Áine Ashe

**Áine Ashe** (Irish pronunciation [ˈaːnʲə] "Awn-ye") is a minor character in *Challenge of The Shadows*. He is a vision demon and selkie hybrid that wanders the North Desolates of Azuren.

A mute soul, he communicates through sign language after his voice was taken away by macha's owls, and due to this he cannot make loud noises, such as screaming, and commonly has to use a bell in order to make loud noises.

## History

Little about Áine's past is known, as he usually does not interact with many of the characters. Though, what is known about him is that he was born to a selkie mother and a vision demon father, though his mother had left after being consumed by the sea when giving birth to him, and his father had to go out at sea to retrieve him from going with his mother in the ocean by going in the deep end and swimming down so he does not lose him as well. After retrieving him, he became depressed and started drinking while attempting to take care of his child, but after a few years, he perceived his son as an evil being for taking his wife away from him.

Due to his mothers absence, his father began to grow a hatred for Áine. He would neglect him at first when he was a child, not showing him the attention and affection that he wanted. Being deprived of affection, Áine only had a lyre that his mother was preparing to give him as a birthday gift, and with this he had developed a passion for music, often isolating himself in order to cope with his loneliness that he could not resolve on his own.

as Áine grew older, his father began to act out by starting to abuse him verbally and physically because of his internal hatred for him due to him resembling his late mother much more than his father had expected him to. Because of the constant abuse at his home, Áine had attempted to keep distance from his father in order to not hear him screaming in his face. Unfortunately, the attempt had failed and he began to get dragged out of his room so his father could take his anger out on him because of his appearance reminding him of his mother.

Even though Áine's father did not abuse his mother, most of his hatred turned to his son due to seeing him as the sole cause of his mother's disappearance when he was born. According to Áine, his father would at times attempt to kill him via strangulation, but he could not bring himself to do so because he would have a perception flip that would make it seem like he was strangling his wife when he was not, ultimately making Áine fear his father.

After being abused for many years, Áine grew up mostly with no one to love him, not having a proper relationship with his father and often isolated himself by hiding under his bed or simply hurdling himself in the corner of the bathroom. He sometimes stayed outside to play his lyre, which created small, white sparks that appeared when playing his lyre float around him. However, when he was a teen, the tunes he made with his lyre had started to attract mysterious owls, often singing to the tune Áine would play. Seeing this, he found joy in playing music and found solace in playing his lyre. However, one evening while laying his lyre outside of the ocean, the owls returned and began to attack him, taking his voice in the process and leaving him permanently mute.

## Appearance

Áine is a tall man with a skinny build, standing roughly at 6'1 with long, white-beige hair that extends to his ankles and tied into a braid. He has ghostly pale skin with two colored eyes, one a baby blue shade and one white. At times, he is mistaken for a woman because of his facial features.

Áine's attire consists of his selkie coat, which is pure white and extends down to his ankles. Around his neck are gray scarves layered on one another with white detailing. Under his selkie coat and scarves is a long dress that covers most of his body with white socks and black shoes.

In his coat pockets, he carries multiple anesthetic needles that have the ability to knock someone unconscious without having to fight them. He often carries a white lyre, similar to Saorise's shell from the 2014 film, *Song of the Sea*.

## Personality

When introduced, Áine demonstrates to be a quiet, yet very intellectual and gentle soul who has a small passion for music. He commonly plays his lyre whenever he is alone, but has a hard time opening up to others because of him not having a voice, often keeping to himself and keeps contact with those around him as minimal as possible and often resorts to running away when someone does a rather threatening gesture with their hands or body language.

Due to his mutism, Áine mostly has to mouth his words or sign them with his hands, much to his annoyance and has a very strong desire to get his voice back. Even though he does not talk, he remains as polite and form as possible to not give a bad impression of himself to others through his facial expressions. He mostly uses body language and sign language to assist him in trying to get the words out.

Despite being silent, he has demonstrated to be rather obstinate at times, making various rude hand gestures for those to leave him alone and refuses any help from those around him, and when annoyed, he often resorts to using one of his anesthetic needles so he would not have to deal with anyone's antics. Áine expresses his dislike for being mute, often yearning to receive his voice back.

Áine has been described as having a rather charming beauty to him, as those who see him cannot resist to stare at him, and sometimes he could get mistaken as a woman because of his more feminine facial features. He uses his features to an advantage by getting the upper hand in many situations. With his looks, he is also a very intelligent man, using deception to trick others for falling for him.

## Abilities

**Overall Abilities:** Being both a demon and a selkie, Áine is both very powerful, yet very dangerous at the same time. Even though he appears relatively harmless on the surface, his abilities as both a vision demon and selkie combined can be seen as deadly due to having an alluring appearance of a seal, but the powers of one of the rarest demons. With both his looks and abilities, he uses both of them to take advantage of any situation, whether it'd be a fight or a simple encounter with another person.

**Immense Speed & Reflexes:** Áine, like all demons, possesses a superhuman-like speed, but is hindered when underwater. He has been able to out-pace many bounty hunters and soldiers in the past by utilizing his selkie form into luring soldiers in to hunt him before transforming back as a human and swiftly killing them. In his only scene, he was able to wiggle out of Ashton's arms when he attempted to hunt him while in the Northern Desolates with the rest of Team Strelitzia.

**Alluring Appearance:** Áine proves to have an alluring appearance, which he uses to his advantage in multiple scenarios. Because of his shorter structure and feminine proportions, he is able to use his appearance to take advantage of those around him and kill them.