The rain softly trickled over the young girl’s face, as if the sky tried to comfort her out of pity. Trying to show that it cared. However, it wasn’t pity that she needed. Everyone pitied her; she didn’t need the sky for that. Why had there to be another plague? And why did it have to take her mommy and then her daddy? She had to watch them burn along with her own hopes. This was the fate of plaguechildren. If your parents died of the plague, that surely meant you had it as well, you just didn’t show it. That was the superstition that ruled this little village. Pity was aplenty, yet nobody would get near to you, touch you, let alone offer you a place to stay. And so she sat on the sidewalk, with only the rain offering a futile attempt at comfort. That was, until he reached out his hand, “What are you doing here? C’mon, come with me.” Spoke the boy maybe two years older than herself. “The highwoods welcome you.”

The girl still clutched to the boy’s hand. They had ventured deep into the forest surrounding the local villages. Why these woods still stood despite karudun’s rapid urbanization, nobody truly knew. “Where are we?” She asked him. She had been taught to never stray into these woods. That said, she’d rather go with a stranger than stay behind alone. The boy smiled at her “This is your new home! Miviun, praise be his name, built these for all of us! Let’s go and play!” There was a second part to the superstition. Plaguechildren were all taken away into the woods to a child paradise. That might be true if your idea of paradise was a small village consisting entirely out of fairly large treehouses. Although she wasn’t entirely sure what was going on herself, she was overjoyed. She had been given a new home, new friends, family. She had been given another chance at life.

12 years later

Shit, shit SHIT. And so she ran, repeating that over and over. Why did the baker have to turn around at that exact moment, just when Selessia managed to lay hands on the last of the fresh bread? She had still managed to get a pretty huge haul, enough to last them at least a day or three, but only if she managed to get away from the people coming after her. The market street was busy at this time of the day. She prayed to Miviun to keep her feet swift. She dodged people left and right, swift as a mouse she scurried through the unknowing crowd. It was only just in time that she noticed a guard coming from around a corner, ready to cut her off. Wasting not a moment, she unsheathed her blade and lowered her entire body to the ground, sliding her way past the guard as he cut through his calves. That would teach him to get in her way. A little too content with the trick she pulled off, she almost forgot to look ahead. As she turned her head back forward, she noticed she was running straight towards the back of another person, wearing a long, green cloak. “WATCH OOUUUUT” She yelled, too close to change anything about the fact that she would crash headfirst into the figure. She closed her eyed and awaited disaster. However, seconds later she was still running. She opened her eyes and… she had actually run past him? She looked back, only to catch the cloaked figure waving at her. A sudden wind picked up, violently pushing over market stalls behind her as their contents spilled all over the street. She could hear the satisfying yelp of the baker as he tripped stepping on a tomato before she disappeared out of sight.

She still had no idea how she managed it, but she had gotten out of that ordeal. Maybe Miviun himself helped her a bit? It was a nice thought. “I’m back!” She called out to a boy standing in on the plateau of a treehouse. The boy waved and lowered the pulley-operated lift for her. “Woa, you got a huge haul today! You’re awesome, Seles!” The boy, Ludin he was called, had eyes filled with excitement. She chuckled “Maybe a little. Make sure to do just as well in two years.” She smiled at him. Ludin was but fourteen, too young to be send out on chow duty. Boys like him were put on lift duty instead. That was the way of the highwood. Children come in as young orphans for any reason. Then. when you passed the age of twelve, you would help out by working in one way or another. Nobody was older than twenty-one. That was when you officially became an adult and had to leave to find work in one of the surrounding villages. A few of the villages were actually very welcoming to the forest children. Some of them had aging populations that needed the young workers. Other villages, like the one she just visited, would rather all see them nailed to the cross. These were the villages they robbed blind to provide for their own.

