under her skin when she is near active magic. Even with the Bracer on. (more on the bracer below) If she touches something with active magic (like a door ward) it HURTS. She has gotten good at gritting her teeth, or swearing to make a sailor blush to get through it, but she hates it and where she can, she avoids magic. Low level magic usually just make her arms itch, and the itching is a sign to her. sometimes the marks will also glow around magic of any sort. (Though again, Evernton's enchantments do not seem to bother them, or her)
"Kaylin?"
"Hmm?" She was looking at the cross section of charms in a small case in one window—Mortimer's Magnificent Magic—and glanced at her partner's reflection in the glass.
"You're rubbing your arms."
She looked down and realized he was right. "They're sort of itchy," she said.
He raised one brow. "Sort of itchy?"
The marks that adorned most of the insides of her arms were, like the ones that covered her inner thighs and half of her back, weather vanes for magic. Kaylin hesitated. "It doesn't feel the way it normally does when there's strong magic. It's—they're just sort of itchy."
"And they've never been like that before."
Healing - Kaylin has a tremendous gift for healing. It is largely instinctive, though the coroner, Red, insisted she attend a few autopsies so she could learn the proper terms for some things. Still, she mostly sees things as "this is broke, encourage it to grow together...gently...gently... stop the blood flow here..." Injuries like a bad birth are easiest for her, poison is harder, illness harder still. While healing, her marks glow and she forgets her body. She usually comes out of a healing trance dehydrated, wrung out, and stiff.
Hurting - a dark power resides inside Kaylin, one she fights. Most of the time it lays dormant, but there have been 2 or three times (depending on if you count the short story) where children have been in such danger that she took whatever power she could get to save them. But every time... the children saw her as the monster, and every time, someone had to stop her. The first time she killed three men. She dissolved the first to ash, and in the clutches of the darkness, decided he hadn't suffered enough... she skinned the other two alive before killing them slowly. (Willow: "Bored now!") Almost a decade since she got these powers, it's happened at most three times, and always when a large number of children were in a very very bad position, and it was the only way to save them.
Kaylin had a magic that not even the most august of the Imperial scholars understood, and if it had been a weak magic, it wouldn't have mattered—much. But it was strong enough to withstand the full breath of a dragon in his true form. Strong enough to make a hole in a thick stone wall that was wider across than Severn. Strong enough to heal the dying.
And the Emperor was in possession of all these facts, and more. Kaylin's glance strayed a moment to her arms; the length of her sleeves all but hid the dark marks that were tattooed there, in whirls and strokes, as if she were parchment, and they were the scattered telling of a story that was ancient before history began.
Magical items (and non-magical items) of note that she has with her:
A very expensive very fine gold and green dress that shows off her arms, and is apparently indestructible. It is called "The Blood Of The Green". It has matching shoes. They are also indestructible. Oh, SHE can get hurt wearing this lot, but the dress looks pristine, no matter what she does. She would probably burn it if she thought that wasn't suicide.
She has her beat uniform - Leather pants, padding under, leather armor, chain mail shirt, tabard with a hawk on it, a pair of daggers in sheaths, enchanted so she can draw them silently. Good sturdy boots. The Hawk on her tabard is picked out in gold beads and if magic changes her clothing suddenly (that keeps happening to her) the hawk transfers over to her new outfit.)
A hair stick. Not magical.
A blue sleeveless low back short skirted dress... it is made of Elemental Water, and is "traditional" to be worn by Water's chosen. The fact that it shows off most of her marks has not been lost on her. The fact that every immortal thing that sees her marks (practically) calls her "Chosen" makes her wonder if Uriel, a long dead Tha'alani leader who bore the same marks, and similar powers, had to wear the dress. The thought makes her snicker.
A signet ring that magically fits her finger and cannot be removed without her will unless you chopped off the whole finger. The rest of its power is political, and therefore not applicable unless a Barreni apps in.
Lord Sanabalis' Amulet. It is a large coin with an impression of a Dragon roaring. It is on a thick gold chain, knotted because it is too long otherwise. It makes it easier for her use fire as a weapon, without having to summon the Elemental. It also helps her light the **** candle.
A picnic basket. At the moment it has no food in it, unfortunately, but when it does, it preserves food for a few extra days.
Her familiar. It looks like a dragon to everyone who isn't a Dragon. The body is about the size of a house cat, wings taller than the body, long prehensile tail, long prehensile neck. It sort of listens to Kaylin. Sometimes. When it feels like it. It is protective over her, but sees the oddest things as threats. It can eat magic and Words. It breathes out small clouds of chaos that can hover hover for up to two minutes, and wake deeply sleeping magical edifices by biting them. Kaylin is trying to stop it from doing that.
The Dragon will get more powerful and gain other abilities, if she ever names it, but since she had JUST named it in the series and all it's new abilities have not yet been defined or explored, I'm keeping it pre-named. I might apply for a cannon update if the next novel has sufficient information.
The cuff/manacle/bracelet/cage - It looks like a very expensive ornamental bracer/bracelet, being between the two in size. It is too small around to slide over her hand, and seems to have no hinge. It does have a series of colored jewels on the top. Sometimes, but not always, in the presence of large amounts of magic, the gems flash, same for if magic is being used on Kaylin. If she is wearing it and her marks glow, so too do the gems. She cannot pass a magical barrier/ward/protection wearing it even if it is permeable to the rest of her body. This has saved her life multiple times. She can take it off. The Hawklord taught her how to do so, even though he isn't allowed to.
Kaylin, her wrist weighted by a few pounds of what was ostensibly gold, knew this firsthand. The bracer—studded with what were also ostensibly gemstones, and in and of itself more valuable than most of the force on a good day, which would be a day when their Sergeant wasn't actively cursing the amount of money being wasted employing their sorry butts—was also magical. It was older than the Empire.
No one knew how it worked—or at least that's what was claimed—but it kept random magic neutralized. Kaylin had been ordered to wear it, and on most days, she did.
