Leiea

Leiea is the protagonist of Gift and an important character in Anew. She is a trader, traveler, and saleswoman alongside Sheyric after graduating before settling down in her rebuilt village.

## History

### Before

In her early life, her father, Ailpein, abandoned Leiea and her family and fled to the North. He only returned once or twice, and always came back with two large sled dogs that scared Leiea. This sparked a hated for her father.

Leiea was a student, where she met Ryn, her first and only real friend there, because most of the other girls her age where bullies. Both she and her sister were victims of Lorietta and her gang. Leiea was also the main provider for her family, hunting and making most of their money. During the winters, she and her family took care of people nearing death from the cold. She also got food for many people in her village at these times, and people throughout the village grew to trust her deeply.

### Gift

In Gift, Leiea and Fleya are introduced in the forest, where Fleya later gets attacked. This starts a fear of the forest Leiea never had before. Ryn helps to two of them back home in the village.

Soon after, Leiea encounters Lorietta in the market and she takes Leiea to meet her brother Sheyric, a luxury trader. He gives Leiea an expensive emerald for free.

Leiea, still a school girl, graduates at age 17. She gets 12th and Ryn gets 2nd. After the graduation, Sheyric asks if she wants to join him trading around Kiira for her career. She’s left conflicted, wanting and needing the money, but not wanting leave for family for the majority of the year. Eventually she does agree, and Sheyric begins teaching her geography, bartering, trading, and more regarding the job. During this time, Leiea finds Ryn, who proposed to suggest her a job, finding him mad about forgetting his promise. This leaves a stain on their friendship when Leiea reluctantly leaves for Karyk with Sheyric.

In Karyk, Leiea meets Plei, a motel owner and Sheyric’s friend. They stay in her motel for their time trading. Leiea makes for first real transactions and trades in this village, namely a huge armoire for a chunk of gold and some coins. They give this to Plei was payment and soon pack up their stall to leave for Galerus. While packing, they encounter a mysterious man with a huge predatory bird. Sheyric says he knows this man, that he saw him in the same spot years ago. That years five school teachers, one of them his grandmother, where killed by unexplained means. From then, he took this man as an omen of death.

They continue to Galerus frightened. In this city, Leiea stays secluded in the caravan and Sheyric becomes overwhelmed by the chaotic crowds. Soon into their stay, Leiea takes a walk around Galerus and encounters a strange old woman telling her to flee home. This scares her but agrees, considering what Sheyric also said about the bird man. They pack everything up again and leave for home.

The work going back is slow. They stop in Karyk again for supplies and Sheyric sees the bird man again, briefly. Leaving Karyk, the caravan is ambushed by dozens the man’s strange birds. They kill Lothain and injure Sheyric badly, with burns and scratch marks. He attacks the birds back with a rifle, killing most of the ones feasting on his horse. Leiea grows mad at him for killing them for no reason. She gives him back the emerald, saying it caused this. She doesn’t know what he did with it.

On the way, they meet Sheyric’s old friend and fellow trader, Saena. They make a deal to trade one of her race horses and horse tack for Sheyric’s caravan to make it home faster. Leiea is surprised that he is willing to make the sacrifice, but agrees. From there, Leiea rides on their new horse, Craith. They are forced to leave most of their things behind.

Sheyric lead them to where the village would be. In its place are ashy ruins, everything burn to to the ground. They try to salvage things from it or find bodies but nothing is found. However, in the dirt, Leiea finds the charred remains of a locket Fleya had, that Sheyric gave her. They’re forced to move on from the conditions.

Further west from the ruins, they find an encampment. Roughly 40 people survived the fires and gathered enough supplies to continue building. Most of the tents are medical, full of fatally injured people and nurses. Leiea is overjoyed to find Ryn alive dispite the argument they had, although no one in her family survived. Soon, Leiea starts helping in the medical tents, where she meets Vaeic, and Sheyric goes hunting for the starving people. He returns with two deer and they immediately cook it for the survivors. There, Leiea meets Hania and Sheyric meets Therin again after many years.

Leiea forced Sheyric into creating some sort of team to investigate the forest for the fire birds. He agrees and the two of them find a few people to join it. Leiea gets Ryn and Vaeic, while Sheyric gets 4 others.

They meet in a tent where Sheyric explains to them the story about the fire birds and the connections to the village fires. Leiea’s father, who she always figured- and wanted- to be dead appears in the door, the friend Sheyric said he was staying with in the encampment. She recognize each other easilly but completely avoid talking or interacting. Hania comforts Leiea and holds her hand.

The day after at sunrise, they leave for the forest, armed with weapons. Although it was her idea, going into the forest still scares Leiea and Hania calms for again. A few hours in, Sheyric and Therin find the clearing the forest Sheyric said he saw the fire birds in whole hunting. Many birds are there, all of them attacking the team. Sheyric, Therin, and Ailpein get the most injured. Walking out of the place, Leiea finds the emerald sitting in the soil. She blames Sheyric for setting it up.