She headed into the treehouse. This particular one was the “town hall”; the largest treehouse where the ten oldest lived. She, herself, was the seventh oldest at this point. She made a friendly nod towards Alvis, Lennart and Mirane, the three eldest. She presented them the bag with a large grin on her face. But before there was any time for chatter, they could hear a scream from outside; it was the voice of Ludin. A man walked into the room, wearing a mask seemingly made from metal. On his side were two swords. Selessia recognized his cloak, this was the man she nearly bumped into! Had he followed her? How did he get up here? He couldn’t have climbed, not during the split second she had been in the room. She looked straight into his eyes, they were of a gentle green hue. The room fell silent for a few seconds as the man assessed the situation. Without speaking he removed his mask and pulled back his hood, revealing the face of a young man. His raven black hair ran down until just a bit further than shoulders. His facial features were gentle and rather smooth rather than rugged. His nose was long and thin and he had ears similar to Selessia’s own. He sighed as he noticed that they were still on their guard even after he undid the rather menacing mask, “Calm yourselves, children of Miviun. I am a friend.” Ludin stumbled in after him “This guy… he fucking FLEW!” He hadn’t, but it had just seemed that way.

“I speak on behalf of Arbos Xell, surely I do not have to explain to you who he is. You are rather accomplished thieves after all.” Selessia gasped, what the hell did the king of thieves want from them. “As for my business… It is only with her.” He eyed Selessia. Why her? What the heck could she possibly have that interested the king of thieves? “Catch” The man smirked as he threw a charged crystal at her. The moment she caught it she heard the sound of a thud as the man flung an empty crystal against it. She yelped, but the crystal did not release. “I have just demonstrated your gift. You, my girl, are a nullomancer.” She raised her brow. Weren’t only nobles nullomancers? Not that she had any idea what a nullomancer actually did in the first place. “This is a chance. Your ability can grant you powers beyond your imagination. You can fulfill whatever dreams you might have. What say you? Will you come with me?”
The details of the long, arduous discussion that followed are something for another time...

About one week later

“So… you live here?” Selessia muttered as she looked with awe at the humongous mansion. They were now in the city of Tarud. It was a relatively small city, but definitely an impressive seat for a minor noble such as Ashur. The best thing was that the man was anything but a noble, simply an infiltrant who had weaved his way into the system with the help of some of the empire’s traitors and spies. She carried two large suitcases with her. As they had trotted through the city, Ashur had bought her a few things to set her up. Among these was a servant’s uniform. Her part in the charade was to act as a maid. Ashur wasn’t known to keep his servants for very long. Naturally all of these servants were his former trainees. He smirked at her as she kept staring. “Oh, we could do better than this. But I’m only supposed to be a ‘minor’ noble.” He laughed as he opened the door for her “After you.”

After he had helped her settle in, he showed her the place where she would spend most of her time. With a simple turning of the candlestick in her room she could access the hidden basement. A basement large enough to do whatever nullomantic training she might need. There was also a separate room where Ashur stored all of his smaller chargers. Here she was taught all the basics: The workings of crystals, the intricacies of nullomancy, the workings of different chargers and many more. He did small tests with her to find out in which areas of nullomancy her talents were. (As for specifics: I may still be contemplating exactly what I will do with her when it comes to what techniques she will mainly use :P) The splendor of the magic that she held seemed marvelous to her. Well… except for the fact that she had to put those crystals into her own body for it to work. The thought of cutting in her own flesh had crept her out. Somehow she had gotten used to it over the weeks, but she still doesn’t know how. Maybe it just began to feel natural?

Only three weeks had passed when the ‘boss’ ‘fired’ the ‘maid’. She had enjoyed her time there. Ashur had proven to be an experienced and capable teacher. Now she stood outside in her traveling clothes. Beneath these clothes she hid the embedded crystals that Ashur had helped her prepare. It was strange to think that less than a month ago she was still in the village. Now she would be heading to another continent. She wondered what the city of Sayrn would look like, and she wanted to meet this ‘king of thieves’ for herself. “You’ve got everything, right? Food? Clothes? Fake ID?” Ashur said, standing on the doorstep. She nodded “Everything. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” She smiled at him. She had quickly learned that Ashur was the type that quite quickly worried about others, he just didn’t really say it out loud. “Next time we’ll meet, we’re going to blow up noble mansions together, you hear.” Ashur laughed “That and much more. Oh, before I forget. When you get to Arbos, give him this message: Janur bless you. He’ll know what it means.” Ashur smirked, and so they concluded their goodbyes. The next destination was Sayrn.

