Name: Breena
Age: 26
Race: Nixie/Human
Height: 5' 6"
Weight: 130
Physical Description: Breena's beauty is as precious and timeless as the flowers that she sells. Her clothing is modern but often seen as modest compared to other females that wish to flaunt their feminine assets. Her chestnut hair cascades in waves to the center of her back, framing her heart shaped face. The most striking quality she possesses by far is her hazel eyes, which she lines regularly with dark eyeliner.
Possessions: Breena is the owner of a florist shop in Main Street where she also resides. Inside her store you will find many tools of her trade such as: watering cans, seeds, fertilizers, terraces, decorative paper, ribbons, and jars of dried herbal remedies that she creates from her plants. When Breena is about she usually has a satchel which she uses as a purse to carry her money, possibly a basket if she is selling flowers, and a dagger which she keeps concealed, should she be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Powers or Strengths: Like Breena's mother she has the ability to charm others. This ability never surfaced until her teens and when it started she was very on edge and scared of what was happening around her. The world began to change it was no longer black and white; it became misleading and sometimes rather difficult to explain. A man may smile and great you on your way to school but cackle rude remarks of how you made too much noise or reverberate a strong distaste for your well-being. Sometimes the voices were mere murmurs and other times they bellowed like lions' roars. When a person hears things they shouldn't it is either marked, as magic or insanity and it was never clear which one of those things was worse. In fear of being seen as abnormal Breena never mentions this ability to others. What would other people think of her if she told them she heard voices daily or could tell what people actually thought?
It seemed, as the months passed the voices were not as bad and for once Breena was adapting to this ability, until one late afternoon as Breena was cleaning her fathers shop; a person wondered in wishing to make a last minute purchase. Breena remembered this man as very upbeat and full of life but his emotions were jaded. She could feel the mans selfish nature seep into her and as she wrapped the roses he requested; she could not help but feel pain for whoever he meant to give these flowers to. Quickly she touched the petals so that they would appear fuller in the white wrapping before handing them to this man. The man intended to present these to a local brothel starlet whom he promised to take as his wife but never intended to hold up to such a promise. For years he strung her a long as a mere puppet, but that night when the man came to present the flowers his cheeks were shallow and his face did not hold the vibrant smile it once had. The newspaper later recorded a case of domestic dispute between the two resulting in a fight made public in the local tavern. Breena thought this was mere coincidence but when the happenings became more frequent she tried in vain to contain her own judgments on others.
It took a little less than a year to figure out that it was her touch that caused people to feel as she felt. Sometimes they would feel this way all day other times only mere moments. The enchantment only carried on if the person stayed in possession of what it was that Breena touched, if the item died or was destroyed the spell would vanish.
This charm was strong and Breena tried hard so that it would not happen all the time. By trade the little gardener found if she covered her hands with proper gloves she would remain as ordinary as any other person was.
Weaknesses: Breena's gift is also her biggest weakness. Having a loving heart she sometimes influences others to make what she thinks are the best decisions. That is not to say she is always wholesome and good, Breena also has used her gift to help herself. To ere is human and when she shows hints of jealousy or hate sometimes her gift seems a perfect solution to stop the pain, and redirect it onto a victim. Then there are also times when she has used the gift in hopes that the person shows more generosity and pays her for her trade well.
She is not always the most trusting person and because of that she carries her dagger in case she should need it. However she has no formal training in any other weapon she can fall prey to any volleys of physical attacks.
When Breena's father grew ill she alone picked up his trade and ran the shop that was also their home. In the first year, she failed to meet the requirements of Marn 's taxation and fell to the mercy of the minister. She pleaded and begged that they would allow her to stay and run the shop and take care of her bed ridden father. When Breena was addressed back to the minister she was told that all her dept had been paid, though at that moment she had no idea from whom, she soon found out that it was from someone of a higher standing. From time to time she is given jobs to create lavish decorations or create herbal remedies for higher standing people. She has also been bid to do things she would find humiliating and distasteful, but she must do this in order to pay back a debt she wont achieve.
History: Twenty- six years ago along the Ofriyu Mar bank, Darin Parish promenaded doing his weekly work of gathering herbs and other plants which he replanted and sold in pouches as medicinal herbs. His ventures brought him to a shallow pool where he found the most beautiful flowers, it reminded him of pictures he had once seen of a place called Guang Wan. On this day it was not only the flowers that took his interest it was a woman that was swimming in the water. Being a courteous gentleman he tried to look away from the woman so that she would not see him as some lone pervert who came to spy on her. Clearing his throat he went to move on his way, when the woman called out to him.
Surely she meant to yell he thought, but her voice was so inviting and alluring that he turned back to her.
That day Darin Parish forgot his work, and much of the second and third day as well. A feeling like no other had possessed him and though he loved and wished to embrace this new comfort he knew he had to be realistic and found the courage and strength to leave this particular area of the Ofriyu. Though every other weekend he would return to see this woman, whom he knew must be something inhuman.
It was true Iris was in human; Darin soon learned that she was a nixie a water sprite with the powers of seduction and charm. Sometimes he wondered if he ever really loved this woman. He would only find this out on the day when she did not show up at the rivers edge. With a sigh of despair he waited and waited but she never came.
Something else was there, a small baby girl whom bore a striking resemblance to Darin. He held her tight to his bosom with a questioning look before he took her back to his home in Marin. As he held onto the delicately wrapped new born, Darin wished that her life would be as simplistic as any other human child's was. So it was when he brought the child into the city, he knew he must keep her mothers identity secret for her own protection. When asked where she came from he would reply that she was his niece, whom had lost her parents. “She has no one else to care for her, I am all that she has,” was the lie he fed the towns people. Darin grew to love Breena the way any father loves a daughter. In his possession the girl would be safe. If she was anything like her mother though Darin feared he would be in grave danger. What would the judges do if they got their hands on a magical child? Would she be contained or would he be charged for bringing her into the city limits. Darin was not about to find out. And so it was that Breena came to be and lived a simple life amongst the common people of Marn.
Darin continued to go to the river every other weekend and sometimes came back rather late but always he refused to take Breena. For years the small girl wondered why until one faithful afternoon when curiosity ate at her and she ventured out to the banks without her fathers permission. In the shade of the tall weeds the girl spied one of the most beautiful pools she had ever seen. The water was clear, as crystal and the vegetation about it seemed so exotic and breathtaking, that she herself could barely part from it. The place called to her like nowhere she ever had been, and that is when she spied Darin talking to a beautiful woman. "Why would he hide something so silly like this from me," she wondered as she took the road back near the old water tower. Breena never mentioned she wondered off until her two year later when Darin fell ill. It was then that Darin revealed the woman’s identity to Breena, for he did not wish to leave this world without his daughter knowing who she was or who her mother was. He hoped that this mystery would sooth his daughter, in truth it only made her more curious.
Darin later died from his condition, having not enough antibodies to fight off the infection, which had spread. In his will Darin never left instructions on how he wanted his burial but being the closest of kin or relative, Breena knew the best place for her father. At the end of the funeral procession Breena brought Darin’s ashes to the pool where he had spent many moments with Iris. The flowers that had enchanted him so long ago looked worn and decayed and the pools waters looked all the more eerie to Breena as she laid her father to rest. Breena later took on her fathers business in town, but every other weekend Breena travels the path to the pool where her father rests in hopes to see her mother, hoping for the sense of closure that she may never have.