A few days after, Hania finds Leiea. They talk about what happened in the forest and kiss. At the same time, the encampment gets ambushed by the fire birds again. They escape the tent and make it to the fields, as well as most other people. Leiea, Sheyric, Ryn, Hania, and Vaeic get together, but are intervened by the mysterious bird man. Leiea is transported to a small room with the man also in it, sitting in a wooden throne

There, he tells Leiea his plans. He has been tracking he for the emerald. Jewels, crystals, and even stones carry a sort of magic that can be drawn out of it. The more perfect the thing is, the more power it has, and the emerald is extremely wanted for that. He used the power to create animal species, as his goal is to overthrow human civilization with these animals. He stores the animal and plants in the forest, slowly expecting and and boosting it’s growth as the animal populations grow. He always explains that these jewels harbor traits that are projected onto the person wearing it. However, the most flawless the thing is, the more doom is to come into the wearer’s life.

Most notably, the man reveals himself to be Firyah, the king of Kiira, which is how he has the materials to reach his goal. He was known to be a mysterious and inactive king, which is how many people didn’t know or recognize him.

When he’s finished with his speech, he sicks a large fox on Leiea to attack her. Instead, the fox immediately likes her, and Leiea compares the fox’s behavior to that of a dog. That angers Firyah and he brings out a wolf to attack her. The wolf is unable to reach Leiea, and the fox attacks and kills it to protect her. Firyah transports her back into the empty fields, the fox still there. Her finds the survivors recovering on one side of the encampment’s ruins.

Sheyric tells her that something is coming out of the forest. Soon, large and mutated animals emerge over the horizon. Most able-bodied survivors go out and wage war on the creatures. Leiea stays back but us attacked by a huge, cat like animal. She suffers a concussion and puncture wounds on her head and back, unconscious for three hours.

Dispite these injures, she runs out into the fields, finding it close to lacking both people and animals. Sheyric finds her and kisses her. This angers her and she punches him, then running out to find Hania. She finds her with both Therin and Vaeic, who doesn’t like that Leiea is running with a concussion. In the distance, they see Ailpein being attacked by wolves, similar to the one that was targeting Leiea. The wounds he suffers are fatal, and they don’t bother saving him. Leiea is unbothered by the death of her father, but disliked the idea that she is officially an orphan. She takes the sword he was wielding and tells Hania what happened with Sheyric.

Therin spots Firyah again in the distance. The king captures him and Hania, as well as Leiea, telling her that they’re going to search for the emerald in the forest. His Ildful, the fire birds, collected the jewel from where Sheyric left it behind and stored it there. At this time, Sheyric, riding Odenne, finds the scene and attempts to shoot Firyah. Using his power, he catches the bullet in his bare hands and transports Sheyric completely away from the area, likely to Florithe. Leiea is crushed, knowing he is dead or going to be. Shortly after, he does the same to Therin. They walk in the forest for an hour before Leiea admits to knowing where the emerald is, just not knowing what part of the forest it’s in. She describes it to the king and they teleport to the spot. The kings finds the jewel where she left it and there teleport back, to the fields this time. She tries to escape, but the king’s main Ildful, Soteseg, attacks her. Hania recuses her on Odenne and shoots the bird, returning Ailpein’s sword to Leiea.

Firyah approaches them and Hania shoots an arrow into the base of his neck. The king kills Odenne, making them fall, and Hania tried to shot him again, but the king keeps her from moving. Leiea rips the arrow out of his shoulder. He falls down and she puts the tip of the sword on his ribs. Firyah gives up the fight and kills himself with the sword. Hania and Leiea walk aback to the encampment’s ruins with Craith, leaving the king’s body in the fields.

Its revealed in the epilogue that Ryn, Crevan, and Vaeic made it out alive. The group of roughly 20 survivors sent out a trader for supplies, coming back with enough to start anew. Vaeic chose a spot northwest of the village, at the base of the coastal mountains, and Leiea named their new village Raencalia. Over four years, the population grew dramatically and, although unmapped, built up fast.

## Relationships

### Sheyric

In Gift, Leiea is given an emerald by Sheyric and is later hired by him for his business in luxury trading. He teaches her about geography, trading, traveling, and bartering before leaving for Karyk.

There, they share a room in Plei’s motel and trade together in Karyk’s market. Before leaving the village, they encounter Firyah for the first time and are later ambushed by his Ildful. Leiea cleans his wounds afterward and frequently until they are healed enough. After this attack, Leiea becomes seclusive and the two of them grow more on edge.

Like Leiea, it is shown that Sheyric is passionate about the village and the people there, sacrificing his caravan to reach it faster.

