Helen Paris

## Helen Paris nee Anthurium

Helen was born in Fasithe on 20th Feb 1560. She is the oldest daughter of Ebony and Carpus Anthurium and has two younger siblings, Elliot and Iris. She ran away from home in 1576 and ended up in Loburn. 10 years later she was married to Cyril Paris and had a pair of twins, Ivy and Charles.

## Personality

A bit chaotic and not always the most responsible or empathetic. She had enough of that when she was child. Still could adult nicely, but when she got buried into a project she could forget to eat. As she got older she mellowed and became more empathetic and motherly.

## History

### Early Life

Born the oldest of three siblings in Fasithe, the middle child being her brother Elliot, and the youngest her sister Iris. Her parents were, neglectful, out of blind faith.

The majority of Fasithe is good, following Nathan and Paultin. There is a section however, that while nominally follows them, actually follows the Phantom. Some of them know about Natemare, some don’t, there are inner factions. Helen was born into a cult that followed Phantom.

This was main reason for her parent’s neglect, it was out of ignorance rather than malice. They believed the Fae would provide, and raised Helen and her siblings with this doctrine. Helen mostly fended for herself, and later her siblings, and yet every success she learnt to the attribute to the Fae, rather than her own skill. You can imagine what this did to the self esteem.

Helen entered the cult proper at 14, making her deal. She hadn’t gotten much of an education, and that’s what she made the deal for, to learn and improve her mind. Later that year, she came across Paultin. He recognised that she was from the cult, and being in the trade of getting people out of Natemare’s clutches, asked quite bluntly what the deal was. Once she told him, he pointed out that she doesn’t need the Fae for that, that a human can help her.

He pointed her in the right direction, and Helen came across Alice Spewraith, who helped teach her numbers and letters. Helen dragged Elliot and Iris to these sessions as well. Two years later, having seen people she knew be taken (Perry and Niamh being among them) Helen finally gained the courage to leave and did so, leaving her family behind. She ran through the Western Forest and made it alive. She intended to run until she couldn’t run any further, having heard about the ocean. She made it Loburn, so close.

### Adult Life

She had passed out from exhaustion, hitting her head on the way down. Her sprained wrist had been from falling in the woods. Once recovered, she managed to get work in a greengrocers, improving her mathematical and literacy skills. She never mentioned her family, mostly from guilt of leaving, and a bit of hatred towards her parents. If she didn’t mention them, the whole thing with her past would disappear? To be safe, she found a hag stone on the river Airceann bank and wore it every October. People began to assume she was a Changeling, and she didn’t correct them.

She was close to the doctor’s apprentice, Cyril, who had initially cared for her when she arrived, and was upset when he left for Fionport, although they wrote to each other regularly. While he was away she became fascinated with what she could learn. She had a fascination with magic, as a holdover from Fasithe, but did not want to unlock it. She compromised and began to study alchemy. She joined Cyril in Fionport in 1580 and joined the Scholar's College to continue studying.

The two got closer, and marriage was discussed. Helen realised that if she trusted him to marry her, then she had to trust him with the truth. She didn’t say much, other than her name, where she was from, and that she had ran away. Cyril was understandably upset that she had lied this whole time, but came around.

They got married in Loburn in 1584 and moved into Cyril’s childhood home and practice. Two years later, they had twins, named Ivy and Gwendolyn initially, then Ivy and Charles.

The twins grew up and moved on, and in October 1602, she, Cyril and Charles went to visit Ivy in Monacoil. Helen spend the entire trip paranoid, having not been this close to the Western Forest in nearly 30 years. She wore her hag stone and black Hallows Eve robe (for scaring children) the entire time. It didn’t protect her, and she came down with what she assumed was just a cough.

It got worse, and worse, until she becomes too weak to do much on her own, and her husband and son were desperately searching for what’s wrong. Even her father-in-law, the previous Dr Paris tried to help, but he came up empty as well.

Charles left to visit Ivy in House Jameson in early 1603, and didn’t come back. Helen didn’t blame him. She wasn’t pleasant to be around this ill, frustrated at her weakness and petrified about what would happen when she passed. She suspected Fae involvement, but couldn’t prove it.

She was moved to the Iolla Sanitariums in late July 1604, with letters sent to Ivy and Charles informing them of what was happening. She passed September 1604.

Her soul was high jacked by two Fae discussing long pork sausages and she became trapped in Natemare and Phantom’s mirror maze.

She was buried on the bank of the Airceann river closest to Loburn, marked with the celestial symbol of the sun. She was described as a driven woman who loved her family.

She is currently still trapped and tormented in the Imagination Dimension.