Personality

Now that she’s hit 30, Arty is the most confident in her abilities and herself than she’s ever been before. That said, she’s no showboat and practically never brings up her magic, always waiting for the other to reveal their cards first. Arty has a desire for action, but she herself would never put a foot first on the board, she prefers to whisper her words to others, build up confidence in her ideas and make sure someone else’s name is the face of it all. She refuses to put her neck on the line again, but with behind the scenes training, she’s always prepared to defend herself. Unless it’s her work, Arty also has no desire to put her stamp on things or ideas. Essentially, she would never want anything that went wrong to be traced back to her, her crafts are always labelled under the family name, never her own. She’s extremely proud of her work however, everything she’s created has been with complete love and care. Especially as she knows the weapons used by monster hunters are fighting back against their injustices and major prejudices. If people get to know her and not just the work she does, they’ll find a sweet soul who still needs some nurturing. She still doesn’t really know how to turn off her work mode, it’s just been ingrained in her for so many years. Even with the threat of it all being taken away under Miriam’s power. Now she just wants to help those who can’t help themselves. (244)

History

1Arty or Artemis (only to her family) started as a pretty insignificant child, she helped around her family’s artisanal workshop of jewellery and weaponry aimed at monster hunters. They were a well known non-mage family business of many decades and extensions. The children had always been raised to help hold small delicate chains and make sure the fire was stoked to the correct heat for long periods of time. Arty was no different, for a time.

It happened one day while Arty was playing in her mother’s things, being a jeweller she had the most exquisite pieces and although they were a family of great talent who could repair almost anything, her mother would never let them play with anything. So when the opportunity presented itself, who was Arty not to take it. In a great game of pretend, Arty had swung the necklace around and its delicate chain had snapped on an impossible link. There was a great clattering and Arty’s mother came rushing up to find out what had happened. Hearing the footsteps, Arty had broken out in nervous shakes, holding the necklace close to her, crumbled to the ground, she hoped with all of her might that it wasn’t broken too bad. It was in that position her mother found her, crumpled and trembling, but incredibly, covered in transparent, flitting, butterflies. Sobbing, Arty began to tell her mother what had happened, but both the necklace was incredibly fixed and there was no malice in her mother’s eyes that day.

 After that there were many, many discussions between her parents and their siblings. The whole family had a fairly downward look on mages, but those mages are what brought the gold in and perhaps having a little mage around would boost things furthermore, bridge the gap. The corrupted mages played on their mind but they didn’t want to lose any money making opportunities by sending her off to the order to learn control. Then an idea was sparked, they had a sweet, older retired neighbour whose magic played with illusions, maybe he’d teach her some control while she got to stick around home and continue to work. Genius. 

Theo had been lonely for awhile, he’d lost his partners some years ago and never gained the energy to connect with anyone else. So, he put himself into his work, just small scale paintings, nothing close to the magnificent murals he created in his prime. When his neighbours knocked on his door, he was puzzled, he knew his surrounding neighbour’s stances on magic and mages and this was the last thing he could’ve expected that day. The puzzling sort of fell away as his face looked down to shoulder height to see a small muzzle covered in translucent butterflies. He gave a small nod and they entered his home to discuss the child’s future and training.

They worked together in small doses here and there, when her family allowed it and developed her magic and control. It went from translucent butterflies of nerves, to almost tangible looking smoke engulfing her body when she was frustrated and even licks of flames that seemed to hold a little heat when she was furious. Arty became a walking mood ring and as she embarked on her teenage years, she despised it. She couldn’t talk to any crushes without being super obvious, couldn’t hide anything from her parents and couldn’t be frustrated without someone calling her out on it. It was also during this time that Theodore revealed he, himself had been a student of the Order and he hated it. His professors were only interested in finding if his power had some sort of physical attack power that would be useful against monsters, not the aesthetics or raw soul it took to create them, a painting wouldn’t help on the battlefield, nor did he desire to increase his magic tenfold. His magic never did develop any bite and so the moment he could, he split from the academy pushing the memories of power-hungry mages far behind him and found a lovely home in a predominantly non-mage area. 

