Tori Dawson

**Tori Dawson** is the main protagonist of *The Guild Codex: Spellbound* series. A guilded of The Crow and Hammer, she also works fulltime as a bartender at headquarters—despite being a human with no inherent magical ability and no legitimate clearance to affiliate with any guild. She is currently registered in the mythic database under the guise of being a witch.

## Appearance

Tori has sharp hazel eyes—amber and brown flecked with green—identical to her brother. Her vibrant red curly hair reaches past her shoulders, though when straightened it hangs almost to her elbows. She also has bangs.

Tori has full lips and a creamy-pale complexion, her nose and cheeks dusted with freckles. She is regarded by several characters as being quite pretty. Her stature reaching five-foot seven, she is considered a taller-than-average woman.

### Familiar Mark

Her familiar mark is a small circle with a jagged rune in the center. More lines and runes radiate out from the design. Originally drawn in non-smudging waterproof eyeliner, in its place—once wiped off—is an exact replica done in shimmering aquamarine-pink. The familiar mark fades soon after it's drawn, though it is still visible to any Spiritalis mythic.

### Bound to Llyrlethiad

In the brief time Tori is bound to the Fae lord Llyrlethiad, she adopts spiraling azure runes over most of her skin. The glowing patterns begin from her palm to her shoulder and over the right side of her chest. They coil all the way down her hip and end at her right knee.

Llyrlethiad's possession causes Tori's eyes to glow like twin lamps. Her skin takes on a scale-like shimmer and Llyrlethiad's long, finned tail can be seen slashing behind her, only semi-transparent. Her fingers are tipped with his sharp claws.

### In Gear

Tori's mythic gear consists of sturdy, black leather pants and a long sleeved shirt with a texture reminiscent of Kevlar. Her leather jacket is designed with padded elbows and a myriad of zippered pockets. She's also equipped with a wide, polished leather belt lined with pouches that contain Hoshi in her dormant form, a wide array of sorcery artifacts and several alchemy bombs.

## Skills, Abilities and Weapons

Tori is not a mythic in the traditional sense. Though she is one-hundred percent human, she has utilized spell-imbued weaponry and artifacts repeatedly in the past, and, initiated by the guys—began a belated mythic training regimen shortly after her induction into The Crow and Hammer.

Prior to her vigorous combat training, Tori already had experience in the martial arts field, having taken a year of taekwondo as a teenager.

### Items

Before she'd stolen the Queen of Spades from a rogue sorcerer, Tori was armed with a purple umbrella and little else. It was later broken in a round of mythic fisticuffs, and Aaron purchased her a hot pink replacement. The new umbrella was later destroyed in the midst of another mythic battle.

She was formerly equipped with brass knuckles, a fall spell crystal, and an interrogation spell crystal, all—similar to the Queen of Spades—stolen from their original owners. Tori very briefly utilizes the Carapace of Valdurna before returning the renowned artifact of myth to Zak.

She was also gifted the mythical version of a paintball gun—its magazine inserted with sleep potion. She'd been given the weapon by the guys as an early Christmas present. Other potions she wields in combat are contained in spherical glass reminiscent of billiard balls—alchemy bombs she hurls in close range.

When all her artifacts are rendered useless in the wake of the Carapace, Tori resorts to using her brother's police handgun in lieu of her paintball gun. The paintball gun—not an artifact and therefore incapable of being wiped of magic—had been harbored longer than any of Tori's other mythical items up until she lost it in a showdown with a demon mage.

### With Fae Assistance

#### Hoshi

Tori can communicate with Hoshi through colours and images once they are bound. Hoshi can make Tori momentarily leave earth and enter the Fae Demesne: a semi-incorporeal state she'd never be able to access alone.

Tori's vision is altered to ripples of colour and Fae are reduced to shadowy figures. Humans, mythics included, have disappeared. Tori herself is completely invisible when Hoshi pulls her through to the other side—to all eyes but of other Fae and those gifted with Spiritalis.

## History

Tori was born in Peterborough, Ontario; daughter to Michael and Carol Dawson. Justin Dawson is her brother.

A large portion of Tori's life was spent in an abusive household. Up until she was sixteen, Tori lived under the same roof as her perpetually drunk father. When she was a child, he would physically and emotionally abuse her mother.

One night, when Tori was around seven, her mother came to her room, weeping, and told her she was going to leave. Swaddled in reassurance that their father would never hurt his children, she went off and—unbeknownst to them until much later—began a new family.

