Vanessa

## Lore

*A Summer Dream*

Vanessa awoke on a tall tree in a cool summer night before dawn. She lay idly and swayed back and forth on the branches, thinking suddenly that she should write an epitaph for herself.

"Vanessa Nightballad, High Elf Rebel, the Blade in Darkness, the Great Assassin of the Holy Light."

She read it silently before blowing dry the ink on the parchment. Then, she frowned and crossed out "Great" replacing it with "Glorious" . She smiled, but it still needed something.

Vanessa didn't think about the past very much. She was born into a prominent high elf family. Her father was an archmage in their tribe, and her mother was also known far and wide for her magical prowess. To the high elves, magic is the noblest of all pursuits, and so Vanessa was destined for magical greatness, or so she was told.

People believed that she would carry on the glory of her parents, grasping the mysteries of magic on an even higher level. And in many ways, Vanessa was the ideal student: she was enthusiastic, honest, vigorous, energetic, full of curiosity for all things.
She was not, however, interested in magic.

Therefore, while her father and mother had their noses buried in thick books deciphering complex runes, Vanessa would sneak out from their tower window and jump lightly down from the branches to the ground below. Her physical skill and dexterity was graceful beyond compare. Everywhere between heaven and earth became her paradise. She wallowed in the mud, climbed up and down trees, studied dandelion seeds, and watched ants move their homes from place to place.

She strolled through human cities and troll markets, playing pranks, causing mischief, and occasionally even using magic, with disastrous results. She also loved following bards and listening to their songs of distant heroes and legends. What was on that side of the mountain? What was on the other end of the sea? Vanessa was enchanted as she listened, always dreaming of one day being able to go see the remote lands described in those ballads.

Nevertheless, Vanessa was a high elf, the noblest, most elegant, and most charming race on the continent of Etryna. The high elves are blessed by the holy light and honored with an exceptional understanding of magic. This little girl rolling around in the mud? She was simply a black sheep!

As if by magic itself, Vanessa lived up to the whispered gossip and low expectations of her people and received the worst recorded score on the magic test. Her father was restless. On her 7th birthday, he solemnly gave her a gift he had carefully prepared -- a compact and exquisite staff -- and asked her gently about her dreams.

"Oh, daddy, I want to see a minotaur village! I heard they're all 9 feet tall, even the women! Oh, and they say an adult dwarf is even shorter than I am. Is that true? And they even live underground..." Vanessa rattled on excitedly, paying no mind to her father's increasingly contorted face. "...And they really know how to dance! I want to ask them to teach me to dance! Yeah, I know what I'm going to do! I want to be a vagrant! Then I can live in whatever city I want..."

"Good heavens, Vanessa, SHUT UP!" screamed her father.

That night, Vanessa ran from home crying, swearing that she would never come back.
Three days later, she was caught trying to steal a human's purse. In the chaos, she was grabbed by a pair of hands and spirited away. After finally stopping, she realized that those hands belonged to a troll child.

"What are you doing in a human town?" she asked while crudely gnawing on a piece of black bread given to her by the child.

"Me...what about you? You're a high elf, right?"

"Me? Hmph! I don't even want to be a high elf, I want to find a member of the Dark Pact! Then he can teach me dark magic!" she said indignantly.

The child stared at her blankly, a combination of curiosity and terror.

"Oh, the holy light hates me! It only likes elegant people like my father and mother. I don't want to belong to the holy light anymore!" she complained.

"How...how can that be? Of course the holy light likes you. The holy light is just and merciful. It loves all good people," said the child, with a solemn face.

Vanessa looked at him with surprise. "I heard that trolls don't believe in the holy light, no?"

"Few do. But I believe in it. Actually...I came here to search for the holy light. I believe that it will definitely accept me." The child's eyes flashed with an earnest light.

"But won't your tribesmen think you're strange?"

"Maybe they will, but who cares? I know this is right. To my race, I was born with some defects. I cannot gain strength. But I believe that the holy light can definitely help me. If I can become strong, I can protect my tribesmen, so I know this is the right thing to do. I know that both the holy light and the souls of my ancestors will trust me."

Vanessa chewed the black bread silently, having nothing left to say.

"You shouldn't learn dark magic, really. I heard that you need to trade the most precious things in life for those kinds of spells. Those who learn dark magic bear a painful stigma for their entire lives."

He paused for a moment before continuing, "And I think the holy light must especially like you."

"Why?" she asked curiously.

He looked down and suddenly stammered,"D-don't you know how b-beautiful you are?"
Vanessa could not help laughing.

How hilarious! Nobody had ever told her she was beautiful. They all called her a rude little girl wallowing in the mud!

She decided to return home, and agreed to take her father to the troll child in two days to teach him light magic. She wanted to help him find the holy light.

By the time they got back home, everything had changed. The Dark Spider Queen had attacked her city, and Vanessa's parents perished in the fighting.

When the elders heard her proposal to allow her troll friend to share in the holy light, they burst into anger and sealed her in a tower with layer upon layer of magic, hoping that she could soon fulfill people's expectations. Nevertheless, she lacked the skill.

Sometime later, Vanessa finally escaped. She followed her interests and took up the double-edged blade, becoming an assassin.

She traveled across countless mountains and rivers before finally reaching the minotaur village, and even danced with dwarves. True to her mischievous nature, she also enjoyed stealing things from people every once in a while, collecting a few miscellaneous baubles.
Many people feared her blade, while many others praised her beauty. She often stood in the shadows for the sake of combat, but no one ever doubted her faith. People always said, "Of course, the holy light shines within you."

--

Vanessa woke from her memories. The dawn had arrived. She stretched and prepared to start a new day's journey. At that very moment, she suddenly thought of the last sentence she should write on the parchment:

"A free and pious soul."

## Synergy

Umbralu

Krash

Ashley

Ariadne