It was the middle of the night in the city of Aleris, from here it would be another day’s travel to Tarud. But first there would be one last stop. Ashur’s little expedition this time had one other purpose besides finding new nullomancers. His spies had caught wind that some other nobles might’ve been plotting against the noble house of Urn. Urn’s family head had secretly sworn itself to Arbos. This mission had more than one goal. On one hand he wanted to make sure the family kept their power. On the other hand he wanted to show off his power to the family to show both reliability and superiority. Even if they called themselves allies, they could turn on him any moment. He had to prove that he wasn’t to be messed with. A few families in the region had already fallen in the last week, this would be the last one. Not to mention, this time he could show off to his new disciple! She had yet to truly see the splendors of the art for herself. This would be a good time for her to see what she was getting into.

“Stay behind me, close behind me. Walk away from me and you MIGHT die, get it?” He told her once last time before he put on his mask and hood. The mask was a gift from a minor trickster god he had helped one and a half year ago. The normally simple metal mask had the ability to change into anything once attached to his face. He could take the face of any person, or create a mask looking like anything he wanted. The perfect concealment for his identity! For Selessia he had conjured a normal metal mask. The girl nodded in agreement. He grinned as he walked up to the front door of the mansion. There were two guards, simple men with spears. They approached Ashur with their weapons towards him. Nobody was supposed to be here at this time, especially not wearing a freaking mask. He looked at them, his mask morphing into the face of a smiling demon. “Simply doing my job.” He exclaimed as he snapped his fingers as they had entered his zone. His zone was exactly ten meters around him. Within this zone he could freely release his charges and control them, exceptions notwithstanding. He discharged his flame crystal and both guard spontaneously lit up in flames – something like that would only work on a normal man. “Oh dear me! Let’s put that out!” He stretched out his hand as a fierce windblast swept up and blasted both guards through the doors of the mansion – heavily burned and battered. Before him was the main hall, lavishly furnished with expensive paintings, chandeliers and gold. A few servants looked up in shock. However, it seemed that his arrival was expected. He could sense them, his area was far larger than they expected. “Oh, you should know better ambushing me… COME OUT” They’d come out, all attacking him at once knowing that he had noticed them anyway. He counted five of them, nullomancers, imperial marshals by the look of it. Violent winds swept up from around Ashur, he had been infecting the air with his own wind crystals’ charge for a while now. He turned the wind around him into a miniature hurricane, the five were tossed around the room. All of them had some way of breaking their fall, however. Some managed to use their own wind charge to break it. Others used some kind of force discharge to infect the force slamming them to the ground and nullifying it. It seemed that these guys were at least semi-competent. The five regrouped in front of Ashur, staying safely outside of his area. He had shown them the approximate size of it through his technique, but that may have been somewhat intentional.

“Oh, before I forget” Ashur commented “COME TO ME” He exclaimed loudly, audible through the entire mansion. The words had been enhanced with the song of a siren that he had stored in a crystal. The song attracted people that heard it. The nulls had managed to use a sound crystal to save themselves, but from everywhere people came walking in: servants, nobles. Even the head of the family, a null himself, hadn’t escaped yet. Instead he chose to come out and help his family when he heard the call. With him came the housecarl, probably a little more of a threat. “How nice of you all to join me… now let’s be rid of you.” His hand grabbed the handle of one of his swords. One peculiar feature of this blade was that there were spikes on this handle. The blade filled itself with his blood through its tiny veins that also found their way back to the body. It was as if this blade was part of Ashur’s bloodstream itself. “Ta-tah.” He pulled the blade from its scabbard, cutting horizontally as he discharged crystals containing wind and pressure. The blade emitted the wind itself as a projectile in the shape of the cut, moving forward at intense speeds as it cut through the air itself. One of the marshals propelled himself forward into the course of the attack and using one of his own centrifugal force crystals. The marshal extended his arms and formed a large iron wall, about one meter thick. Thinking he could stop an attack like this, but not this time. The marshal gasped as he felt his upper half sliding off his lower half. His wall fell in two before him. The blade had continued its course as if it hadn’t even been hindered in the first place. Screams filled the room as the projectile finished its course unhindered. All that remained was a pile of bodies, each sliced neatly in at least two pieces.