The next advancement they made was a day when Arty was terrified of her life being nothing but an open book, which sure, could be viewed as pure and wonderful to some, but certainly not to a teenager. Theodore had become her confidant and the one person she felt safe being herself around and he nodded along in understanding. It was when she bumped a small table and a little pendant fell off that everything changed. In her ramblings she didn’t notice the little pendant going underfoot and she stepped on it, fearing it was extremely precious to Theo, snakes began to twist around her legs in a strangling fashion, that was new. Arty began to shriek and attempted to flick the snakes off of her. Incredibly, they did disappear. Lifting her foot up, Arty and Theodore both gasped at the same moment. Suddenly the plain looking pendant was transformed into a teeny, circle pit of beautiful, writhing snakes. Her illusion had been sucked from her body into the pendant! Theo and Arty looked at each other with complete shock on their faces, then they did a little happy dance around the room. They decided together to keep this new information on the down-low, knowing that Arty’s family would force her to be done with any training now that her magic would prove useful and profitable, even if she didn’t know how to do it. So for many more weeks they kept at the grind, learning what it took for Arty to send her powers away from her body like that, into something concentrated. They stuck with jewellery as it’s an item that Arty knows best and were small pieces to concentrate on. Her power remained minimal, minor movement that didn’t last for too long, but as time went on she learnt discipline and could do it on her own terms and for much more extended periods. 

The turning point in Arty’s life came at the age of 20. Still to this point she had remained studious, making beautiful work alongside Theodore and was now able to create new images and imbue them, not just replicas of the illusions that came from her strong emotions. Once she had learnt that skill and control, they agreed to tell her family and let them do with that information what they will. The family was thrilled and acted much warmer than Arty had ever experienced in her life before. She almost felt real love. The next day they put her to work and so piece by experimental piece they began to sell beautiful, but limited use, illusory moving pieces of jewellery (with a dramatic price increase of course, not that Arty saw a dime) and once that popularity began to soar among the non-mages they began to push Arty further. It started with small daggers and darts, either brave and endearing images on the hilt or more extravagant fire and electricity cosmetic movements along the blade and points. These were all quickly snapped up by monster hunters of all shapes and sizes, all wanting that slight extra piece of glitz and confusion to their opponents and fellow hunters and not long after Arty was crafting significantly larger works of swords and bow and arrows sets. Quickly Arty found herself burning out, never had she pushed her self so far in her 20 years, but being so important to her family now, how could she stop? All they told her when she said she needed a break, was that their business would never survive without her service, it was her fault for starting this next level in the first place! They needed her and so she kept on pushing, not necessarily improving. She got less time to spend with the ever-ageing Theodore and more mediocre pieces to be exchanged for gold she’d never see.

One night she got a letter from Theo asking her to come and meet him. She sent back that she had minimal time and could meet him the next night briefly after dinner, but she couldn’t stay. The next night in his home, they met up, Theodore began telling Arty he was concerned with how fatigued she was becoming, she’d lost so much weight and she clearly wasn’t being looked after. All Arty could do was wave him off. She was needed by her family now more than ever, being because of her they had an astounding, improved, reputation to uphold. She began to walk out the door, saying she had to get back to it. Theo turned back into his room, so saddened by what he saw. After a moment he chased her out the door, holding a magnificent painting. He stopped her in the street and presented the painting, the last large piece he’d created. A piece of true struggle and turmoil that reflected on his loss of partners, almost a warning that there was more to life. At the same moment a drunken self-proclaimed witchfinder came stumbling down their pathway. All they saw was a flash and movement come from an area around two figures and stupor-ly thought another monster was coming for the city. In a blaze of action, the witchfinder launched forward with his sword, cutting Theodore down before Arty’s eyes, just as she had taken hold of his gift to her. Screams erupted from her throat and hearing a banshee like roar, the witch finder grabbed a torch from a sconce on the nearby wall and lit fire to the screams, even as Arty managed to shout out that they were not a threat, they were defenceless! Flames engulfed her throat and she felt powerless to stop it and far too fatigued. She crumpled to the ground as concerned figures had come bolting out of their homes in search of the danger. She doesn’t remember much else from that night, just a blanket snuffing out the burning on her flesh and the horrific sight of Theodore laying bleeding outside of his own door. Who were two defenceless, illusory powered mages to hold their own against a war-torn warrior, drunk or not? Even if she wasn’t without a weapon, what could she have done? 

