Rebecca Célestin

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Name: Rebecca Célestin
Subgroup/Guild: Dreadlords
Country of Origin: Cairhien
Physical Description
Like most Cairhienin, Rebecca isn't very tall. Standing at 5 ft 4, and weighing a mere 95 pounds, she is by no means muscular and burly. If anything, she looks almost frail due to her small build, yet this is an image she carefully cultivates as it makes those who oppose her underestimate her natural agility. She has a fair skin, and unruly locks of black hair falls down to halfway between her shoulder blades in length. Amber eyes frame an oval face, and thin eyebrow, an average sized greek nose and a small mouth complete the picture. True to her mixed parentage, her skin tone is a pale coppery hue, a combination of Cairhienin and Domani traits.
 
Whether she likes to or simply out of habit, Rebecca spends quite a bit of time on her looks. She is no stranger to perfume, eye shadow and lipstick, and her knowledge of using her body as a tool of seduction rivals that of a Domani. As far as clothing is concerned, she prefers loose-fitting garb, though not to the point of being revealing: That sight would be reserved to those she targets for her manipulative acts.
Personality
 
It's hard to tell what Rebecca's outlook on the world is, as she doesn't seem to give a damn about any of it. Though she generally keeps her promises, she's only inclined to do so when she sees something to gain from it. She likes enjoying herself, making others do her bidding while she makes decisions almost on a whim. She is an imaginative thinker, and tends to follow the little black lump of coal she calls a heart when making decisions.
 
Though her emotions give her a strong guiding, one should be wise to remember her selfishness, to place this trait into proper perspective. Having had quite a bit of success in achieving her goals so far, she is quite confident in her ability to keep doing this, despite her tendency to primarily look out for her own concern and have others do the fighting for her.
Quote: "There are no allies. Just enemies with mutual interests."
History
Rebecca was born as the second child of Nerion and Demira Célentin. Nerion was an assassin for one of the Houses, and Daes Dae'mar ensured the family had never had a hard time making ends meet. With her mother being Domani, she and her older sister learned how to dress and act in order to get a man's attention, which would later on find it's primary use in helping to distract her father's assassination targets.
 
The methods were relatively simple. She or her sister would get the target's attention -- which generally wasn't that hard late at night -- drawing their attention away from her father, lying in wait with a crossbow on the other side of the street. In the resulting confusion, they would slip back into the shadows like their father had taught them.
 
Due to his successes, Nerion's star quickly rose. However, with the increased reputation came harder tasks, and although they were definitely better paying the risks had increased considerably as well. During these times, her father kept getting more and more nervous before a job, and it had started to affect his performance. He still managed to take out his target, but he was starting to make mistakes. The increased number of guards were getting him on edge, and what was worse, his general MO was starting to become known.
 
A couple of times, he had had to break off an attempt due to the guards already scouting the area when they spotted one of his daughters. Though this meant they had to make their own escape, they had some basic experience handling a knife, and were more than capable of sticking to the shadows with their pre-planned escape route set out behind them.
 
However, after one job her father had not returned home. Whether by chance or simple bad luck, while making his escape he had run into a few guards whom he 'knew' from previous jobs, and the delay allowed the guards of the noble he had just killed to catch up. Outnumbered and overwhelmed, he died shortly afterwards.
 
Still, the noble that had given them the assignment wasn't all too happy. Though the noble had been hit, the shot had been off, and he had survived the attack. To make matters worse, the target was on to him now, complicating matters for him in the city. He sent men to their house, demanding the downpayment he had made as compensation, and wasn't all too happy when he heard it had been spent already.
 
The next group of men were... less forgiving. They belonged to the noble whom had been injured in the assassination attempt, and had hired mercenaries to kill everyone present. As the door was kicked in, her sister, sensing something wrong, managed to toss her under the bed before the men came barging in.
 
Though Rebecca certainly had little morals to begin with, there's something about seeing your sister be raped and murdered in front of your eyes that manages to leave quite the impression on a young girl's mind. As she lay under the bed, crying and fearfully keeping silent, something snapped inside of her. In hindsight, that would be the moment she fell to the Shadow, even though she hadn't spoken the words yet. After the men left, laughing and slapping each other on the back of all things over a job well done, she crawled out of her hiding place again, simply radiating vengeance and bloodlust from every fiber of her being.
 
Believed to be dead, she kept herself hidden, living on an undiscovered stash of money she knew her parents had kept. Waiting until a few days had passed in case someone was watching the house, she buried the bodies of her mother and sister in the backyard late at night. After going back inside, she planned her revenge.
 
The men were the first to go. One fell to her sister's dagger as she slit his throat in the middle of the day, a hooded cloak hiding her features as she ran. She didn't care about being seen, not anymore. Another died by her mother's hand crossbow as he walked on the market with his family. A third was lured in by her charms, falling to her own dagger as she stabbed him in the heart.
 
More followed, one falling after the other, always public, and never backed by one of the Houses. Needless to say, people in the city were starting to get nervous. While they were used to Daes Dae'mar being played around them, assassinations had never been this close to public executions, and the fact that no one was able to pin down why commoners were being targeted, and by whom, raised tension further.
 
