Alabaster

Alabaster had as comfortable a life as he was able, he was born with underdeveloped lungs, but being born to the Snow Verneyi village of Malakh who were all naturally born healers, it did help him not end up as badly as he could have. However he still struggled more physically than others, his shortness of breath and semi-frequent coughing left him exhausted on a regular basis. His stubborn nature causing him to overexert himself often leaving him stuck in bed for a day or two to recoup afterwards. This continuous struggle of his life mixed with persistent fatigue he suffered left him irritable at best. He didn't harbor any hate for anyone for his condition but he found it difficult to keep his short temper in check, often taking out frustrations on family members, who knew too well at this point not to take it personally (and he would always sheepishly apologize later). All in all, he lived at home with his family; his parents and three sisters, and he was thankful that they were glad to take care of him, but he despised that they had to at all.

One particular afternoon he was running some simple errands and found himself in the local book shop.... Which was odd because he hadn't needed to go to the book shop, but he caught himself glancing through shelves anyway, figuring he may as well see if he could find something to read while he inevitably ended up stuck in bed the next day. One particular book stuck out to him. It was a black leather-bound book that was kept closed by a belt. It was odd, but reading the synopses on the back revealed it to be a type of horror novel, which was his general genre of choice and he hadn't read this particular title yet... He purchased the book, finished the rest of his errands, and managed to get home without strife.

That same evening once he settled into bed, something itched at him to take a glance over the book he bought. Undoing the clasp he was met with... a sudden weight on his body. Not like the usual weight of fatigue he felt, but he looked up from the book, which he had noticed had also changed to a monstrous binding of runes and spells, to be met with a person-sized imp-like creature that introduced themselves as Augur Tes'ana, a Nox. Al's distaste of being straddled by such a creature was blatant when he tried to yell, but was quickly quieted by the Nox who clapped their hands over his face until he calmed down and followed up by offered him a pact. Tes'ana offered to heal Al's ailments if they could be freed from being imprisoned in the book and bound to him instead. He of course didn't trust the demon's words as he was taught by village leaders that the Noctis were vile creatures of the Grand Umbra who could not be trusted, but he couldn't quite hide being interested in the idea of having a normal functioning body, and Tes was keen on Al's desires. Before Al could outright refuse, Tes bound them together temporarily, telling the lion that if he was unsatisfied, they could simply end their provisional pact and part ways. Al's immediate reaction would have been to choke the imp out for tricking him into this... if he hadn't realized how good he felt. At least if he had been tricked he got to relish in this moment of clarity where he knew what it felt like to actually get a full breath of air and feel the fatigue start to lift from his body. He did hope this trade off would be worth the several new problems he faced: How he would explain to his friends and family how his chronic illness was healed, how he would hide the Nox that woke up next to him every morning, and how he would hide the sudden changes his body took on some days...