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Cahira
Administrator
16 Posts |
 Posted - 07/18/2006 : 16:31:54
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--OOC Info
Nickname: Laura
--IC Info
Name: Cahira
Age: 17
Birthplace: Summersea
History: Cahira was born to a beggar woman and a drunkard. Her mother was 23 when she gave birth, and had given birth to six children before that, but only one had survived. However, this time she was the one who didn’t survive. Perhaps it was because of the strain of giving birth to a mage child when she herself possessed no magic. For whatever reason, she died shortly after her daughter was born.
Cahira’s father had no interest in his new child, which left the infant’s fate in the hands of her ten-year-old sister, Syree. Fortunately, Syree was a kind girl who loved her baby sibling a great deal, and did everything she could to take care of her, from begging milk from merchants to clothing her and keeping her clean. Cahira in turn grew to love her elder sister like the mother she never knew.
Unfortunately, Syree had never been a healthy girl, and when Cahira was eleven, died a slow, agonizing death of consumption. Cahira watched helplessly as her sister coughed up blood and fluid, slipping in and out of deliriousness. When it became apparent that her elder sister was dying, the girl ran to go find a healer. However, by the time she had returned with a mage, her sister had passed away. Unable to understand why this had happened, Cahira blamed the healer for not doing anything to save Syree, and has hated magic ever since.
With nothing left to keep her at home, Cahira ran away, begging and stealing to try to keep herself alive. However, this changed when she tried to pickpocket a man named Tom Wolfe. Tom was a graduate from Lightsbridge University, and specialized in recognizing magic in others. When caught her trying to steal from him, he immediately saw her for the mage child she was. Rather than turning her over to the guards, he offered her a meal and a warm place to sleep. She was wary, of course, but the way to any animal’s heart is through its stomach, and a street rat is no exception. After he had allowed Cahira to stuff herself, he tried to broach the subject of magic, and was taken aback when he was met with fierce resistance. Although her hatred for magic was obvious, Tom knew that he could not allow an untrained fire mage to go unchecked. So while the girl slept off her first proper meal, he resolved to take her along with him, hiding the fact that he was a mage, and try to train her until he could convince her to study magic at a real institution.
Tom instructed Cahira in active meditation, claiming that he was teaching her how to defend herself and never revealing that he was a mage. He was pleased as her magic slowly came under control without her knowledge, but he was soon distracted from his plan to take her to study elsewhere as she grew from a girl into a young woman. Before he knew what was happening, he had fallen in love with her. Shortly after her sixteenth birthday, he proposed, and she accepted.
However, their time together was not to last. Late one night, Tom left to go pick something up from a craftsman in the city. Cahira knew how dangerous the city could be after dark and tried to convince him to wait until morning, trying everything from pleading to kisses that promised something far better if he remained in the inn room they had rented for the night. However, he told her that it couldn’t wait, and left, telling her that he would be fine. For what seemed like hours, Cahira lay awake in bed and waited for him, unable to shake the feeling that something was wrong. Finally, she got up and put her clothes on, then slipped out into the night. She remembered a shop that Tom had visited the day before, and made her way through the dark city streets. Suddenly she heard shouts and the sounds of a fight, and ran in the direction the noises were coming from. What she was would haunt her for the rest of her life.
Tom lay on the ground in a pool of his own blood, and three figures were rummaging through his clothes, looking for coins or valuables. Realizing that Tom’s knife was lying at her feet, Cahira picked it up and ran at the closest of the men. The man heard her and spun, lashing out with his own dagger. The first slash sent her weapon flying, and the second opened a gash across her face. When he raised his arm to kill her, she grabbed his wrist. Suddenly shock gave away to anger, and a searing hatred burned through her veins. Seemingly without cause, her attacker began screaming. In surprise, she released him, and he staggered away, clutching his wrist. Even in the dark, she could see the flesh blistering and smoldering from her touch. While he was distracted, she lunged forward and grabbed his throat, hoping to strangle him. His screams began again, and this time she could see her own skin glowing like a blacksmith’s iron. Soon the screams stopped as the man’s throat blistered and closed up. Releasing his now still form, she turned on the other two, the air around her shimmering with heat as her clothes smoldered and smoked from the heat of her flesh. The men turned and ran, shouting that she was a demon.
