Arianna Ravenswood's page

Ever since she was a little girl Arianna and her friends would pretend they were princes or princesses and living a life of privilege and luxury far away from the tumbledown shops and ramshackle apartments that were their everyday existence.
While Arianna's mother was working, earning a few coppers here and there, Arianna and her friends would be roaming the streets, looking for adventure. it was there that they met Finnegan, an older boy, who showed them how they could make some extra coin for themselves by taking things from shops and merchant stalls when no one was looking and bringing them to him.
Arianna was entranced by the older boy and soon began following him around like a lost puppy. Finnegan was amused by attention of the scrawny girl and soon began teaching her more "tricks of the trade" as he called it. First she just stood outside watching the street while he went in to a locked shop or apartment then later showing her how to pick a locked door or palm a trinket from a shop.
Things were great until one day Arianna found Finnegan's lifeless body in a pool of his own blood in an alleyway with the word "thief" carved in his forehead. Scared Arianna ran home to wait for her mother and never ran the streets again.
Things were good for awhile until one particularly cold winter Ari's mother came down with a bad cough. Unable to pay for a priest Arianna's mother insisted she would be fine in "a day or so". A week passed and things did not get better. One night Arianna's mother called her over to her bed. There she showed Arianna an old faded letter. It was a love letter from a man calling himself Marcus and professing his undying love to her. Marcus, she explained, was Marcus Wyndham a lord of a minor house in Restov. The affair lasted several months until Arianna's mother announced that she was pregnant. After that Marcus broke off the relationship and told her to never contact him again, or else.
The next morning Arianna's mother was gone.
After attending a pauper's funereal for her mother with a few friends an idea began to form in Arianna's head, she would take the letter to Earl Wyndham and he would have to recognize her as his granddaughter and take her into the family.
Using some of her last remaining coins, Arianna bribed some of the Earl's servants to get an audience with the old man. After reading the letter the Earl summoned his son Marcus, now a grown man with a family of his own, into the room to respond to young woman's allegations. After reading the letter something passed behind his eyes, something nostalgic, before he tossed the letter to the ground, denouncing it as a fake and a forgery and accusing Arianna of trying to extort money from him and his family. as Arianna bent to retrieve the letter Marcus called the family servants to escort her out of his house. After being bodily thrown out of the townhouse and into the street Arianna made her way home, curled up on the bed, and wept.
The next morning there came a knock on Arianna's door. It was a messenger from Marcus's son who asked that Arianna meet with him that afternoon at an nearby inn and that she should bring the letter so that they may discuss what to do about the matter. Arianna's heart leapt. Arriving at the inn at the specified time Arianna was escorted to a room in the back. Seated at a table was the Earl's grandson, as she stepped into the room the door slammed behind her. She turned her head to see two of the Wyndham retainers on either side of her. As they grabbed her the lordling stood up and approached her demanding the letter so they could end this farce once and for all.
Infuriated, Arianna could not believe what was happening to her. Who did this sniveling little coward think he was? She was his half-sister after all and she would not be treated this way. Her years spent growing up on the streets took over and Arianna managed to break free as she rolled out of way and sprang to her feet. Pulling a lead shotted sap from her bodice she cracked the noble alongside his head. Hearing something crack as she tumbled out a window and into the alley below Arianna landed on her feet and began running. She didn't stop running until she reached an old abandoned building she and Finnegan used as a safehouse. Pausing just long enough to grab some old gear that she thought she would need Ari headed towards the town's main gate.
Arriving at the gate and unsure of what to do next Arianna spotted two men looking over one of the handbills she had noticed about town advertising for explorers to go into the Greenbelt and settle it down once and for all. This gave Arianna an idea, approaching the men she said "What an excellent idea, huh?" grabbing each by the arm she said again "Let's be on our way". Physically guiding the two by their elbows Arianna led them out the gate and into their destiny. giving one last final look over her shoulder she thought "This is not over, I will be back. Oh yes, I will be back".