Aislin Lourdes

The Story

• 
  A young witch, barely out of her teenage years, ran through a heavily wooded forest, the dense underbrush tearing at her cotton dress. A man ran with her, pushing her on, trying to keep her moving despite their wounds. Their fear was palpable, yet a father’s voice to a daughter spanned the darkness, “Run Aislin! Don’t stop running!” The night was dark but for the flames rising above the tree line. Black smoke blotted out the moon’s face and replaced it’s light with the violent orange glow of utter ruin and destruction.
  
  Aislin has been on her own for a long time. Since it is difficult, if not impossible, to tell her actual age… no one really knows exactly how long she has wandered the continents. The number of fluent languages she can converse in may be an indicator. Despite her traveling, she does not really seem like a perpetual wanderer. In truth, she isn’t. Anyone that picks up on this might be tempted to enquire why such a grounded person is leading a nomadic existence. However, there is no straight answer that she will ever give to this question. If she is pushed too hard for information she becomes even more tight-lipped and defensive. Most perceptive people realize soon that the past is a place that she does not wish to revisit and the reasons, whatever they may be, are dark and dangerous.
• 
  ”Leave, Witch!” Impossibly light blue eyes snapped to the men that pushed her away. She had done her best to conceal her gifts from these people. All while continuing to help them… she had been too naïve and too sure of herself. Believing that if she told people she was someone else, if she worked and poured her blood, sweat, and tears like everyone else… that they would accept her. She believed she could have a new home, but the fear of the unexplainable, of her, locked her out from the love in their hearts.
  
  For someone who is systematically persecuted at every turn, Aislin cannot let go of the dream that someday she will be able to settle back down. Hopefully with what is left of her coven, but that is an even more distant dream. Each time she settles down, she stays just long enough to get to know people, and then leaves before people get too close to finding out what she is. There has been too many hurts, the kind that you cannot ignore for fear they may happen again.
• 
  ”Please, do something. I know you can.” The child was barely breathing, too ill and feverish to even open her eyes. A mother would resort to anything to save their children. Laying a hand on the girl’s forehead and another on her chest, those impossibly blue eyes closed and the witch let nature guide her. A desperate mother, a sick child of man, and a witch that would never refuse to help. There was no sleight of hand here, his woman was the real deal and after a few moments of silence, the scent of grass and wet soil became noticeable. The child’s breath came easier, the sweat drying on her pale skin. “She will be alright…” But it was now time for Aislin to leave, she would not repeat her mistakes.
  
  Even though she tries to keep her gifts under wraps, sometimes Aislin is placed in situations where she is openly asked to use them. For the right reasons, she would never say no, if it were in her power to help. Her ability to heal is not as often utilized as her knowledge of herbs and natural remedies.
  
  She carries an apothecary case and it is deceptively small. Of course, it’s been enchanted to have much more space in the little drawers and cubbies. The lock and key is also enchanted, that it won’t work for anyone but her. Anyone else attempting to open it will only turn endlessly, in either direction, to no effect. She keeps countless things in the box, however, apart from the numerous random trinkets, the majority of the box’s contents are various herbs and seeds.
  
  The box is her livelihood. Since she is beholden (mostly) to the laws of men, she often sells remedies and charms for cash. Just small works of magic in the form of sweets, pastries, teas, and infused drinks, nothing too witchy. Nothing to raise suspicions, even though some of the things she sells are highly effective. She occasionally takes requests, however, if the requests are for ‘the wrong reason’, require blood magic, or for her to go against the natural order of things she will turn it down flat.
• 
  Standing in the middle of a town square, Aislin leaned against the pole around which her hands had been tied. The tinder had been stacked around her, but she looked far too calm for a convicted witch. Glancing over her shoulder, she looked to a young boy. She met his frightened stare with a smile and a wink. “If you are going to use your charms to save yourself, they are wasted on a child.” Aislin looked to the priest before her, “I don’t need charms to save myself, father.” She watched as the torches were carried forward and the tinder lit. The priest read from his book, and peopled watched on, waiting for the flames to consume her. Raising her eyes to the sky, the vast open void was reflected perfectly in her powder blue depths. The rapidly rising heat from the flames fluttered her auburn hair and just when she should have been engulfed, there was nothing there to swallow. Aislin knelt before the little boy she had seen, she held a sprig of white heather in her fingers, which she gave to him along with a kiss upon his soft cheek. Then she was gone again.
  