The bracer is impossible to loose. It always has a keeper. She never gets to choose who the keeper is, and she never gets to be the keeper herself. First it was the Hawklord, then when she forgave Severn, he became the keeper. If it is ever too far from her for too long, it returns to the keeper's possession. One of the small vindictive pleasures in her life is tossing it on a trash heap or in the river; even when, and sometimes especially because, she hears Severn **** about the smell in his apartment. Given that he's a Corporal, given that he has multiple bedrooms, and never has to skip a meal because he's broke... she tosses it in the river a lot.
Weakness: Kaylin has a lot of abilities, I wanted to talk more about her weaknesses, the balance.
As I said above, kids are huge blinders for her. They are the be all end all for her. To protect a child, she will do nearly anything, no matter how much it might terrify her.
Lying. Quite simply, Kaylin can't. Oh... she can get the words out... but no one is stupid enough to believe them. Trapped in a world between the Barreni (If they're speaking, they're probably lying) and the Dragons (she almost gets roasted insulting Tiamaris by IMPLYING he might be lying...) Kaylin would lie if she thought she could pull it off. She tries every now and again, and is aware that when she isn't called on it... it's because the other person is being polite.
Politeness and tact. In High Barreni she can be polite, only because it is nearly impossible to be rude in that language. By design. She hates speaking High Barreni. Kaylin has a sharp tongue and a caustic wit. She is taking protocol classes to teach her polite behavior. The only reason it's going better than when she started is that Bellesduo joined the class, and she's even more irreverent than Kaylin, so she draws most of Lord Diamat's ire. Kaylin's mouth gets her into trouble. A lot.
Speaking of trouble - Punctuality. Punctuality. Punctuality. Though I do give her slack on this one. She works shifts that can go ten or more hours of chaos past her scheduled out time, and on average 1-2 times a week she is called into the Midwives guild, in the middle of the night to come running, to save the life of a mother and child. Most nights she is lucky to find 3 hours in her bed before her shift begins and she has a very taxing job.
Betting. All fieflings bet. It's about the only source of entertainment. When she came to the Hawks, she brought betting with her. She, however, more often than not, falls for the sucker bets. Being a private and constantly having her pay docked is only half of why she's always broke. The other half is betting.
"What will you be missing?" he asked, when her impressive spate of cursing—in four official languages—had died down enough that he could be heard without shouting. Severn rarely raised his voice.
"Game," she said curtly. "Ball," she added.
"Playing?"
She grimaced. "Betting." Which, for Kaylin, was synonymous with watching.
"Figures. Who were you betting on?"
She shrugged. "Sharks."
"So you'll save some money."
This caused an entirely different spate of swearing, and she punctuated this by punching his shoulder, which he thoughtfully turned in her direction. "You'd be betting on the Tigers, I suppose?"
"Already have," he replied.
She also has NO sense of direction....
He paused. "Are you waiting for something?"
"No, sir."
"Good. Get lost."
"Yes, sir."
"Corporal?"
Severn nodded.
"Make sure that she understands that 'get lost' in this case isn't literal."
"Yes, sir."
Network/Actionspam Sample:
[Kaylin sighs, running a hand over her hair. She looks at the watch again, then fixes the hair stick she had dislodged.]
"Might as well try it," she muttered.
[The watch hadn't FELT like magic, but she hadn't tried to use it yet. Now she would. Checking that her cage - the ornate bracelet she wears - was in place, she reaches for the watch, then stops again. She glanced at the Familiar draped around her shoulders.]
"Want to bet this will hurt like a *****?" She asks it.
[The dragon looking beasty simply yawns, then begins gnawing on her hair-stick. She sighs.]
"Can't be worse than a mirror..."
[And with that she knew who she had to check in with first. Not Teela, who would be rabid without showing it to know how she was, not Seven who would show it but not in a way that the Barreni would recognize. Not Marcus as much as she longed for the office and her job....
She touches the watch surface.]
"Call Marin," [she instructs, hand still on the watch. Her shoulders slump as nothing happens.]
Prose Log Sample:
http://rubycity-ooc.dreamwidth.org/490852.html?thread=15962212#cmt15962212
Name: Chicklet
Age: Adult
Personal Journal: Chicklet
E-mail: Dwlogs@writeme.com
AIM/MSN/etc:
Yahoo: Chicklet_Royal
Plurk: ChickletLARP
Please note, there are a lot of unique names and races in this series, and I am dyslexic. I will try to spell things consistently, and apologize if I fail. I know from experience, given the length of this, that proofreading might not get everything.
Also: Massive spoilers ahead. You have been warned.
CHARACTER
Name: Kaylin Neya
Canon: The Chronicles of Elantra
Age: Mid twenties
Timeline: in the middle of Cast In Peril
If playing another character from the same canon, how will you deal with this?: N/A
Personality:
Kaylin Neya has a nasty habit of attracting what she dislikes most: Magic. She really hates magic, even though everyone she cares about tells her not to. "It's a part of you" Severn says at one point, when he explains how he can't hate it, and she shouldn't. And to be honest, it's most magic she hates, not all magic. She hates the magic that hurts, that makes her skin prickle, that is used to hurt other people, or to make it hard to investigate a crime. Doorwards, which are used almost everywhere in her world, have earned a special hatred in her heart.
But she attracts magic. Not as an ability, but as a side effect of being her, mixed with some very... odd... luck. This has lead to some very interesting people becoming part of her life, both for good and for ill, and they have all left their mark on her, have all shaped her.
But there are some base traits to Kaylin that no one will ever be able to change. Her instinct to heal those who are hurt, her desire to be doing SOMETHING, her disdain for classroom learning, and most of all... the way that children act as giant blinders for her.
She forgets pretty much everything... for the sake of a child. If a child is in danger, saving them becomes her sole focus. (there is one strong exception, which I will get into in the powers section, but it has only happened twice, and children in danger were the trigger, both times) If not child is in danger, but one is running towards her, gleefully, everything gets dropped, shouldered, or sheathed so she can lift up the child.
