nestra

About

nestra grew up in a town with no name. it was so small, her mama told her, that it needed none, for who would ever want to talk about it? her nearest neighbor was miles away, and she helped mama grow all the food their large family needed. she & her six younger siblings were all adopted, and they made an interesting bunch : rare, that a young tiefling would grow up surrounded by elves and humans and one half - orc, but she loved her family as it was.

nestra began to study the cello when she was twelve — got a hand - me - down from a friend of her mama’s, who gave her scattered lessons in exchange for fresh vegetables. she played and sang lullabies to her younger siblings. she discovered her magic this way : when she played and focused, headaches went away, or lights danced in the air, or an accompanying choir sang with no one around.

when nessie was fourteen, her youngest sister got sick. lucie was always nestra’s favorite — nessie was eleven when lucie was left on their doorstep, a small half - elven girl, softspoken & kind. she went out flower picking with lucie weekly to find pretty things to brighten up their home. those expeditions stopped when lucie fell ill, of course — mama and the doctors forbid nestra from even going into lucie’s room, for fear that all the children would grow sick.

of course, she disobeyed. how could she sit back and wait for her sister to die? she snuck into lucie’s room under cover of night & sang a song, focusing all of her magic on healing lucie.

lucie died the next day. nessie blamed herself — something must have gone wrong with her spells, she must have missed a note and caused more harm than help, she should have listened to her mama. being at home was never the same again, though she stayed; eventually, she took over the farming for her mother, began selling their wares at the farmer’s market in the nearest town, carrying guilt with her all the while.

unbeknownst to nestra : the neighboring kingdom had a princess, also named nestra, also a tiefling, and space pirates are not known for their intelligence. she was en route to town when she was taken, and regardless of how much she promised that she is not a princess & her mama has no ransom to give, the pirates did not believe her. the ransom deadline ran out a week later, with no money given. unceremoniously, nestra was pushed from an airlock. killed.

the good news : she woke up. the bad news : she was on an unfamiliar planet, and hardly visible — she looked down at her hand, and it was nearly skeletal, skin mummified from exposure to outer space & half - seethrough. she kept herself secluded until she learned to control her incorporeality, but being dead was not ideal, and she was terrified to be away from her family. she had never been more than three hours from home before, in her nineteen years of life, much less on another world.

long story short : she wandered until she fell in with another group of space pirates, this time ones with ( mostly ) good intentions, only harming those who would see to harm others. she made friends there, some of the first in her life, and a best friend named millie — who died, several years after.

after his death, their group split up, and nestra wandered again for a while. she attempted to visit home, and found her house abandoned and her family gone. nestra found her place in the middle of a war zone, putting her healing skills to use as much as possible — and honing a new talent for necromancy. she vowed to do good, as much as possible, & ensure no one she loved would ever have to die again.