Kjæreste Aisling
Professor of the Arcane Arts
"You're not wrong that escaping Crypha is gonna be the hard part. The Princess has set us a hard task and at this point... we're crew. I don't know if I can purposefully leave them behind now. Even if I believe, in my heart of hearts, that going against Valentine & Crypha is a fool's errand most likely to get us killed..." Omen grimaced slightly, glancing up at Kjæreste. They clearly hadn't meant to confess all of that. The smile Kjæreste wore when Omen looked up as as pained as it was knowing. "I've fought for a cause like that before," they answered gently. "If my own experience is anything like yours, I promise you that your insight is going to be invaluable to them. Partly because they're royals and partly because..." They winked, reaching out to tap Omen on their arm. "They don't have all the skills you do." For a moment, the elder of the two looked thoughtful and they asked carefully, "One last thing that might help determine where you might've come from, Omen... have you ever been able to touch the mind of a dying person? Feel their experiences as though they were your own?" "Thank you. I hope that's true." Omen smiled back at them, letting them see how touched they were by Kjæreste's words, the gentle tap of their arm. "I... don't believe so." They looked considering and also kind of awed. "Is that something that our kind can do?" Kjæreste smiled quickly, reassuringly, and shook their head. "The only ones I've known to are the others who-- who were made like me," they explained. "And if you've grown up all this time on Lazwish, not knowing the Web, I thought it worth asking." Their smile faded as they realized maybe Omen just hasn't had a chance to know that yet. Solemning, their brow knitted together. "Omen, I have to warn you that if you find out you can do this... such experiences are powerful. They can make you forget who you are; make you question things you never would have questioned-- adopt an entire new personality and turn your back on things you once believed strongly in." Not that they felt they were wrong for having done so. "The information you could gather from an enemy could be invaluable, but it could also change who you are. Forever." They took in a breath before moving on to point out, "And if, somehow, you find you can do this ... then you're likely the same as I am. A creation of the Eye." They looked back to Omen more firmly to state, "Though that would not define you."- Kjæreste Coelum to Allucian "Omen" Bramwell
History
Kjæreste Ophiuchus was a name self-chosen for a grand purpose. Born from experiments performed by The Eye's organization, a changeling bred and raised to replace an engineer named Briar Senn embraced their 'destiny' to be the tool that would strike down investigators plotting to thwart the Eye's plans. They vowed to serve the cause, come what may. And then they actually became Briar. After lying and insinuating themself into becoming Briar fully, memories became muddled and an outside look in on The Eye's organization and the way they treated their fellows of the cause began to shift Kjæreste's belief center. Having befriended those of Lazwish, their duty to the people of Navii became harder to reconcile -- especially once they came into the belief that bringing war and subjugation to the people of Lazwish would only be to repeat the mistakes of that other world once more. Briar became Kjæreste once more during an ambush on the diplomat team when they investigated the displaced Golden City in Limbo, and as themself, they turned on the Eye once his back was to them. The betrayal endured through assaults on the Golden City once it was reset in the material world, and when the people of Lazwish emerged victorious and The Eye's people were relegated to hiding in the mountains between Dalvath and Crypha, Kjæreste returned to The Eye to ask him if-- at last-- he was willing to consider a more symbiotic relationship with the people of Lazwish. They arranged for The Eye to speak with Cornelius Dolore and establish relations between the Eye and Athanor. It was then that they were finally able to reunite with the others like them, made from the Eye's experiments, and tell them a truth they had discovered-- that the changelings were actually part of a people known as the Children of the Web, and that the Web was not inaccessible to them. Once they had helped others like them find a place to call home, Kjæreste turned to the stars to help Ephemera Coelum find her own. A year and three months later, Kjæreste Coelum returned to Lazwish alone and bereaved, clutching a baby girl in their arms. Christened Esme, she was all that was left of Ephemera, who upon arriving to the world that had been her origin was forcibly detained and made part of a system her mother had fled that world over. Vowing to become powerful enough to one day reclaim Ephemera from the people who took her and her free will, Kjar distanced themself gradually from everyone they had befriended, retreating before long to the Web to both teach and learn from those at Rosewood Academy. Once Esme was old enough to have begun training at the Academy, fear of her adopting an adventuring lifestyle lead for Kjæreste to relocate once more back to their residence in Athanor. Learning ever-so-quickly of their return, Cornelius extended an offer for Kjæreste to teach at the College of Enlightened Sciences, an offer which they could see no reason to turn down. As a professor, a path to magical education was likewise opened for Esme which Kjæreste reluctantly accepted and encouraged-- partly thanks to encouragement from The Eye, who they had reconnected with and had been serving as a paternal grandfather figure for Esme. Opening up to The Eye about their desire to rescue Ephemera lit a fire in the man's eyes, and he eagerly took initiative to help them begin formulating plans to that end. He was able to more skillfully navigate the magic-propelled spacecraft Ephemera and Kjæreste had previously used, and leveraged his prowess over Portal Magic to ferry them to and from that distant planet's surface without detection. At long last, Kjæreste again tapped into their powers to kill and absorb the minds of others like they had done with Briar long ago. With a stronger sense of self and without the need to become someone at length, they were able to overcome any unfavorable blend of information and use the information learned for knowledge's sake alone. Years passed like this, learning more information about the planet and its