Amelisce Trader was not born a complex creature (she became
complex much later). She is one of the fetchlings living on the Material Plane
that had been born in her race’s home of the Shadow Plane. She has no clear
memories of life on the Shadow Plane. When she was barely 5, her parents moved
her and her older brother Arim to the Material Plane. Their reason was not an
uncommon one: life would be easier, and there was an opportunity open to them
promised by the friend of a friend. And so without much ceremony, they moved
across the veil between worlds permanently.
Amelisce’s parents encouraged her to follow the example of
the humans in behavior and attitude. They were pragmatists; they knew it was a
human’s world and they wanted their children to have every advantage. Because
of her parents’ encouragement and her lack of memories of fetchling culture in
the Shadow Plane, Amelisce’s personal behavior lack some of the quirks
exhibited by others of her race. One thing that has remained the same is
Amelisce’s disgust for the word fetchling. Like most of her kind, she uses and
prefers her race’s name kayal.
In their new home, Amelisce’s father became a trader. She
has no idea what her father did in the Shadow Plane. It’s not something her
parents liked to talk about, and Amelisce never found a clue as to why.
Regardless, her family took her father’s new profession as their last name, a
very human thing to do and a concrete step towards making this new world their
own. Her mother became a crafter of sorts, coming up with creative ways to turn
materials coming in from the Shadow Plane into artful trinkets for those wanting
a souvenir of that dark world to show off. Amelisce grew knowing safety and
(for the most part) acceptance. Life continued in this vein for almost a
decade.
When she was 14, a large band of bandits rode through her
village. By the time the local police regained order, many of the village
residents were dead. Both of her parents were cut down trying to save their
children and their shop. Her brother was stabbed through the gut with a curved
blade and bled out in her arms. To this day, she can still picture the nicks
and rust spots on that blade. It was a tough lesson for Amelisce to learn, that
the world was not all peace and goodness. In the space of a few hours, she lost
her family, her home, and any chance of income. But the kayal are survivors.
She would survive. And she would learn of another human quality: wanting
revenge.
Her village was located about an hour’s ride from a large
city. She knew from listening to tales told by the folk who came to deal with
her father that cities were wont to harbor thugs and villains. Her practical
mind reasoned that the best way to learn how to hunt and kill the ones
responsible for her fate would be to learn from the “professionals.” With no
horse for travel, she hitched a ride on a cart passing through the area on its
way to the city (who cares if the driver never knew she was there?).
Her first few weeks in the city marked her quick descent
into its dark underworld. She watched and listened, skills she learned as a
babe. Those that observe first and speak second are often rewarded with
information. As she was. Through a series of events that she wrote off as Fate
or circumstance (but was really the power of the underworld testing her
ability), she made her first kill and gained the eye of the Thief Lord. He
chose her to become an assassin, a position she apprenticed and trained for
during the next three years. After her training, she performed jobs for the
Thief Lord, and began tracking down those bandits of so long ago on the side.
After 18 months of searching, she was able to track down and kill each one. Her
assassin’s trademark, a black feather, was left in the hand of each of them.
With her revenge fulfilled, she began to lose interest in working for the Thief Lord. Her training was complete. Her revenge
was attained. There was nothing more he could offer her. She began to look
outside the walls of the city to her future, save up her modest fortune
accumulated from her jobs, and plan on buying out her contract with the Thief
Lord. And now, seven month later, all is in place and she can finally leave.
