longer.blue

I got somethin' to tell you about that Siren! Aer'Ellyn! She's a Lun'folk, you see. Pale as moonlight and probably not half as physically strong as yours truly! ...Don't tell her I said that. Anyway, from what I've heard, Aer'Ellyn wasn't always some immortal terror. Once upon a time, she was just a mortal girl. Probably around twenty-three years old. Back then, she was still in school, studying to become one of them religious folk who spend all day talking about the moon and what have you. Now, I like the moon as much as the next man, but I can't say I've ever understood the appeal of sitting around discussing it all day. Nobody really knows when she was born, though. Hell, nobody even seems to know who her parents were. From what I understand, Lun'folk society can be strange like that. Aer'Ellyn never actually knew her parents, and growing up, she didn't have anyone she could really call family, apparently even back then she was a troublemaker. She was always getting herself kicked out of class, arguing with teachers, getting shunned by her classmates, and eventually getting exiled from one Lun'folk city to another. Can't say whether all that's true, but knowing what I know about her? I believe it. Her last day as an ordinary girl wasn't supposed to be anything special. Supposedly, she was sitting in class daydreaming about Astra-1 when the teacher called on her. He asked her a question and she gave him some smartass answer. That teacher didn't really appreciate it. They argued for a while, and eventually he threw her out of the class. So she wandered off to her next lesson, carried on with her day, and after that... Well, apparently she fell asleep in the middle of a church service. Now, where I'm from, that'll get you in trouble and it sure as HELL got her in trouble too. As punishment, she was sent out into the woods with another caste to pick Saelberries. The problem was, those folks didn't like her much neither so when it started raining, they left her behind. They just abandoned her out there in the woods. Now, Aer'Ellyn was sad, cold, wet, and probably regretting every smartass thing she'd said that day. She went looking for shelter and found a cave she didn't remember seeing before. Strange thing, that, but when you're standing out in the rain, you don't exactly spend much time wondering whether a cave is supposed to be there or not! So she went inside and that's where the story gets... muddied. It ain't exactly public knowledge what she found in that cave. Truth be told, I don't think many people know! I certainly don't! But they say she didn't come back out for a few hundred years. And when she finally did? She looked wildly different, at least, that's what I heard. Now, if I'm wrong, then the gods can strike me down for spreading lies. And if I'm right... Well, I hope Aer'Ellyn don't hear me telling this story and decide I ain't needed to roam this land no more. I was told she got horns now and apparently she uses illusion magic to hide 'em. That's not all, neither. Horns, black eyes with stars falling through 'em, and some big ol' half-angel wing tattoo stretched across her back. That's what I was told, anyway. Yep. Definitely what I was told. She apparently figured out she was immortal when she tried to return to Lun. Now, I don't know exactly how that went down, but supposedly the Lun'folk saw what she'd become and decided they didn't like it one bit. So they killed her. Then she came back. So they killed her again. She came back again. Every time she died, she'd reappear in some old temple. Now... It didn't get colder over here, did it? Anyway, eventually she gave up trying to return home. Improved her skills with illusion magic, learned how to hide what she'd become, and eventually made her way all the way down to the Badlands. That's where she joined a pirate crew! This was at some old pirate outpost that don't even exist anymore. From what I've heard, the captain took one look at this strange Lun'folk woman and decided to let her join his band of misfits without asking too many questions. Probably for the best! Sometimes it's best to just pretend like a glance is all you need to trust somebody! She proved herself useful soon enough. Aer'Ellyn had this song magic, see. She'd lure rival crews and unfortunate sailors out toward them, singing some pretty little tune from somewhere out in the darkness. Those poor fools thought they were sailing toward some beautiful woman waiting for 'em out at sea. Instead, a bunch of burly pirates would jump aboard their ship and rob their stupid asses blind! Ha! Now that's what I call a proper use of magic! Us Sol'folk ain't known for that! Speaking of beautiful women, though... That captain bought Aer'Ellyn this dress. Black as the deepest depths of the sea, with slits running so high up the sides you could see damn near her whole thighs. And hell, that was two hundred years ago! She's still wearing it! Ha! ...My mouth is gonna get me killed one of these days. The captain gave her something else, too. An enchanted flintlock pistol called Black Rose, Star of the Dark Sea. That thing fires blackstone, normally only found at the bottom of the sea, and from what I've heard, it never even needs to be reloaded! Pretty useful thing to have when you're a pirate, I'd imagine. She'd eventually give that pistol to someone she loved. But that's another part of the story, and it wouldn't happen for another hundred years or so. The crew's navigator gave her something too, An old Lun'folk dagger. Now, I don't know the old Lun'folk language, so I couldn't tell you what the damn thing is actually called, but I'll tell you this. It's ugly. I mean, REALLY ugly. I can't believe somebody actually smithed that thing and thought, Yep, that'll make a fine weapon. Apparently, its name literally translates to Old Dagger. If you're asking me, it ought to translate to Ugly Dagger instead! Ha! Anyway, there used to be this legendary world serpent out in the Dark Sea, created by the Void Father himself, or so the stories say. I don't know what that thing wanted. Hell, I don't even know if it wanted anything at all. But it was eating everything it could find. Ships, sailors, sea creatures. Anything unfortunate enough to end up in its waters. Eventually, Aer'Ellyn and her crew decided they'd be the ones to take it out after quite a lot of preparation. Now, this next part depends on who you ask, some folks say the crew killed the beast together. Some say Aer'Ellyn herself jumped onto the damn thing, stabbed the hell out of it with that ugly dagger, and kept blasting it with Black Rose until the monster finally died. Now that's a story! Legend has it that the gods themselves watched it happen. Some even say the sight of her killing that great serpent scared the Void Father himself! But come on! Is anybody really gonna believe that? Still, whatever happened out there they say changed that dagger of hers. They say it became enchanted with some kind of power from the Void. Now Aer'Ellyn can use it to open some kind of vortex to another plane and travel halfway across the world whenever she feels like it. Can't say I believe that myself. I'm a man of science. Well... I'm about as much of a man of science as a hog is a bird, but still! Ha! Now, shoot, there's more to the story, but when it comes to what Aer'Ellyn is doing nowadays? That's where things get pretty difficult. For a while, she was seeing that Veyne girl, Elysia is her name. The two of 'em were together for a couple of years, from what I hear. They broke up, then Aer'Ellyn disappeared. Ever since then nobody's gotten a confirmed sighting of her. There's been rumors though, plenty of those. Somebody swears they saw a pale woman walking through some distant town. Somebody else says they heard singing out at sea. Every now and then, somebody claims they saw pink eyes staring at 'em from somewhere they shouldn't have stepped foot in. But aint nothing concrete in any of these rumors. That hasn't stopped Elysia Veyne from looking though. I've heard that woman has traveled every which way across the Frontier over nothing more than a rumor. Give her the slightest hint that Aer'Ellyn might've been somewhere, and she'll saddle her horse and go chasing after it. Could be love, could be obsession, but knowing those two? Probably both, but I ain't saying I know those two. Here's where the story gets even stranger, rumor has it Aer'Ellyn is meant to bring back the First Celestial. She's supposed to be the one who saves us all from the Godkin, meanwhile, there are folks out there saying Elysia Veyne is meant to unite the Badlands. So I suppose the question is who exactly is our savior? Truth be told, I've heard Aer'Ellyn doesn't even care much about being a savior. They say she wants to bring that old goddess back for one reason and one reason only. So she can finally be done with all of it. To live long enough to finish whatever fate decided to throw at her and finally make her way to the Silver Shores. Can't say I blame her, I sure as hell wouldn't want to live forever especially not after everything she's seen.