The four other nulls had thought of this as their chance to attack, closing in by using a combination of magnetism and iron. They put the iron under their feet and then used the magnetic charge on theirselves to propel themselves forward, away from the iron. Furthermore, the only surviving noble, the family head, was preparing to join in on the fun. But they forgot they had entered his zone. He didn’t even look at them. Whatever was in his area was in his sights anyway. He knew everything what happened in these ten meters around him. From the ground around his burst huge iron spikes in an attempt to impale the marshals. This failed for all but one, who was hit straight in the gut. “Say, I thought you guys were quite competent at first… but you really suck! You newbie marshals? Protecting some lowly nobles from the friendly neighborhood butcher first day on the job?” He grinned as he saw their faces pale “Bingo!” It didn’t truly surprise him. These guys barely even surpassed the level of Lerim – and he had already passed that level nearly two years ago. The head of this house was quite well known for his skill in the first place. The empire must’ve thought he didn’t really need guards that much. Boy, were they wrong!

“You know what will be fun? I’ll go on the offensive this time!” The mask’s devlish grin grew wider as if responding to Ashur’s own. He had been releasing the charge of his water crystal, creating thin “arms” that infected the vapor in the air around him. The open air in this part of Karudun carried quite a bit of it, and this home just had its front door shattered open! Controlling as much as he could, he created a web of water that reached throughout nearly the entire home. As long as at least some of it was within his area that connected to the rest, he could control it all.

“Welcome… to the thunderdome.”

He released the charge of the lightning crystals he had embedded. The lightning, conducted through the water, filled the entire house in electrifying madness. When the lightshow finished, the charred bodies of the remaining marshals fell to the floor. They never stood a chance. The house itself was charred beyond belief; fires had likely started throughout the entire house. The only ones who had managed to survive wrtr the nobleman and the housecarl, who had expertly used water charges to redirect the electricity. “Commendable, Sir Hylius of house Ambermoure. You know, if you weren’t a far cousin to that rat Rowlington I might’ve even given you an applause.” The mask grew emotionless very quickly, as opposed to that gleeful grin it had earlier. “Any questions before I take your head?” The man growled, obviously enraged at how Ashur had basically destroyed his entire life’s work. “If I go down I want to at least know who it was that ended me.” Ashur sighed “Noblefolk, all the same. You see, if I werer a funny man I’d say I was death itself.” The mask changed again, now it looked like a skull. “When But death is a friend of mine, I owe him a few favors. He’s a cool guy, really. If you ever get to meet him in the underworld, tell him I said hi. I’m that snotty kid wielding his blade. Isn’t it a beauty, the blade of Thanathos?” was it that Ashur had begun finding this funny? He probably spent too much time around that stupid ghost, Arbos.

The man had heard quite enough. He extended his hand, unleashing a torrent of fireballs. A very basic technique although quite potent. The man was a well-known nullomancer, but not a fighter, As the fireballs neared he used his wind crystal, manipulating the air to create a small vacuum. Every fireball would quickly die as it naturally lacked oxygen. In the meantime, the housecarl reared up as metal surrounded him. Ashur recognized the way it formed. That could only be power armor. The housecarl charged at him. The closer he got, he could see that the main component was actually tungsten “Hmm, good choice.” He stood there for a second admiring the armor before he stretched out his arm. The housecarl geared up for a punch, but his own infection had no chance against Ashur’s. Ashur’s force infected that of the housecarl’s fist, bringing it to a halt mere centimeters in front of him. “Still, that’s not THE blade of thanathos!” And so, with a single stroke of his blade, aligned with some pressure crystal’s discharge, simply cut through it like paper and off went his arm.