Rebecca couldn't care less. She had tracked the next group frequenting a tavern, and sneaked into the kitchen. After subduing one of the maids and dragging her to a broom closet, she put on the maids uniform and walked back into the common room. Despite the amount of people present, she knew she'd be spotted soon enough, and quickly moved in as the men placed an order for ales. She brought them their drinks, after which she walked back to the counter, put the platter on the counter and calmly walked towards the door.
 
One look over her shoulder saw the men toasting, and she couldn't withhold a small chuckle. Seeing one of his maids walk out on him, he shouted for her to come back, but was soon concerned with other things as four of his customers were gasping for breath and keeling over. Rebecca wasn't surprised though, they had each swallowed enough poison to coat ten daggers with. She made her way out mere moments before a panic broke out, and people started to flee, thus providing her with the cover to slip away in.
 
That made over half a dozen kills to her name in a relatively short time. There were more guards on the streets now, and at least half of them hired by Houses that wanted to gain prestige by catching this 'phantom killer'. Fear was starting to spread now, and the Dragon's Fang started appearing on people's doors. But Rebecca wasn't done yet. During one of her information gathering sessions, she had come across a man offering her valuable information. The way she had held herself had aparently fooled him into believing she was a thief, and let slip that he knew some easy pickings for her.
 
It turned out the Illuminators' Chapter House was stocking up on fireworks for the feast of one of the Houses. The man offered to reveal the location of the Chapter House to her as well as tell her where the fireworks would be stored. In return, she'd leave the majority of fireworks at a predetermined location somewhere in the city, taking a part of them as a fee for her efforts.
 
After some prodding -- mostly thanks to several drinks, and the Domani training her mother gave her -- the man let slip that he was an Illuminator herself. His rival would be in charge of security for the evening, and he was hoping to gain his rank in the Chapter by having him fail, then 'track down' the stolen property in his investigation. If she'd get caught, well, he'd just deny everything she claimed.
 
That night, she broke into an Illuminator's Chapter House. As the man had promised her, a number of the people working as guards that day were loyal to him, and she managed to sneak into the Chapter House with little trouble. While most of the cache was safely locked away, a number of rolls were stacked in a corner due to the storage room simply being full. After stealing a number of firework rolls, she darted off, pursued by guards and Illuminators alike as the few guards who still did their rounds found several firework rolls to be missing. Having familiarised herself with every twist and turn of the streets years ago, she managed to shake them off, even if barely. As was agreed upon, she left several rolls in the agree location, taking two of them for her own, though her intentions were not trying to resell them on the black market...
 
It was time for the final phase, the moment of truth. She had learned that the noble who had sent the men and her father's former employer had decided to meet, them being the only ones that knew of the connection between the killings. She had looked at the building numerous times before, had even managed to slip inside on occasion, and knew the way it was built. Though initially a mansion, it had been outfitted with bars in front of the windows at ground level and first floor and a relatively low amount of entrances to provide protection from assassins. Ironically, it would be this protection that would become their downfall.
 
Sneaking in again, she killed the door guard with no hesitation, no remorse. She had taken the powder from the arrows in one of the rolls the night before, placing them in a large pouch, which she now took out from under her cloak. She made some preparations, hiding the second roll in the hallway itself before locking the door and sabotaging the lock.
 
Rebecca swiftly ran to the other door, knocking on it. As the guard opened the peephole, a long knitting needle found its way through his eye and into his brain, after which she simply unlocked the door with the keys she carried. Using what remained of the pouch, she spread out the powder in the hallway, taking a lantern from the spike near the door.
 
Then she lit the powder, setting the entire hallway ablaze.
 
Of course, both the roaring sound of a fire breaking out as well as the smell of smoke alerted the guards as well as the people inside. By then, she had slipped out again, locking the door before running back to the first entrance. People were pounding on the door now, muffled screams for help telling her they had discovered the keys were missing. She heard a sound behind her, and winced. One of the guards posted outside had spotted her now, and had alerted two others in the streets. Advancing on her with a sword, they ordered her to drop what she was holding.
 
She did.
 
The lantern sprang to pieces on the tiles, igniting the trail of powder she had set out. The flame rushed back under the door, now partially askew from people trying to bash it in (or out, in this case), and reached the roll she had hidden in the hallway.
 
A bright flash, followed by screams, then silence. Not that all escape had been cut off for those inside, Rebecca turned back to face the guards, disturbingly smiling as she spread her arms like they had told her to. However, something unexpected happened then.
 
One guard fell, then another, crossbow bolts sticking out of their backs. The third, turning around, was just in time to see the dagger that killed him be implanted into his face. he stranger motioned for Rebecca to follow him, which she did as the fire was quite literally becoming a beacon of attention.
 
Once inside a house, the man explained that he was a Darkfriend, and that his group had been following her efforts for a while now. Though she didn't realy feel inclined to join up with a group of people, her curiousity was aroused by the skill they had in keeping themselves hidden, as well as one or two goals they had she could relate with. Swearing the words, she then proclaimed herself to the Shadow at the same moment flames started to break through the mansion's roof.
 
There were no survivors.
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