  Aislin is not your run of the mill witch. She’s a natural witch, hereditary witch. She doesn’t get her magic from spells and tricks; it’s in her blood. Hereditary Witches are also known as Eternal Witches, they are suspected to not be human, but supernatural creatures that live cycled lives. They are born, they live, and they die and are reborn into their coven again. Each cycle brings them greater power and eventually, as they mature, they remember their former lives.
  
  The reason these witches have been nicknames ‘Eternal’ Witches, is for their ability to consciously stop aging. They can remove themselves from their cycles and live frozen in time. Of course, they never get stronger, they not only freeze their bodies in time but their magical progress as well.
  
  These witches can be killed, but since they are children of nature, no natural elements can fatally harm them. It takes a great act of violent, unnatural, and black magic to destroy them permanently. It’s the kind of crime against nature that is almost inconceivable.

• Aislin's Song

• Connections

  Friends

  Alaric York (played anonymously)

  Family

  Wynnie Hale (played anonymously)

  Yves Lourdes (played anonymously)

  Vanincia Lourdes (played anonymously)

  Pogue Jefferson (played anonymously)

  Acquaintance

  Dr Evelyn Via-Cabrera (played anonymously)

  Tilda (played by Loki)

  Delphine (played by Loki)

  Ophelia-Marie Dudley (played anonymously)

  River Ibarra (played by Limeface)

  Adrienn Eduart (played anonymously)

  Chiara (played by Loki)

  August Grey (played anonymously)

  Izabet (played anonymously)

• Notes About Natural Witches

  1. Natural Witches are a select (nonfluctuating number) of Witches that cycle through lives.
  
  2. Because they are cycling entities. Natural Witches are never born, they are reborn. There are only ever a set number of them in existence, anywhere. There are never 'new' Natural Witches. For this reason, you can just assume that they all are 'old'. Perhaps not in current body, but mentally, they are all ancient.
  
  3. Rebirth for them is like a cosmic queue. Until one is ready to be brought back to the physical world, Natural Witches are virtually sterile. They cannot become pregnant or impregnate another. Natural witches, technically, cannot breed with humans. Any child conceived might be genetically linked, but that is as far as it goes. When a Natural Witch hits their maturity, they begin to remember their past lives and come fully into their power.
  
  4. They are born, they live, they die. They are born again. Or... they stay frozen in time by choice. The more they 'recycle' lifetimes, the more powerful they become. Their capacity to perform and handle magic grows deeper, their ability to manipulate energy and matter becomes more complex, and their burnout rate in contrast to power use decreases.
  
  5. Natural Witches have a common enemy, a branch of their own kind that has gone 'dark'. They are the only threat that Natural Witches really fear, and the reason why many of them have stopped cycling through their lives. As children or too far into old age, they are unable to defend themselves and risk being permanently removed from the chain. (For this reason, Aislin has stopped her aging. She's been stuck in the same body for centuries to act as a guardian for others. When someone overtakes her in power, she will begin to recycle as well. However, that will take many more millenniums.)
  
  6. Natural Witches have their own creation history: Their race was begun by a human female who conceived with a creature of pure energy. Their children were so incredibly powerful, that upon their deaths, they returned to their children and were reborn as heirs to the pure line. The retelling fluctuates the numbers of how many there are, but some of the Guardian know the number more closely than others.
  
  7. There are 3 tiers of Natural Witches:
  
  1st Generation begot by the human female and the creature of pure energy.
  2nd Generation who were begot by the first, grandchildren of the sires.
  3rd Generation who were begot by the second and saw the rebirth of the first.
  
  It is thought that the first generation has more control and power than the two succeeding generations. Though, who is which has largely been lost by those who do not keep track of their own history.