Kaylin used to be very prejudiced against one of the races on her world. The Tha'alani scared the life out of her, and she hated them. She thought she hated them with all her being. But the Castelord of the Tha'alani is impossible to hate, and she knew what Kaylin needed to break the last of the hatred and fear. She invited her to the Quarter... where Kaylin met the Tha'alani children. And there is no way Kaylin could ever fear children. She played with them swept them up, and accepted the child even touching her with the amphorae that had one scared her so badly. (They are used for mind reading, and Kaylin had once said in an office memo "if the other races can't walk around waving their weapons, how come the Tha'alani can?" Thankfully Marcus had the wit not to let that memo go any further than the Hawks office pool.)
Kaylin discovered in all the Tha'alani a child like innocence that made her protective over them, as if most of them were children still despite their apparent ages.
Kaylin shapes herself, and sees herself based on her failures. She does not see the fifteen people she saved, she sees the two who she did not. She does not see the cases she's helped to solve, she sees the one in front of her causing trouble NOW. She has a hard time visualizing the future, and has spent most of her time running from the past.
She also always drives herself too hard. Too many things are too important to her for her to pick and choose. So even if she is due in at work, if the midwives call in the middle of the night, she goes, no matter what it costs her physically, mentally, emotionally, or financially.
This leads into Kaylin's issue with punctuality. There are always office betting pools about her punctuality, and she finds it very irksome that she is not allowed to bet on herself. Her teacher, Lord Sanabalis, has taken to showing up more than an hour after their class time is scheduled to begin, because waiting for her might irritate him. He is the "court of last resort" and her teacher because she intentionally teed off every teacher before him. She actually likes Sanabalis, but often wonders if it IS possible to irritate him. He's avuncular enough that her annoyance is usually fixed more on the lesson than on the dragon delivering it. Given that the lessons are in magic, this is impressive indeed.
Kaylin knows she is not supposed to use her power. She has a bracer that restrains her power, leaving her magic-less for the most part. She knows how to remove it, and will. Often. With great vehemence. The fact that she works for one of the Halls of law, and that it i by IMPERIAL LAW that she wears it at all times... It speaks to how deeply the need to heal runs. She can't do what she has to do wearing it, and choosing between someone's life and keeping the bracer on... life always wins in the end.
But the bracer is there for good reason. There is a darkness to her power, a darkness that was meant to BE her power. She has lost control of it before, and it makes her a danger. She hates that darkness, that potential to loose control, and that is why she submits to the cuff in the first place. Well, that and the fact that the alternative was suicide via dragon.
Kaylin likes things to be straightforward, and the fact that they never are is a constant source of frustration for her. And she would like a promotion and a better pay check. Given her punctuality issues however, that's not in the cards. She did however learn that among the Leontines (the large cat like race to which her Sargent Marcus Kassan belongs) there is actually a rank below private. Corpse. He says that whenever she needs a reminder to be glad she's a private.
She will do nearly anything for the people she cares about, though. For the Hawk (which is an deal, a goal, a belief all in one... but also largely is about the Hawklord himself, to Kaylin) she actually managed to get to work on time (with help) so that acting Sargent Mallory had no cause to kick her out. She did this while investigating the crime Marcus was accused of against orders on her own time, doing her daily schedule at the palace with Rennick, and trying to help the Tha'alani recover from the rampant hatred and bigotry aimed at them as a reward for their assistance in saving the city.
No one ever said life was fair, least of all Kaylin.
For Clint, she learned to speak Aerian, because he loved it so much when she TRIED. For Marcus and his wives, she learned Leontine, though honestly it is also the language of choice for cursing in the office... She learned High Barranai because all the laws were written in it, but she learned low because she loved Teela and Tain so much. For Evernton, she holds her tongue - more or less. Even Bellusdeo gets some of that, despite being such a recent addition to Kaylin's life. Kaylin accepts her as a roommate in her already too small one room flat, and when someone blows it up trying to kill Bellusdeo Kaylin passes up the opportunity to get a place that is just hers again, and moves in to the (insert curses in 4 languages here, said really quietly because dragons have disturbingly good hearing) Imperial Palace; despite the fact that she hates the place, that she's sure that living there will make her stop... living.
On and on the list goes. Parts of herself, parts of her life, shaped for the sake of those she loves.
Kaylin is all spines on the surface. Sharp tongue, sharp knives, first to curse, first to bet what little she has, says the first thing on her mind... but inside she is a good and kind person, even if she works hard to not see it.
Background:
Kaylin was born in the fief of Nightshade, just across the Alblyne river from the CITY of Elantra. Technically the fiefs are outside the jurisdiction of the Emperor and his laws. In the fiefs the only laws belong to the lord for whom the fief is named, and he or she is the one who metes out punishment. Justice is a fairy tale.
Her father is never mentioned, but she was raised by her mother, Tara, who did her best for the little girl. When Tara was getting ill, Kaylin met Severn. He was a few years older, 13 in total, and she thought of him as a grown man. He saved her from the Ferals - monsters that live in the fiefs - by throwing away meat "actual meat. That had to hurt." to distract them so they could get away. He understood what she couldn't, that her mother was dying.
Severn started taking care if them, never discussed his own family situation. He stole enough to keep them fed, and when Kaylin's mother died, he took her away, and they found a new room to squat in. It was the fiefs, someone else would find the room, and would be willing to deal with the body in exchange for shelter. Save the fief lord, no one really owned ANYTHING in the fiefs. Doors had no locks. If you could defend your home, you kept it. And they were kids.
It seemed, to Kaylin when she was forced to look back, like she lived her whole life in Winter in the fiefs, everything seemed to happen then. Like finding her "kids". One a year over 2 years, she found small children, desperate children, and she and Severn saved them from Ferals, took them in... She learned to steal to help feed them. They were hers. She loved them with all she had, and she learned to fight to defend them. Steffi. Jade. Hers.