When she had recovered her mind and body to the best of her young ability, Arty struggled to look at herself. Her neck was completely scarred and furless and absolutely hideous. Laying at her bedroom door was the tattered painting Theodore had gifted her, clearly someone had tried to mend it the best they could and a beautiful garment. When she tried it on, the intricate waistcoat glinted with sparkling thread that moved in the light, it also had a matching neck-piece to go with it. It almost covered up the entire scar, leaving just a little poking out as a reminder of her horrific night. Steeling her mind, Arty shut off her emotions and got back to work. The thought of stepping outside of their home made her physically ill and covered her with patterns of snakes chasing butterflies, so she kept working, indoors. Away from the dangers of the outside world. 

There was a piece of her mind that couldn’t shut off the emotional turmoil no matter how hard she tried and she worked for three exhausting days straight crafting her finest work yet. It was an intricate pendant, not so far off the one she stepped on in Theodore’s home so long ago, but this one held a special thrum of magic. Testing her theory, she shut her eyes and stretched a foot out the door, and instead of the usual fluttering she felt when her illusions danced across her body, she felt nothing. Staring down in disbelief, Arty saw the pendant was moving! It had worked! Feeling a hint of confidence, Arty went to talk to her family. It was time she made a life for herself outside of work, just like Theodore wanted. At first they were flustered, where was their mood ring daughter, or was she really just that confident? At first they protested, stating how much business they lost when she was recovering, but even they couldn’t say no when Arty said she wanted to learn to fight. Maybe it would be good having someone more adept at protection in the family, she could also model the weapons! So they agreed to let her have a little time off, so long as they had enough product to sell, and she could go and learn how to handle weaponry. 

That’s what her life became in the next ten years. The family business was now less of family and more of just Arty with some helpers. The occasional soul still stopped by for the basic things their family made, but most were after a unique illusory piece. It was also Arty who had a natural skill for mending so she tended to focus on that when she needed a break.

She was still making beautiful, unique jewellery and weaponry, but was now also becoming someone confident in her ability to protect others, in theory not yet practice, whether they are a non-mage or just a mage whose magic was not on the offensive, especially as the change in powers happened. More than ever she wanted to hide her magic in public, so her pendant was tucked beneath her garments as she went to see her latest mentor, the fear of losing another mentor like Theodore hung around in her mind, so she never grew too attached. This last one had come recommended from her previous mentor, specialising in dagger work. They had a great session and by the end Arty was panting hard. She was getting herself ready to go when they stopped her. “You really want to make a difference, huh?” They asked. “Well yes, of course I do, who doesn’t?” Arty replied. “Far too many” they responded cryptically. “I think you should come with me to a gathering tonight, your presence would be welcomed.” They added. “I’m not so sure about that, I have a lot of work to do.” But looking into their eyes, Arty could tell this was something more important than just a simple gathering. They slipped a note into her pouch of belongings, “Please, think on it. We all want to make a difference, for mages of all uses. All the information you need right now is there.” Then they walked away, with a cautious smile. 

Confusion tickled through Arty, what difference could she possibly make? But she did ponder it on her walk home. Later that night she pulled the card out of her bag and was shocked to see a small, intricate signature alongside a location. “Prince Consort Saboro” Well, that certainly piqued her interest! 

Slipping a coat on, Arty made the hasty decision that this was an opportunity she couldn’t miss. When she got to the unsuspecting location, her jaw fell agape. So many incredible mages! The mentor then slipped to her side, “I’m so glad you made it after all, welcome to the Mage Court.” It was then that Arty understood, she really could make a difference in the unbalancing world.(2538)

Mood Illusion