Power armor was very potent and the mark of a strong construct nullomancer, but Ashur just completely outclassed him. His blade was an artifact, crafted on the anvil of a god itself. By becoming part of the bloodstream, the blade had truly become part of the body. Through this, he could use charges with it that were otherwise limited to direct contact with his physical body, such as force. Obtaining it alone had brought Ashur to a whole different level.
The housecarl tried to back off, using his enhanced legs to quickly backpedal. However, Ashur’s blade was faster. He swung and wind once again was expunged from the blade. The housecarl was cut in half through his chest before he even knew what hit him.

“Well then. Back to you Mr. Ambermoure.” The nobleman stepped backward, looking around for the safest option for flight. “I’m afraid I’ve run out of time. Imperial forces will probably be here soon. So… on that note...” He used his centrifugal force crystal once again to propell into his direction. “Much love from Sayrn!” Ashur exclaimed as his face squarely hit his face. He used another centrifugal force crystal to increase the force of the punch, smashing through the head of the man and killing him off instantly.

A few minutes later they were away from that place. The burning mansion was a sight to be seen from afar. Ashur had made sure that he had a safehouse in Aleris before even coming here. “So…” he looked at Selessia “what is your opinion of nullomancy now?” He was grinning. The girl probably had never seen such a gruesome sight before. However, this was something she had to get used to sooner rather than later. Arbos wouldn’t have any more mercy on her. She thought for a moment “Well… it was crazy, scary, horrifying, inhumane, outright psychopathic” she paused for a moment, then grinned “but actually pretty darn awesome.” Ashur was happy, it seemed this one would do just fine.

Her ears are slightly pointed and her irises are a golden colour. Her skin is rather pale despite living in a Desert climate, however that it just due to her being a minor race of pale skinned Cauhri.

Background:
Arda was born in Alros, a sizeable desert city, south of Sayrn. Arda’s childhood was one that people would view as unfortunate and terrible, however Arda doesn’t view it that way. She views it as the best days she’s ever lived. She was born to a prostitute and raised in the poorer district of the city. She survived by either using her mother’s limited money to buy meager food or by outright stealing it.

It wasn’t until she was around 10 when she started stealing Null crystals from merchants. She’d almost always do it during festivals and night markets as it was difficult to notice her within the crowds and the darkness. She was mostly successful, more often than not, she’d end up stealing iron and magnetic null crystals as they were the easiest to steal.

One night, she was noticed by a guardsman, who chased her through the alleyways of Alros. Cornered, she wished someone or something would save her, for the man was about to maim or kill her. She shut her eyes, awaiting a killing blow, but it didn’t happen. The iron and magnetic crystals in her hands had lost it’s charge. She slowly opened her eyes, only to see a sharp piece of iron sticking out of the guardsman’s neck.

It wasn't until she was about 19 when she bumped into someone.. strange. They immediately grabbed her and took her into an alleyway. The man identified her as a Nullomancer, which she did not understand. The man merely grinned and took her under his wing, training her in Nullomancy among other things. She had quite an affinity with the Iron and Magnetic crystals already, but she had't embedded them at all since she didn't know what that meant. Thus for the past 9 years she had been using the charges from the crystals she had stolen.

During the 9 years before meeting Kron, she had created quite a name for herself. Soon there was a bounty on her head for a considerable price. However nobody really knew what she looked like. The few who found out would try to hunt her down. But they never lived very long. After a few conflicts and dead bodies, she was nicknamed “The Iron Maiden” as she often left the bodies with multiple stab wounds and lacerations, leaving behind a few iron needles that she never bothered to remove, which became a kind of ‘trade mark’ for her.

Rumors and stories of ‘The Iron Maiden’ began to spread around Alros and further. However they were incredible and over exaggerated when they reached the ears of the City of Sayrn.

Kron had often mentioned Arbos during her training, speaking of him in a very negative attitude, however still described the man's Nullomancy skills as quite formidable, if not ridiculous. Kron had also mentioned his reason for being in Alros, something about a troublemaker claiming that Arbos is no longer ‘King of thieves’. Kron sent her to seek out Arbos for guidance and she promised Kron that she would return to assist him with the troublemaker, once she had confirmed the existence of such an incredible man. The path that Kron had shown her, lead her to the City of Sayrn.