From the moment she was old enough to make friends, Lockwren
knew she was different. Weather it was the marble palor of her skin, her silver
hair, or her violet eyes, she couldn’t be sure. All she knew was that the
children where she grew up look at her as her mother once looked at a ghost.
Or at least, what she thought was a ghost. When she was
young, Lockwren woke up one morning with a splitting headache. She looked up
into a mirror, only to see that she was not seeing herself. Her hair was black
and short, she looked adult, her face was covered in scars. Seeing this, her
mother dropped the set of tea she was bringing up to her room for breakfast.
As she calmed down, her usual features returned to her,
little by little. All she knew was that this was certainly not what children of
eight were meant to be able to do. Quickly, she started studying magic,
learning about innate abilities simple humans could and couldn't have.
It was only a year later that she found the word. Changeling.
A fae child exchanged with a human one, who were able to change appearance.
Realizing what this meant, she started shaking. Her mother…
was not her mother? How was this possible? She never knew her father, was that
a clue?
Lockwren spent the next several years researching fae
culture until one day, she was ready enough to travel on her own. She left her
home at 25, with nothing but her book of fae history and a quarterstaff.
But the world is a scary place. She quickly learned that
looks and deception used together could get you far. While some men offered to
pay for her… services, she refused to stoop so low. She learned to lie, and to
use her ability to change shape to trick people into getting exactly what she
wanted – money, and passage to the Feywild. The year she spent largely alone had not been
kind to her – she quickly learned that kindness would get you nowhere.
Within a few months, she met a thief, barely older than herself,
named Julian. (Half elf, black hair long enough to be tied back in a low
ponytail, green eyes, slightly taller than her, earrings all over ears). After
noticing he used her as a distraction to get steal, she approached him. They soon
became friends and companions. Julian’s goal in life was simple – to be
independent. No better way to be independent than to work for yourself, but he
needed money for that, so he started stealing. As a half elf, he was seen as a
lower breed than all of the pure-races. Until he was 26, he worked as a servant
at the DeVire estate. One day, he decided to run away, joining Lockwren in her ploys.
Mabh didn’t need to wait for Lockwren to ask – she
greeted her as a daughter of the feywild. Tempting her to approach and explain
the Material Plane to her, Mabh gave her a taste of what true power felt like,
but only for a moment. But Lockwren couldn’t just leave home. Yet she needed to
know, who her parents were. She agreed to a bargain. She would accept Mabh’s
power, and in exchange make her way through the mortal world, gaining strength
and time to make sure her mother was safe and taken care of,
before coming back to the Feywild as an advisor to the Queen. The queen
bestowed her new abilities and gave her a simple leaf – as sturdy as stone yet
as delicate as lace – to use as a focus for her spells. As soon as Lockwren
took it, she found herself back in the material plane, in a small cage,
surrounded by darkness. All she heard was her matron bidding her luck, as Mabh
left her there, as her first test.
