Cyclone
In the beginning there was love.
Sir Roger Connally met Lizavetta of Elfstimore when they were both just kids. He was 19, she was 17, he was a human ranger she was an elf queen, what do you do in such a situation? Fairly obvious: you have an affair because at the moment you're in love and you don't think about the future. But the thing is, you don't have a future. At 26 Eliza had two bastard daughters: 8 year old Celest Rendrila Sonally and 5 year old Aaeternae Helene. She wasn't married and her advisers pushed for an immediate union like mad: "The queen of elves must marry an elf king." Eliza couldn't ignore her duties as queen to her people and so in two months time she was wed to King Nemph de Cote, forming a strong union between two previously warring kingdoms. It was a smart move. Roger stayed with her till the wedding, not once contradicting her choice of husband and fate. Maybe he hoped that she would see what a good thing they had and cancel the wedding, maybe he was just trying to spend as much time with her as possible knowing he wouldn't see her again, why guess at his motives, all we know is that on the day of the wedding Roger packed a few of his belongings, hugged his daughters goodbye, and left, never to be seen or heard from again. Eliza was sweet, and she was beautiful, but she was not loyal. Her heartbreak lasted, maybe a day. This not to say that she didn't love Roger, she loved him with all her heart, but out of sight - out of mind, and in a day's time she loved her new husband and forgot, with total abandon, her life before her marriage. Celest and Aaeternae were abandoned and Nemph made sure to see that they ended up on the streets.
Celest tried to take care of her younger sister but the girls would have starved if it was not Alexandra. Alexandra was monarch of the Agency, a thieving organization that once had a Republic like government. One that got trampled in the Agency Revolution. Alexandra gained her position by supporting the revolution efforts from behind the sidelines. She was selfish to the extreme and hardly ever risked anything. It was the rest of the world that went to war and suffered, she manipulated, survived, and laughed. She had no morals and no ideas of right and wrong. There was a few people who she loved and she loved them extremely. "Them" being her easygoing husband John, who went along with all her schemes though hardly supported her "Let them all go to hell!" point of view, their son Deryan (Dare), and the two girls, Celest and Aaeternae. And so Celest and Aaeternae were taken in and raised by Alexandra and John in the Agency. They changed their names to erase their linkage to the past and took on new thief names. Celest became Oxygen and Aaeternae became Cyclone.
Dare was 5 years older than Oxygen, 8 older than Cyclone. The children grew up together and naturally, as suits children, became friends. They ran around places pretending to have adventures and playing pirates, read, perfected the thief craft and, as they grew, a romance formed between Oxygen and Dare. The only one not aware of it was Cyclone, for she was young and blind to what she didn't want to see. She had a silly crush on Dare that she kept to herself. When Oxygen's and Dare's feelings for each other got serious and they announced their engagement Cyclone was crushed. She hid it for she was happy for her sister, who she loved more than anybody, but she cried one night. It was only one night and shouldn't even be worth mentioning, but a characteristic unique to Cyclone was that she wouldn't cry. When she broke her own rules against crying she knew something had to be done.
Oxygen was 21 when she got married. 9 month later she gave birth to two twin daughters: Wind and Skye. 3 months later Cyclone left to "seek her fortune." She took possessions precious to her on her journey: her puppy Pooka, her teddy bear that she had since childhood, miniatures of her family, her diary, her loved books... She would correspond with her sister whenever she stayed in a town for a while and carried all the letters with her.
Cyclone was determined to find "something." Not knowing what this "something" was, like many others she was sure that she'd know it immediately when she'd see it, for it would make everything right. And so she looked. 19 and having lived a month at Wolfspack Cyclone was bored to death and joined a group of adventurers, The Dragonslayers, as they headed out of the town. Surely, surely she will stumble upon the "something" with them. If she doesn't die first.
(cyclone's letter to her sister)
Dearest Celest,
How are you and my little nieces? I miss you a lot and often wonder whether I made the right choice in leaving, but to each his own fate and happiness and I must search for my own. So far adventuring has been fun and I'm smart enough to stay out of danger. Let others take care of the monsters and death traps—isn't that what Alexandra always taught us? And the party is always ready to tackle all problems, I'm just along for a free ride. And why not? These are not even my problems to begin with, they're nobody's problems, really, sort of out there, free for grabs, the funny thing is that the adventuring party is actually grabbing them like there's no tomorrow. I know, it makes no sense to me either- some people are just mad and suicidal I guess. Like right now: we're helping some hobgoblins relocate so that they can have enough strength to attack us a few years from now. Not only does it strike me as dim to aid a potential future enemy but it is also rather unpleasant. Hobgoblins aren't the most attractive or social creatures, and even the babies are quite ugly. I know, I know, ugly babies need the most love and care—still, couldn't we having a party instead? After all, we can't help all the hobgoblin babies even if we (god forbid) wanted to. Seems like the dwarves are the only ones who have any fun at all. Other than that I finally know what I want to do—I'm going to build a Casino! When I mentioned it to the party they didn't take it very seriously, but that doesn't bother me, it's actually even better that way because I'll have total control over this project. It seems that land everywhere is plentiful so I doubt finding a location for it will be difficult. I'm amazed that I haven't thought of this earlier, after all, the most sought for things in life are pleasures and entertainment. And I will build the city of pleasure and entertainment! It will have a colossal Casino, theaters, taverns, freak shows, strip bars, and brothels. People will travel from all corners of the world to visit my city and I will … well, I'm not really sure right now … I want most of all in the world what you have and truthfully I see no connection between it and a Casino. But still, it is such a lovely, fun idea that I can't pass it up. Even if I get nothing out of it I'll at least get my own entertainment and pleasure and those are things valuable in themselves. I think I'll put my plan in motion by starting to enlist people into a Mafia. When I have enough people I can trust the city will come alive. Oh, I just know this will work out. I'm so very excited about it I couldn't sleep a wink last night and just watched the moon for hours … But it will happen … I will have my city!
Love always and forever,
Aaeternae