government, with return trips made to Lazwish to keep up appearances and continue to advance the fusion of technology and magic there, resulting in stable-use (supposedly) Portal machines used for trade purposes. A grand test proved itself when Lovis Creed went missing in Crypha. Kjæreste dropped everything on a self-assigned journey to locate and rescue him from Balocrypha Oleander's clutches, delving behind enemy lines to locate the missing demigod. They theorized such an adventure would prove they were finally worthy to face the Celestials of that other world and bring Ephemera home. They may in fact have been right... but something happened. Their closest friend, the ghost of Felix Aisling, died his last death at the hands of Luther Valentine's forces in Crypha. He was able to appear before them briefly, enough to share what had happened, and hint at long-unspoken feelings. Distraught over never having the opportunity to make things right with Felix and make up for lost time, Kjæreste resolved to ease one of Felix's final regrets that he wasn't able to do more to help the children of their friends who had crashlanded in Crypha and become unexpectedly involved in the war. They gave up Lovis' trail and turned at once to follow after the children who were escaping from where Felix had been laid low. After finding the children already safe with Dalvath forces, they nonetheless trailed them to the claimed city of Broken Shield to ensure they reached the border safely. From there, they split their own way, north, toward Athanor and the city-state of Lux Brumalis. Arriving after a long and hard travel, Kjæreste could barely muster themself to ask for Loeraica Dawn's help in finding Felix in the afterlife, but they did. When Lyall Dawn brought the Crypha-stranded children through a portal to Lux Brumalis a few days later while Loer and Kjar were still planning how to best safely enter the realm of the dead again, Lyall turned to them to help orchestrate a coverup of the deaths of the Dalvath forces that had turned on them. Taking on the guise of Luther Valentine, Lyall and Kjæreste engaged in a bloody and dramatic string of events of making it look as though the Iron Hills were being attacked by Valentine's forces, in the process seeing to it that those slain were imbued with the Mark of the Reaper. Some days after that, back in Lux Brumalis, Kjæreste confronted Vrinn Love-Dawn over his use of Felix's armor. In the conversation that followed, Vrinn offered the last of Felix's effects to them, among them being an unsent letter addresssed to them. After reviewing the letter and seeing it contained the full of the confession the both of them had lacked time to properly make on their last meeting, complete with the wondering of what their life together could have been like had things gone different, Kjæreste vowed to do everything in their power to bring Felix back to the realm of the living. A month later, after Loer ascended to godhood following an attack on Lux Brumalis by former-Templar Heralds of The Dawn, that opportunity came. Delving into the land of the dead using their personal tokens to guide them both, Kjar and Loer found Felix and Kjæreste was able to at least speak to him regarding the depths of their unspoken feelings. They promised to do everything they could to help him if he wanted to return, and was able to summon the three of them into a place not unlike what Antigone Farris-Love had found when she was trapped in the realm of the dead without a body to return to. When Felix closed his eyes upon seeing the horrific sight of the Eternal Church, the sight of his greatest and last failure, they pressed their hands to his face and begged him to be willing to fight for this regret to not be his ending and defining moment. When faced with guilt over how others who were killed in Winter Bloom should have more right than he to come back to life, Loer provided a gentle reminder of his own experiences with being sought out while feeling unworthy to return, and also let know Felix that Aurora, Lydia's daughter, was alive and at Lux Brumalis. Felix's body chosen up from the charnel was completed of pieces that appeared to be his own, save for one feature-- one eye very visibly belonged to someone not himself. Kjæreste was able to assist in a ritual to help him identify with the pieces and begin to join them into one body again, and Felix meditated on its presence until all of him vanished except the heart he was clutching, etched with twenty names of unknown persons. With guidance from Loer, Kjar carefully peeled back the body's torso to ensure the heart was placed within, and then waited for a painfully long time for signs of life to begin to appear on Felix. During that time, the doors to the Church flung open, revealing Lumen, the bookkeeper of the dead. He laid down the demands that an authority of the Underworld be spoken to before any of them would be permitted to leave, news reluctantly conveyed to Felix when he finally regained consciousness. Speaking afterward with the Oldest Paragon, an agreement was reached where Felix would be permitted to leave if Kjæreste sacrificed one of their own lives to give to him, with the stipulations that should either of them so much as near Death's door ever again, they would be instantly claimed, and also that none of them would ever return to steal someone from Death again. The last a stipulation agreed to only because their missing comrade Glykon Creed turned out to not yet be in Death's graces, but somewhere else entirely-- someplace they were welcomed to rescue her from so she could eventually meet Death when her time came. When Felix, Kjar, and Loer awoke on the mountain's top following the ritual, Kjæreste was overwhelmed with joy at their success, tears streaming down their face as they embraced a shivering Felix given Loer's cloak. It was agreed that, given their new circumstance, neither could return to Crypha-- but there would prove to be plenty to focus on with regards to getting Felix acclimated to mortal life again. It wasn't long before Felix's motivation to return-- care for Aurora Aisling-- became a focus and Felix and Kjæreste moved to adopt the girl as their own. For now, they've returned to Athanor where the three of them and Esme Coelum-Aisling are discovering what it means to be a family together, one day at a time.Relationships
Year of Birth
3999 AGE
1059 Years old
Family
Spouses
Ephemera Coelum
(Lover)
Felix Aisling
(Husband)
Siblings
Children
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