Slowly, the glow faded and she fell into a sitting position next to Tom’s corpse, exhausted from her unintentional use of magic. It was then that she noticed something clutched tightly in his fist. Prying his already stiffening fingers open, she removed a small package, wrapped in parchment. Once she removed the paper, a silver ring, threaded by a thin chain, lay in her hand. Inscribed on the inside were the words, ‘Tom and Cahira’. Although she didn’t know it, both the ring and chain had been spelled so her magic wouldn’t melt them. With shaking hands she put the chain around her neck, then passed out from grief and shock.
When Cahira woke up, it was day time, and Tom’s corpse had been removed. Since he had no gravestone to mark his passage, she decided she would give him a permanent marker. After buying a bottle of whiskey and draining half its contents, she went to a tattoo artist, using the rest of her money to pay for an image in his memory.
Since then, Cahira has gone back to being a street rat, begging and stealing the way she did before she met Tom. She has chosen to ignore her magic, and has convinced herself she has none. It breaks loose on occasion, but hasn’t done any significant damage. Yet.
Personality: Since Tom’s death, Cahira has become cold and bitter. Not willing to be hurt that way again, she gives the whole world a cold shoulder, not letting anyone else get close to her. Alcohol has become her only friend, and it is unusual to find her without a bottle in her hand or nursing a hangover. She spends a great deal of her time in a drunken stupor, and the year since Tom’s death is mostly a haze in her memory. Liquor and hangovers only add to her normally fiery temper.
Cahira is actually quite intelligent, but it is hard to tell when she is too intoxicated to walk in a straight line. She will fight with anyone for any reason, and despite her small size, is a formidable opponent. She is at odds with most of the gangs in the slums, as she refuses to join any of them and has a proud, arrogant way about her. She thinks of them as groups of vermin too scared and weak to stand alone, hating them almost as much as magic.
Description: Cahira is small in stature with a gaunt, hungry look to her. Her eyes are a piercing blue, but are sunken and surrounded by dark circles from lack of sleep. She has a strong jaw and a cleft chin, which contrasts sharply to her rounded nose and long dark eyelashes. Her wavy dark brown hair hangs to her shoulders in matted, tangled tresses, which she keeps in check by tying them back in a ponytail. She would have a sturdy frame if she was properly fed, but starvation on the streets has left her as little more than skin and bone.
Cahira would be a fairly forgettable figure if not for two things. The first is a long scar that runs from her left eyebrow, over the bridge of her nose, across her right cheek to the hinge of her jaw. The second is a tattoo that takes up much her upper left arm. It depicts a howling wolf, surrounded by tribal designs.
Cahira only has one set of clothing, which consists of a shirt and pants. The shirt was probably dark blue at one point, but has long since faded into an inky grey color. It was obviously made for someone much larger than her and hangs about halfway down her thigh, and the neck opening is too large and would be considered indecent if she had anything to show. The sleeves are gone, leaving only frayed edges at her shoulder from where she ripped them off. Her pants are brown, and end with frayed edges a bit above her ankle. She uses a piece of rope as a belt, through which she keeps thrust a long, wicked-looking curved knife.
Both Cahira’s clothing and skin are covered by dirt, mud, dried blood, and an unusually large amount of soot and ash.
Type of Magic: Cahira has pure fire magic. She is pyrokenetic, and also invulnerable to fire. With training, she would be able to melt glass and metal and mold them with her bare hands. She can draw heat from fires into her body, but that is painful, not to mention dangerous. Her magic is extremely powerful, but since she had little control, even more hazardous.
Sample Post: Cahira slowly opened one eye, and then closed it with a groan as bright light flooded her vision, worsening the horrid pounding in her skull. Pushing herself up into a sitting position with her left hand, she squinted about blearily, trying to figure out where she was. The rough cobblestones of the alley she had slept in had left her with a sore back and neck that hurt almost as bad as her headache. Her tongue was coated with the rank taste of stale liquor, and she felt decidedly nauseous.
Suddenly, the street rat noticed her right hand was in something wet. Looking down, she saw it resting in a puddle of what looked like liquid ice. With a start, she realized it was molten glass. Jerking her hand away, she wiped it on the cobblestones, staring as the glass began to solidify before her eyes. Shaking her head, then stopping when it only made her headache worse, she pushed herself into a standing position and staggered out of the alley, leaving only the puddle of glass behind.
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Edited by - Cahira on 07/20/2006 08:01:23 |
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Cahira