And then the marks appeared. They started one winter, on the longest night. Black, so black. "The marks would forever redefine black to her." They started on her arms and legs, filled her inner thighs, filled arms from shoulder to wrist. They didn't know what the marks were, but Severn was smart enough to realize they had to be hidden, secret.
They found soon after a dead child. Someone she knew. The dead child was marked as she was marked. They were all sure she would die next. When more and more children turned up dead they kept waiting for it to be her, for they were all marked, and all killed the same way, all gutted. They thought it was happening everywhere.
This was about when she discovered that she could heal. Severn could not stop her from healing, but helped her keep it secret as best as possible. And they lived. They survived, always sure she would be dead and soon.
Then came the time when Severn gave her instructions, he was going away, maybe for more than a day and a night. No one was stupid to be out at night in the fiefs. Kaylin feared for him, but she trusted him. She followed his instructions. She protected Steffi and Jade. She didn't know he had gone to the fief lord. She didn't know what he asked or what her had been told.
But when he returned, he sent her off to the market, with actual coins, to buy food. When she returned, the room was filled with blood, blood everywhere. And her children, her girls, Steffi and Jade were dead. Severn, covered in their blood, still held the knife that had slit their throats.
She fled. She never quite forgave herself for not killing him, not asking him why... she fled. Her Severn had killer HER girls...
She wound up crossing the fief border from the inside, which should have been impossible, and wound up in Barren, at the base of a tower that hadn't been used in years.
Morse found her. Short haired, short tempered, foul mouthed Morse. And Kaylin, then under a different name, said "I want to learn how to kill a man." It was the right thing to say to Morse. Morse was Barren's second, and she took Eli (Kaylin) on as hers. Trained her, didn't hesitate to smack her or worse if she was being sentimental, soft, or stupid.
Then Barren assigned Kaylin an assassination. Against Morse's warnings, she tried to find out the WHYs of the situation instead of just doing as she was told. Which was how she found out that the man had done what he did to protect his sister. She helped them escape. Morse found them later and killed them.
Barren sent her on another assassination, and she was the only one that didn't realize that it was a death sentence. He sent her across the river, into the city, to assassinate the Lord of Hawks, Lord Greymere.
The Hawks are one of the three branches of law in Elantra. The Swords keep the peace, the Hawks investigate the crimes, and the Wolves hunt anyone too dangerous or crafty for the Hawks to nail.
So the little 13 year old girl, covered in marks that she thought would kill her went to go murder a man who stood for law and justice but let a river stop him from helping people like Steffi and Jade.
She studied the Halls, she planned, she was surprised at the fact that no one immediately knew her for a fiefling. Finally she picked a time when the dome should be open and climbed the tower.
She honestly did try to kill the Hawklord. She really did try. But by the time she left the tower, she had a new name - Kaylin Neya - and a dream. She was going to be a Hawk.
The Hawks helped her find a place, and despite the fact that she couldn't actually BE a Hawk until she turned 18. She wound up helping on cases anyway, begging all the Aerian Hawks to take her flying. She found a home, a family with the Hawks. A new life.
And then, years later, when she had officially been a Hawk for just a short time, Severn re-entered her life. While she had become a Hawk, he had joined the Wolves, and was being seconded to the Hawk while they investigated a strong of deaths in the fief of Nightshade... Children dying marked with marks like Kaylin's, in the same age range. But at a faster rate. Also on their team is the first ever Dragon Hawk, Lord Tiamaris, who had personally spoken up in Court that Kaylin should be killed over the power she wields.
The end result of that conversation was the acquisition of an irreplaceable ancient bracelet from the hoard of the Arkon that keeps Kaylin from most magic. (She can still -painfully - sense it, she just can't use it) Tiamaris is not overly thrilled to find out that she knows how to take the cuff (she calls it a shackle or a cage) off herself.
While technically the law does not extend into the fiefs, in this case, the fief lord allows them entry into his domain wearing the Hawk, and she has to go back to a place she left behind, with Severn at her side.
The fief lord himself decides to meet these Hawks, and... what isn't clear until later is that he knows all three of them. Tiamaris he had met previously when Tiamaris had been researching the nature of the fiefs. Severn he remembered from all those years back, from the conversation that lead to the deaths of Steffi and Jade. And Kaylin... he met her in her future, his past, when the trio of Hawks wound up sucked back in time, later on. Of course, he is Barrenai, and gave nothing away when he "met" each of them that he knew who they were.
But in his memory, Kaylin bore a mark. HIS mark. So he marked her in that "first" meeting.
Over the course of the investigation, Kaylin spoke with an Old One, gained Lord Nightshade's true name, gained more marks, healed a young girl named Catti which lead to Catti being kidnapped, Kaylin loosing control of her power in her desperation to save her... and... Severn saving her. Saving all the children for her. From her. And oh yeah, undead Barenai? That's apparently a thing. A taboo thing that she should not have mentioned in front of the Arcanists.
And she found out WHY the children were being killed. They were sacrifices, offerings to fuel the awakening of the Chosen, of a Dark God. Her. Mukeron, the only outcaste Dragon was trying to turn her into a Dark God bound to his will.
She nearly killed Murkon, could have, but Severn stopped her, because the power that was flowing through her was also killing the children. She had lost the ability to hear or see them.
Murkon got away, badly injured, fleeing for the heart of the fiefs. The Hawks, Kaylin with them, brought Catti and the other kids back.
After Tiamaris went to court, this time to argue for her being allowed to live despite direct evidence that she took off the cuff and became a danger.
The end result was that she was required to take magic lessons, if she wanted to remain a Hawk.
She ticked off, insulted, and chased away every magic tutor who came to the Halls of law... until they sent a Dragon. She is pretty certain that it is impossible to intentionally irritate Lord Sanabalis, but... she does like him. It's the lessons she hates, though what she does wind up learning from him is so much more than just lighting a candle. He did however, wind up loaning her his medallion, a mark just shy of ownership. It was to balance the mark of Lord Nightshade.