A week later, Tori's father struck Justin for the first time. The cycle of trauma and abuse continued, only now Tori's elder brother was the central target.

When he was fifteen years old, Justin finally ran away. Tori was left alone with her father, and from the age of ten throughout most of her teenage years, she remained. No social worker or seemingly competent adult ever acknowledged or understood her situation. Most who spoke to her father had believed him over the rebellious, lying, troublemaker daughter. All throughout her time with him, she'd never gotten the help she needed.

When she was sixteen, Justin reappeared and Tori fell under his wing. For three years, she leaned on him—until Justin applied to a police academy in Vancouver. When he got in, Tori ushered him to follow his dreams. With no other option, she was forced to move in with nearby relatives. It is insinuated her relatives weren't particularly kind people, and at least one—Aunt Leila—had tried exploiting both Tori and Justin several times.

Soon enough, her father began cropping up in her life again. Tori packed her bags in response and left for Vancouver, where she knew Justin was residing. For eight months before her fateful first shift at The Crow and Hammer, Tori slept on Justin's couch. After she began receiving a proper paycheck, Tori rented her own apartment and started living independently.

## Personality

Prone to impulsiveness, Tori is well-known for her outspoken, rash behaviour—oftentimes running headfirst into danger without a second thought. Spunky and quick-witted, she managed adaptation to the nuances of the mythic world fairly quickly.
In spite of the perils, she is willing to do anything—cross any line—for her loved ones. This includes lying, omitting crucial information, and betraying their trust. Though, when making a decision, she sticks by it fiercely.

Tori is stubborn. She doesn't let things go. In the past, if the situation was too much for her to wrap her mind around, her visceral thought process would involve denial. She would skirt around the issue. This was an ingrained response to the years of trauma and abuse she suffered at the hands of her father.

She has no qualms about committing minor infractions. Tori has embraced multiple times the fact that she's not a principled person—going out of her way to snoop through other people's pasts and dig up otherwise delicate topics. Her obscenely unsated curiosity has been acknowledged multiple times in varying degrees of grudging fondness. Despite her penchant to blur boundaries, she is described by Varvara to have a "pure, simple heart". When she does trust, she trusts fully and unconditionally. In the beginning, Tori was still raw from her past and the neglect she'd faced in her childhood. Overtime, she learned to lower her hackles, to trust in the people she was growing to love, to accept help from them when she needed it. Her fear of abandonment after a life of perpetually being abandoned hindered her interactions with the people around her, but through her adventures in the mythic world, she began to understand the extent of marrow-deep loyalty permeated not just within the workings of The Crow and Hammer, but among Aaron, Kai and Ezra.

## Relationships

### Ezra Rowe

*Main article: Tori and Ezra*

Tori is currently in love with Ezra. She confesses to him in *Lost Talismans and a Tequila*.

### Kai Yamada

*Main article: Kai and Tori*

Kai is one of Tori's best friends. She's very protective of him in relation to his crime-syndicate family.

### Aaron Sinclair

*Main article: Aaron and Tori*

Aaron is one of Tori's best friends. He and Tori dated briefly right off the bat, but broke up shortly after Tori's induction into The Crow and Hammer. They mutually agreed they were better off friends—and their relationship has only grown stronger since then.

### Justin Dawson

*Main Article: Justin and Tori*

Tori's relationship with her brother was precarious. After Justin realized the extent of Tori's mythic life he refused to listen and inadvertently cut off all ties with her for the remainder of *The Alchemist* and *Druid Vices.* He came back around in *Lost Talismans* to make up for his behaviour and Tori eventually forgave him.

### Zak Andri

*Main Article: Zak and Tori*

Zak was supposedly Tori's friend, though in the conclusion of *Druid Vices and a Vodka* they both acknowledge that he never was.

### Hoshi

Main Article: *Justin and Tori*

Hoshi is Tori's Fae familiar. She's quite fond of her. They communicate through pictures and colors.

### Twiggy

Twiggy is currently Tori's Fae roommate. Twiggy and Tori became roommates as a reluctant compromise brokered by the witch Kaveri (a fellow guild member) when Twiggy refused to leave the basement apartment.

### Robin Page

Tori had a vague dislike for her in the beginning; because of her Ezra was steering clear of The Crow and Hammer—and therefore Tori was seeing even less of him on top of his restricting "insomnia".
They partner up briefly on the questioning of a retired Demonica summoner.