Although they have different personalities and interests, Sheyric is kind and generous to Leiea from the start. The attitude changes through the story, but their friendship strengthens. Leiea revels to Ryn that, at first, she had a crush on Sheyric, but it was quickly diminished.Sheyric said he remember Leiea from school and liked her from then on. When he kisses her, Leiea is taken aback and angered, but says she doesn’t want to not be friends with him.

Sheyric and Leiea together created the “venture team” (although she didn’t agree on the name), and recruited a few people each.

When Sheyric is teleported to Florithe, Leiea grows distraught. Even years away in Raencalia, she waits for him to return, expecting each knock on the door to be him.

### Hania

Leiea first meets Hania when she offers to help in cooking deer Sheyric hunted for the encampment.

Later, Sheyric finds and asks Hania to join their venture team. During that meeting, Leiea and Hania sit together. When Ailpein appears at the meetings, Hania comforts Leiea and holds her hand, making her blush. Hania frequently calms Leiea in stressful situations and holds her hand, unafraid of what other people think about it.

Before the encampment is ambushed by the Ildful, Hania and Leiea kiss in her tent.

### Ryn

Ryn is Leiea’s friends from school. Although they were not very close, Leiea would be with him to avoid other girls in her class, such as Lorietta. At their graduation, Ryn promises to give Leiea a career opportunity. When she takes up on Sheyric’s instead, he grows angry at her. Before Leiea leaves the village, they never said goodbye, and their last conversation was an argument. It’s not explicitly said, but it’s likely Ryn had a crush on Leiea, considering how mad he was that she was following another man for her job,

When Leiea returns to the encampment, she discovers Ryn still alive. They push aside their arguments from before and became closer friends then they were before, even sharing a tent. At this time, Ryn reveals his suggestion for her career would’ve been weapon making.

### Fleya

Fleya was Leiea’s younger sister. They are very close and love each other’s company. One reason Leiea is so distraught about leaving on the trade route with Sheyric is leaving Fleya alone. When Leiea returns to find the village burnt down and her sister dead, she blames Sheyric for all of it.

## Personality

Leiea is generally kind, hardworking, protective, and loyal. In the village, she was widely trusted from caring for people during the rough winters. When Fleya was attacked in the forest, a fear of the place developed. She placed 12th out of 29 during her graduation, in the middle ground. At times, she can be snarky, and she seems to take on from her father in talking minimally and secluding herself.

She was reluctant to join Sheyric in his job and panicked when the time came to leave. Meeting Firyah in Karyk and being ambushed by the Ildful made her stressed and seclusive for the rest of the route they took.

In the encampment, she took to helping those injured by the fire, putting her (minimal) knowledge of healing to use.

Although admitting to liking Sheyric when first meeting him, Leiea began crushing on Hania, and vice versa. Behind the scenes, it was said that being around Sheyric so often made her desensitized to attractive men.

## Skills

### Swords

Leiea is shown to be skilled with swords. She learned the basics of how to handle one from a guard in the village. This came in handy when she’s forced to use Ailpein’s sword to defeat Firyah. Other than the use of swords, she knows little about combat.

### Hunting

Leiea is a good hunter, having to use it to help the village and her family in times of need. She would commonly hunt deer and rabbit in the forest before she became afraid of the place.

### Horse riding

Leiea is skilled at horse back riding, as shown when she and Sheyric are forced to ride horses back to the ruins of the village. However, she prefers to walk from place to place.

## Appearance

Leiea is a 22 year old (17 and 18 in Gift) with pale red hair similar to her mother’s, deep brown eyes like her father, and fair skin. Her hair was down to her ribs before it was cut shorter. Multiple thin scars run across her face from the Ildful Soteseg attacking her. She was stated behind the scenes to be 5’5, and has freckles in official art.

After traveling, her skin was paler and her face thinner due to stress and minimal eating and drinking, like she’s in a winter famine.

In her early life around the village, Leiea preferred to have her hair down and wear work clothes like boots and button up shirts, unlike most other women in the village. She often wore the emerald Sheyric gave her until she got rid of it.

In Anew, she looks older and, to Sheyric, her beauty rivals Lorietta.

## Etymology

The name Leiea comes from Leia, which means “heavenly flowers” and is of Hawaiian origin.

## Trivia

* Leiea is neptunic.
* She loves feeding wild animals, despite the waste of food.
* She suffers from hylophobia, the fear of forests, and possibly kosmemophobia, the fear of jewelry.
* She was 17 in the beginning of Gift and 18 at the end, meaning her birthday is in autumn.
* She learned from guards around the village the basics of swordfighting, mainly how to hold a sword. She uses some of these skills with Ailpein’s sword, although she doesn’t fight with it.

## Quotes

> "Go be rich somewhere else, it's sickening.”
>
> - Leiea to Lorietta, Gift

> "I left right before these things happened. I did have a bad feeling before I went, but that was just because it was my first time out of the village. There was no warning, and that’s why it makes it worse.”
>
> - Leiea, Gift