Kaylin drew the attention of the Barrani Arcanist, Lord Evarrim, and her friends Teela and Tain tried to keep them apart, but when the High Lord of the High court, the Lord of the West March falls... "ill"... with no explanation and no signs of poison, Teela has to make use of the only healer in the Empire that wasn't seconded to the Emporor. Kaylin.
Kaylin already had the true name of Lord Nightshade after a "talk" with an "old one" went sour. The only way to awaken the Lord of the West March... was to take his name as well.
He called her Kyuthe, publicly, and invited her to the Leoswuld. She didn't fully understand it, but she did understand that she couldn't refuse. While she was his guest in the High Halls she and Severn became the first mortals to pass the test of name; which meant they got true names and that they became Lords of the High Halls. the only non-Barani to hold that title. As though that weren't enough, she also helped the Lord of the West March save the life of his older brother, getting him, the Lord of the Green to the Leoswuld in time to save the world.
Then she got called to the shop of one of the few magic users she liked, Evanton "The purveyor of odd junk and the occasional piece of real magic". It turns out he is the Keeper, a guardian of "Garden" that houses the Elements, well their cores. The Garden is what keeps the Elements from running wild, and something was stolen from it. A reliquary of water. And all the Oracles and portents spoke of the destruction of the city. By water.
Over the course of this book, Kaylin wound up befriending the core of the Elements Water and Fire. And comes to loose her hatred of the Tha'alani, and through water, the Tha'aalan, the mind that connects all the Tha'alani, their communal memories... through Water. To Kaylin, Water will always look like the little girl that the Tha'aalan presented itself as to her, to get her to save a Tha'alani child, Mayalee.
Kaylin became a beloved fixture among the Tha'alani, and she came to love them as though they were themselves children. The Tha'alani saved the city from the tidalwave that threatened, standing against it, while Kaylin, Severn. Eventon, and Tiamaris fought the mage who had the reliquary.
But the first day back to work after that brought too many changes, too much bad news. The city had no clue the Tha'alani had placed themselves in the way of the wave. The people thought they CAUSED the wave, and rose against them in angry mobs. But everywhere Kaylin went to help the Swords people kept expressing sympathy. She had no clue why...
Her Sargent, Marcass Kassan, who practically raised her since she "joined" the Hawks at 13 had been arrested for murder, and his replacement, acting Sargent Mallory Hated him, hated her, and would do anything he could, by the books, to fire her.
Her job, which she equates with her life, was saved by 2 things, Severn making sure she gets to work on time by dragging her out of bed in person every morning, and all but dragging her through the streets (at least he brought breakfast, so she actually got to EAT, unlike most "mornings" which constitute her rolling out of bed as soon as she can, often some time after noon, to the snarls in her mirror of an angry Leontine - Marcus - spurring her on to dress and race to work as fast as she can). The other thing that saved her was that she and Severn were specifically requested, by the Emperor for a special assignment at the palace. Even Mallory couldn't override that.
Thankfully the assignment at the palace was babysitting an ill tempered playwright named Richard Rennick who was himself tasked with writing a play that would make people hate the Tha'alani less. What was good about the assignment was that he viewed mornings the same way Kaylin did, and so they had the time between checking in at work, and when Rennick woke up to investigate Marcus' case. Despite being told not to.
In this book she learned that the marks that now covered her back to the nape of her neck, her front to under the best, the whole of her arms and her upper legs, were Words. Not words, but Words. The Language used by the Old Ones to CREATE. These Words gave life, and are very like the True Names of the immortals. These Words were formed into stories that shaped the whole of a race, and in that shaping, created the Leontines from wild cats. And a different story, with different Words could twist some of them into monsters. There was a reason there were no Leontine mages, because the ones with the potential were to be killed at birth. Like one of Marcus' wives.
Lord Sanabalis spoke to the Leontines in the Quarter. He told them one of their oldest Stories, reaffirming with the Old Words what they are, anchoring them. This was about when Kaylin discovered that when the Old Tongue was spoken... She could see the words, though no one else could until she touched them. And throughout the books she also learned to change them, reshape them, reshape life.
She was able to save Marcus' wife, and the baby that was born which triggered this whole mess, which gave Maurkuron the Black a foothold into Elantra again, but could not save the baby's parents. Not their lives. Though she did bring the mother back to herself, and the mother chose to die helping Kaylin save their son. (Odd quirk of Leontine culture led to Kaylin being one of the child's mothers.)
She left the baby safely with Marin, the Leontine woman who takes care of all the human orphans in the city. The play was a success, and peace... more or less returned to Elantra, insomuch as it ever exists.
Peace did not last long, of course.
The boundaries of the fiefs were weakening. Ravellon, the darkness of the final fief, encircled by the others, was pushing through... in Barren. A face from the past showed up on Elani street to deliver a message to Kaylin. Morse.
Morse had a message from Barren, Blackmail. Barren figured that the only way Kaylin was still alive was because she never tried to kill the Hawklord, and threatened to tell the city why she had crossed the bridge if she didn't come for a meeting. She went anyway. With Severn. And Tiamaris.
The monsters that spilled from the fief's borders made Ferals look like puppies. Morse called them One-offs. And there were Shadow Storms. One touches you and you're no longer you when you come out, and the effect is spread by touch. So of course a Shadowstorm swallowed Kaylin, Severn, and Tiamaris.
They were dropped into the past. Into a time before the fiefs were the fiefs. Before there WERE shadows in the heart of Ravellon, and they met a young Nightshade, before he was fief lord, before he was outcaste.
Just as the test of Name in the High Halls had made Kaylin face her past, the history and the truth behind the deaths of Steffi and Jade, the trip into the past taught them the true nature of the fiefs, and how they work and Kaylin and Tiamaris would up waking the Tower of Illien. What would have been Barren's tower if he had taken the fief correctly. But he hadn't, so instead of the fief of Illien taking his name, he and the fief BOTH took the name Barren. Because Illien was among the undead, the undying, but Barren could not take the fief fully, and leaderless, it was, in the most important way, Barren.
