Rebecka

Rebecka Vanuerin
Status	Active
Race	Human
Gender	Female
Guild	Empath
Instance	Platinum

Appearance

Rebecka has a a fine-boned face with faintly rosy cheeks and dark-lashed iron grey eyes. Her raven-hued hair, with a few silver strands, is hip-length and glossy, falling in soft curls with recalcitrant wisps that frame her face. She has soft porcelain skin and a feminine figure. She normally wears a forehead gem that compliments her clothing ensemble. Today, a starry purple iolite rests on her forehead, just above her eyes.

Background

Born Lady Rebecka Vanuerin in her father's keep near the Ker'Leor mountains, Rebecka's early life was privileged. She was trained in the ways of Therengian nobility and her duty to the family, including fancy needlework and courtly manners. Rebecka's mother died when Rebecka was twelve, following an illness that some rumors said was poison by Lord Vanuerin's political rivals. Though heartbroken over the loss of his beloved wife, Lord Cristic had no son, so he eventually married again. By this time, Rebecka, now sixteen, found herself falling for a young squire training for knighthood at Vanuerin Keep. She knew it was forbidden, and that she had been promised to another. She resolved to do her duty as she had been taught. She knew she would disgrace herself and dishonor her family if she chose the squire, but her heart and youthful impulse won over mind and duty. The young couple agreed to marry when they reached Ilithi. They traveled to Zoluren together, but planned to travel the rest of the way separately, in case her father's guards were hunting them. Rebecka went ahead under the guise of a poor Empath, while he stopped to purchase the necessary rose. Though she waited for him, she never saw her squire again. Later, she heard rumors he had been shipped to Muspar'i as punishment. Rebecka's escapade lead to her disinheritance, and she quietly raised her son alone in western Ilithi. When his sister Avreniala disappeared, Rebecka's son, Adairion, went searching for her. After she lost contact with Adair, Rebecka went searching for them both. She is still looking for them.

Current Home

A polished khor'vela floor spreads across this room into surrounding pastel violet stenciled walls. A polished platinum brazier, with a black banner honoring Morzindu Vanuerin hanging above it, stands guard over the large teakwood bed and lustrous satinwood table that rest upon a deep-fringed white wool carpet covering the floor. A lingering scent of phofe flowers fills the air. You also see an arched window framed in dried wildflowers, a cross-braced and reinforced plank door, a stencilled flower motif chair that is facing the table and an elegant dark sana'ati chest with blackened moonsilver filigree with a miniature Ilithi peach tree set in a large clay pot on it.

• Look banner: Traditionally used to honor the noble house, the symbol has been masterfully stitched. The black banner is embroidered with the image of a winter emerald from Ker'Leor in the center of a purple corbane flower, the crest of House Vanuerin. Beneath the flower are the words "Usho cam naronas."

• On the satinwood table you see a fist-sized sungold globe set upon a conical blackened moonsilver base and a fragile porcelain cup filled with fragrant black tea and a slice of lemon.

Stories

Return to Crossing Lightning flickered and the cloudberry bushes began to dance in the quickening wind. Rebecka sat at the table, staring through the window at the darkening sky. She thought of other homes where she had often watched similar scenes play out - her childhood bedroom window high in her father's keep with the Ker'Leor mountains in the distance, her tiny inn room when she had come to Crossing the first time, her little house surrounded by a sea of grass with Avren, fascinated with the wild sky, and Adair who would feign boldness but jumped whenever the thunder boomed too closely. Trying to swallow the lump in her throat, she sipped her tea, savoring the momentary pulse of warmth in the rapidly cooling room. It was moments like this that she missed her guardian spirits most. They were silent and strange, but kept her safe and were a comfort when dark thoughts threatened to engulf her. She suspected the guild leaders had taken away her ability to call them as punishment for failing to advance. For choosing love over duty as she had done, and been punished for, before. She hadn't noticed their absence at first. Busy with her family life in western Ilithi, she had called on them less and less frequently as she grew more comfortable and lost her taste for adventure. In fact, she had hardly noticed the loss of her spells since the worst injuries she encountered were a child's scraped knee or bumped head. Rebecka smiled, recalling Adair's face when he was small, filled with surprise when she made a bruise disappear, exclaiming "It tikkos!" It hadn't been so long ago, had it? She sighed. Time passed faster every year, but they might still be living on their cozy homestead if Avren hadn't disappeared. Rebecka shivered slightly and shifted in her chair, trying to ignore the strange creaks of the unfamiliar little house and the pain in her heart. She needed to fix that draft under the door. Instead, her thoughts relentlessly drew her back. Avren vanished one winter night during a heavy snowfall and no one knew where she went, with whom or why. Rebecka firmly believed she was kidnapped and Adair had felt the same. After all, she was just a little slip of a girl who had never shown an interest in wandering beyond their front garden. Adair blamed himself for her disappearance. As the "man of the house" he had failed in his duty. It ate at him. He searched harder and longer than anyone else, refusing to give up. Eventually his absences grew longer as he searched farther away, until the last time, when he left and did not return. The last message she had from him, months ago now, was a note that a person of similar description had been seen near the city of Crossing. So here she was, back in the city she had once run away to, impetuous and in love; now with a heart held together by the finest filament of hope that she would find them - at least one of them...

This time she would do her duty. This time she would not fail. This time... A small, much scarred part of her heart broke in and whispered "are you so sure?" The sob she had been fighting back escaped her and she covered her face with her hands. Where was a guardian when you needed one?