They awoke the Tower and the Tower... tried to talk to them, tried to relate to them. The tower very much is not human. She took on a psudo-human form, first looking like Kaylin with wings and then when that failed... she took the form of a child. And she begged Kaylin to save her, to claim her, to become fief lord.
Kaylin helped her, helped Tiamaris and Severn save her, but in the end Tiamaris took the fief, and the fief took his name. The tower... took the name Tara. Kaylin named her Tara.
Since the fiefs are outside the law of the Emperor, Tiamaris was no longer beholden to the laws that restricted him from taking his true form and flying. He made clear his rule, and the one who needed it most kill Barren, and took Morse as his second. Together with Morse and Tara, Tiamaris settled into making his fief into the city writ small, his own empire, but one unlike any other fief. One with actual laws, where people would have enough to eat, safe places to live... Tara decided to start a garden. And Barren which held such horrible memories for Kaylin became Tiamaris... one of her favorite places to visit.
And then the Chaos came.
All manner of odd things happened. A rain of blood. Margot who was a fraud fortune teller told a true fortune with massive legal and political repercussions. A phony hair tonic actually cured baldness. The Elements in the Garden were in a frenzy. Odd births including an infant with a third eye, and one woman who gave birth to an egg. The egg went home with Kaylin, who kept meaning to bring it to Evernton, but never had a chance to.
And in the middle of all of this... Kaylin fell out of the world. She dropped into a place between worlds that was no place at all. A little like the road between in Kingdom Hearts. The theory that humans were not native to that world was given much more credence as the chaos proved to be the approach of travelers whose world had been devoured by a creature they simply called The Devourer.
To stop The Devourer from breaking through many people, including the Consort (female leader of the Barreni and wife/sister to the new High Lord who had been the Lord of the Green) wanted the portal closed firmly, leave these strangers to the Devourer. better than than letting them lead it to this world.
Kaylin could not let that stand and worked at odds to her friend, sure the bond between them would be broken forever. What she managed to do, however was to bring the Devourer where he belonged. He belonged in the Garden, he was a part of that world, he was what united the elements and kept them in check. She saved him, though he ate some of her marks in the process.
the new race was claimed quickly by Tiamaris, and since they spent their lives training against and fighting the very same shadows that plague the fiefs, they become invaluable in Tiamaris, helping to protect the boarders.
And then Tiamaris sends word to the city, a request for help from the Lords of Law. A woman has shown up dead in his fief. Not unusual at all for the fiefs, though it is not what he wants from his... except... Tara who should be able to see and be aware of EVERYTHING in the Fief has no clue who she is or where she came from. Oh... and she's also turned up dead more than once. The same woman, multiple identical bodies on slabs.
While investigating this crime, Kaylin learns the hard way that someone is practicing illegal magic to kidnap people from the fiefs sending them who only knows where.
Except it is kidnapping in Tiamaris. Nightshade SOLD his people to this. Finally they solved the mystery of the woman, but not before they had eight identical corpses. She was a Dragon, the only female dragon awake in the empire, and Murkeron the Black had been trying to manipulate her into what he desired. But she was as a God to the warriors of the new Race who had joined the world, and she had sundered her True Name to survive, joining it with a warrior and his blade.
Once that all got untangled, the Dragon, Bellusdeo, decided she was going to live with Kaylin. Kaylin who lived in a one room flat. Not one bedroom, one room. Her kitchen wasn't even a separate room from where she slept. A wall partially divided the space, but not fully. But Bellusdeo wedged her way in there, leaving Kaylin little way to refuse, though they were able to agree that her warrior had to stay in Tiamaris until they found a bigger place.
Kaylin didn't want bigger place, she wanted her own place to be hers again.
And then someone tried to kill Bellusdeo with an arcane bomb lobbed in through the window. The magical blast from the bomb leveled the apartment, as well as those above and below them... and packed enough magical punch to crack the egg Kaylin still took care of.
From the egg hatched a familiar. (Kaylin ticked off almost every Dragon she knew by calling it a dragon, though it really really looked like one to her) A small transparent creature with sharp teeth that cast a shield around the women to protect them. He's the only reason they survived.
Kaylin wound up having to move into the Palace, which she HATED while they looked for a new place. She wasn't allowed to investigate the assassination, winch also irritated the life out of her. There was also another case, the one Margot almost jeopardized, which Kaylin was also kept away from - it dealt with the rich and politically powerful and Kaylin lacks tact to a painful degree - but Lord Nightshade had some information...and he traded it to the Hawklord... his price was that Kaylin accompany him on a journey to the West March.
A million and one political reasons why this was a BAD IDEA later, and Kaylin, Severn, and Teela joine the Barrani only caravan for the West march. A journey of months... if all went well.
Of course, no Barrani journey could be simple or uncomplicated. The "campsites" were living buildings called Hallione that catered to the needs of the guests, and kept them from killing each other.
The little not-dragon (who every now and again eats one of her marks) BIT one of the Hallione, waking it up in a rather spectacular fashion. And Kaylin... Kaylin found herself in possession of a magical dress that she could not refuse, that marked her as having a crucial role in the proceedings at the West March. Essentially the role translated into "Story Teller" though it was more a sorting than a telling.
I am dropping her on the train during this journey. She will have fallen asleep in the carriage, and have woken on the train with a number of her processions that had been left in the palace.
Abilities:
Here is where the list gets long.
Pyshical/mental (non-magical) skills: Kaylin ha trained for more than 7 years in law enforcement. So even though she is small, she has decent strength, and has learned a lot about how to use leverage in throws, speed, and a lower target area to her advantage. She is used to being quick on her feet, even in armor. She knows how to fall and get back to her feet in a single motion. She knows some pretty impressive acrobatics.
She also knows how to count things on the move, recognize faces in a crowd, and has trained hard to notice small details, small clues. They are constantly being told "You are a hawk, see like one".
She is GOOD at her job. Except for the paperwork. And the showing up on time. And the wearing a clean uniform that isn't wrinkled and torn...
She also has a natural gift for languages. She speaks Elantran, Aerian, Low Barreni, High Barreni, and Leontine fluently. She is learning a smattering of Dragon, though her ears nearly bleed listening to it. She knows some of the Old Tongue, not in any useful way, but more that she can recognize shapes sometimes, and how they were meant to be... and she sometimes starts speaking it without realizing she's doing so. She's also learning the tongue of the Norinarr - the new race living in Tiamaris. She is also gifted at inventive cursing. The foul language kind, not the magical kind.
Communication abilities - She holds the True Name of Lord Nightshade AND bears his mark. She holds the True Name of the Lord of the West March. Severn holds her True Name. Through these she can communicate with any of those notables over extreme distances, and see through their eyes or let them see through hers. I would need to know if this would work in RC if they are not there. I do not think it would. But if any of them arrive in RC, she would be able to communicate with them that way.
The magical list - Kaylin can summon the Elementals - the embodiments of the Elements - and converse with them. Water and Fire come easiest to her. She has the potential to master Air, but has not yet done so. Through Water she can communicate to the Tha'alani, any of them, and that I do believe would span the worlds, since it is cannon that all the Elements are rooted in her world, in that Garden, and that the elements in other worlds are parts of that whole, all connected to their source and root. So Water here would be as Water there. But Water is not all of one mind, so she can;t just magically know anything that happens near water, and while she theoretically COULD command Water and Fire at the least, she asks. Because she asks instead of commands, they still listen to her. I honestly do not recall how much progress she made with Elemental Earth.
Kaylin can sense magic. Elemental magic is a slight tingle, more of a subconscious awareness, and does not bother her. All of the magic that Eventon does feels like Elemental magic to her. ALL OTHER MAGIC... It's a painful buzzing under her skin when she is near active magic. Even with the Bracer on. (more on the bracer below) If she touches something with active magic (like a door ward) it HURTS. She has gotten good at gritting her teeth, or swearing to make a sailor blush to get through it, but she hates it and where she can, she avoids magic. Low level magic usually just make her arms itch, and the itching is a sign to her. sometimes the marks will also glow around magic of any sort. (Though again, Evernton's enchantments do not seem to bother them, or her)
"Kaylin?"
"Hmm?" She was looking at the cross section of charms in a small case in one window—Mortimer's Magnificent Magic—and glanced at her partner's reflection in the glass.
"You're rubbing your arms."
She looked down and realized he was right. "They're sort of itchy," she said.
He raised one brow. "Sort of itchy?"
The marks that adorned most of the insides of her arms were, like the ones that covered her inner thighs and half of her back, weather vanes for magic. Kaylin hesitated. "It doesn't feel the way it normally does when there's strong magic. It's—they're just sort of itchy."
"And they've never been like that before."
Healing - Kaylin has a tremendous gift for healing. It is largely instinctive, though the coroner, Red, insisted she attend a few autopsies so she could learn the proper terms for some things. Still, she mostly sees things as "this is broke, encourage it to grow together...gently...gently... stop the blood flow here..." Injuries like a bad birth are easiest for her, poison is harder, illness harder still. While healing, her marks glow and she forgets her body. She usually comes out of a healing trance dehydrated, wrung out, and stiff.
Hurting - a dark power resides inside Kaylin, one she fights. Most of the time it lays dormant, but there have been 2 or three times (depending on if you count the short story) where children have been in such danger that she took whatever power she could get to save them. But every time... the children saw her as the monster, and every time, someone had to stop her. The first time she killed three men. She dissolved the first to ash, and in the clutches of the darkness, decided he hadn't suffered enough... she skinned the other two alive before killing them slowly. (Willow: "Bored now!") Almost a decade since she got these powers, it's happened at most three times, and always when a large number of children were in a very very bad position, and it was the only way to save them.
Kaylin had a magic that not even the most august of the Imperial scholars understood, and if it had been a weak magic, it wouldn't have mattered—much. But it was strong enough to withstand the full breath of a dragon in his true form. Strong enough to make a hole in a thick stone wall that was wider across than Severn. Strong enough to heal the dying.
And the Emperor was in possession of all these facts, and more. Kaylin's glance strayed a moment to her arms; the length of her sleeves all but hid the dark marks that were tattooed there, in whirls and strokes, as if she were parchment, and they were the scattered telling of a story that was ancient before history began.
Magical items (and non-magical items) of note that she has with her:
A very expensive very fine gold and green dress that shows off her arms, and is apparently indestructible. It is called "The Blood Of The Green". It has matching shoes. They are also indestructible. Oh, SHE can get hurt wearing this lot, but the dress looks pristine, no matter what she does. She would probably burn it if she thought that wasn't suicide.
She has her beat uniform - Leather pants, padding under, leather armor, chain mail shirt, tabard with a hawk on it, a pair of daggers in sheaths, enchanted so she can draw them silently. Good sturdy boots. The Hawk on her tabard is picked out in gold beads and if magic changes her clothing suddenly (that keeps happening to her) the hawk transfers over to her new outfit.)
A hair stick. Not magical.
A blue sleeveless low back short skirted dress... it is made of Elemental Water, and is "traditional" to be worn by Water's chosen. The fact that it shows off most of her marks has not been lost on her. The fact that every immortal thing that sees her marks (practically) calls her "Chosen" makes her wonder if Uriel, a long dead Tha'alani leader who bore the same marks, and similar powers, had to wear the dress. The thought makes her snicker.
A signet ring that magically fits her finger and cannot be removed without her will unless you chopped off the whole finger. The rest of its power is political, and therefore not applicable unless a Barreni apps in.
Lord Sanabalis' Amulet. It is a large coin with an impression of a Dragon roaring. It is on a thick gold chain, knotted because it is too long otherwise. It makes it easier for her use fire as a weapon, without having to summon the Elemental. It also helps her light the **** candle.
A picnic basket. At the moment it has no food in it, unfortunately, but when it does, it preserves food for a few extra days.
Her familiar. It looks like a dragon to everyone who isn't a Dragon. The body is about the size of a house cat, wings taller than the body, long prehensile tail, long prehensile neck. It sort of listens to Kaylin. Sometimes. When it feels like it. It is protective over her, but sees the oddest things as threats. It can eat magic and Words. It breathes out small clouds of chaos that can hover hover for up to two minutes, and wake deeply sleeping magical edifices by biting them. Kaylin is trying to stop it from doing that.
The Dragon will get more powerful and gain other abilities, if she ever names it, but since she had JUST named it in the series and all it's new abilities have not yet been defined or explored, I'm keeping it pre-named. I might apply for a cannon update if the next novel has sufficient information.
The cuff/manacle/bracelet/cage - It looks like a very expensive ornamental bracer/bracelet, being between the two in size. It is too small around to slide over her hand, and seems to have no hinge. It does have a series of colored jewels on the top. Sometimes, but not always, in the presence of large amounts of magic, the gems flash, same for if magic is being used on Kaylin. If she is wearing it and her marks glow, so too do the gems. She cannot pass a magical barrier/ward/protection wearing it even if it is permeable to the rest of her body. This has saved her life multiple times. She can take it off. The Hawklord taught her how to do so, even though he isn't allowed to.
Kaylin, her wrist weighted by a few pounds of what was ostensibly gold, knew this firsthand. The bracer—studded with what were also ostensibly gemstones, and in and of itself more valuable than most of the force on a good day, which would be a day when their Sergeant wasn't actively cursing the amount of money being wasted employing their sorry butts—was also magical. It was older than the Empire.
No one knew how it worked—or at least that's what was claimed—but it kept random magic neutralized. Kaylin had been ordered to wear it, and on most days, she did.
The bracer is impossible to loose. It always has a keeper. She never gets to choose who the keeper is, and she never gets to be the keeper herself. First it was the Hawklord, then when she forgave Severn, he became the keeper. If it is ever too far from her for too long, it returns to the keeper's possession. One of the small vindictive pleasures in her life is tossing it on a trash heap or in the river; even when, and sometimes especially because, she hears Severn **** about the smell in his apartment. Given that he's a Corporal, given that he has multiple bedrooms, and never has to skip a meal because he's broke... she tosses it in the river a lot.
Weakness: Kaylin has a lot of abilities, I wanted to talk more about her weaknesses, the balance.
As I said above, kids are huge blinders for her. They are the be all end all for her. To protect a child, she will do nearly anything, no matter how much it might terrify her.
Lying. Quite simply, Kaylin can't. Oh... she can get the words out... but no one is stupid enough to believe them. Trapped in a world between the Barreni (If they're speaking, they're probably lying) and the Dragons (she almost gets roasted insulting Tiamaris by IMPLYING he might be lying...) Kaylin would lie if she thought she could pull it off. She tries every now and again, and is aware that when she isn't called on it... it's because the other person is being polite.
Politeness and tact. In High Barreni she can be polite, only because it is nearly impossible to be rude in that language. By design. She hates speaking High Barreni. Kaylin has a sharp tongue and a caustic wit. She is taking protocol classes to teach her polite behavior. The only reason it's going better than when she started is that Bellesduo joined the class, and she's even more irreverent than Kaylin, so she draws most of Lord Diamat's ire. Kaylin's mouth gets her into trouble. A lot.
Speaking of trouble - Punctuality. Punctuality. Punctuality. Though I do give her slack on this one. She works shifts that can go ten or more hours of chaos past her scheduled out time, and on average 1-2 times a week she is called into the Midwives guild, in the middle of the night to come running, to save the life of a mother and child. Most nights she is lucky to find 3 hours in her bed before her shift begins and she has a very taxing job.
Betting. All fieflings bet. It's about the only source of entertainment. When she came to the Hawks, she brought betting with her. She, however, more often than not, falls for the sucker bets. Being a private and constantly having her pay docked is only half of why she's always broke. The other half is betting.
"What will you be missing?" he asked, when her impressive spate of cursing—in four official languages—had died down enough that he could be heard without shouting. Severn rarely raised his voice.
"Game," she said curtly. "Ball," she added.
"Playing?"
She grimaced. "Betting." Which, for Kaylin, was synonymous with watching.
"Figures. Who were you betting on?"
She shrugged. "Sharks."
"So you'll save some money."
This caused an entirely different spate of swearing, and she punctuated this by punching his shoulder, which he thoughtfully turned in her direction. "You'd be betting on the Tigers, I suppose?"
"Already have," he replied.
She also has NO sense of direction....
He paused. "Are you waiting for something?"
"No, sir."
"Good. Get lost."
"Yes, sir."
"Corporal?"
Severn nodded.
"Make sure that she understands that 'get lost' in this case isn't literal."
"Yes, sir."
Network/Actionspam Sample:
[Kaylin sighs, running a hand over her hair. She looks at the watch again, then fixes the hair stick she had dislodged.]
"Might as well try it," she muttered.
[The watch hadn't FELT like magic, but she hadn't tried to use it yet. Now she would. Checking that her cage - the ornate bracelet she wears - was in place, she reaches for the watch, then stops again. She glanced at the Familiar draped around her shoulders.]
"Want to bet this will hurt like a *****?" She asks it.
[The dragon looking beasty simply yawns, then begins gnawing on her hair-stick. She sighs.]
"Can't be worse than a mirror..."
[And with that she knew who she had to check in with first. Not Teela, who would be rabid without showing it to know how she was, not Seven who would show it but not in a way that the Barreni would recognize. Not Marcus as much as she longed for the office and her job....
She touches the watch surface.]
"Call Marin," [she instructs, hand still on the watch. Her shoulders slump as nothing happens.]
Prose Log Sample:
http://rubycity-ooc.dreamwidth.org/490852.html?thread=15962212#cmt15962212