About Kazi RoseKazi is currently in an IRL Rise of the Runelords campaign. At the time of writing, she and her allies are making a second foray into the Thistletop goblin camp, after disaster struck on their first mission and her friend Lanliss was lost. ------------------------------- As far back as young Kazi could remember, she had lived with Camres Boleran. Her room was a small, cheerless cell in a perpetually dark basement; her meals were uninteresting and her clothes sturdy enough but shabby compared to the impeccable finery Camres wore; but she was grateful, for she knew that no one but Camres would be so kind as to keep her and raise her. Her greenish complexion, small tusks, and thick, muscled build marked her as a monster, and Camres told stories of the cruel, uncaring societies outside his manor where aberrations like her would be mocked, bullied, and cast out. When she was younger, she had walked among the other cells in her master's basement, which he used to operate a hospital for those recovering from grievous injuries. But as time passed, she saw the occupants recoiling as she passed, scrambling away even when weakened and in pain from the injuries they were recovering from under Camres' care. As time passed, she wandered the corridors of the sublevel less and less, resigned to the fact that an aberration such as her could never be accepted; Camres' dutiful, if detached, provision and protection was the best she could hope for, and absolute loyalty to him a small price to pay in return. ------------------------------- One night, as she lay on her bedroll, she heard something coming from one of the cells in the hospital. She could hear words, but the sound that made the words was moving in a strange, almost enchanting way. Kazi had never heard anything like it before, but it was the most beautiful sound she had ever experienced, even though it was punctuated with pained gasps and sobs. Intrigued, she began to wander the corridor in search of the source. She found a female half elf sitting in her cell, knees hugged to her chest, tears rolling down her face, covered in bruises and cuts. Even torn and slashed as it was, Kazi could see that her gown was beautiful, simple but graceful with a songbird holding a trailing vine of roses embroidered along the neckline. Kazi had a kind heart, and seeing the half elf in such pain and despair moved her deeply. "Excuse me," Kazi timidly asked, "but what do you call how you talk? I've never heard it before." At Kazi's voice, the half elf looked up, shrieked, and backed further into her cell. "Please! Tell Boleran I know Father missed paying, but we'll make it up, I swear! Please stop, don't do this!" Kazi was thoroughly bewildered. "Do what? I just heard your pretty talking. It..." But the half elf continued to wail and gibber, and Kazi just stood confused. Tears began to roll down her own cheeks. "Your pretty talking make me feel..." Lost for words, she suddenly began to sob, and slumped to the ground at the entrance to the half elf's cell. "You sounded sad...I just wanted to see if I could...help you feel better...help you not be sad...but no one ever...ever lets me..." For a moment, she lost herself in grief for her loneliness; but then she noticed that the half elf's chorus of despair had ceased. She looked up to find wonder and confusion in the half elf's eyes. "You...you really...how could you..." The half elf's words stumbled over each other. Finally, she managed, "You don't know. I don't know how, but you truly don't realize..." Kazi's crying stopped. "Realize what? All I know is that people get scared when they see me, that I'm an ugly green monster, that no one ever likes me. My master brings hurt people here to take care of them, and I just wanted to help them feel better, but they run away, they won't listen...I just want them to not be sad anymore..." She dissolved into sobs again. The half elf's eyes grew wide as Kazi continued to speak. Then, as Kazi's tears subsided, the half elf spoke softly. "What's your name, little one?" One last, small sob escaped the child's lips. "Kazi." "Kazi. That's a beautiful name. Well, my name is Mellara, and the talking I was doing is called singing. Would you...would you like to hear more?" The half elf's kindness stunned Kazi, but she managed a small nod. "Yes. I like it a lot. It's the prettiest thing I've ever heard." A ghost of a smile crossed the half elf's lips, and she began a new tune. Kazi sat at the entrance to her cell, listening enraptured until she dozed off, still sitting against the wall with a grin on her face. ------------------------------- Every night, Kazi would walk over to Mellara's cell. At first, Mellara sang on her own. But on the second night, she began to teach Kazi as well, the child's low, rough alto tones mixing with the half elf's high soprano. Kazi began to notice other occupants listening, even joining in from time to time. Mellara asked for parchment and charcoal, and when Kazi brought them, made a drawing of a beautiful human woman, holding a charcoal stick of her own to an easel and surrounded by birds and roses. "Who is she?" Kazi asked. Mellara smiled. "She's named Shelyn. I teach about her, and she inspires me. She's the goddess who taught people how to make beautiful things, like songs and drawings. She also teaches people how to love each other better, and how to see each other as beautiful both on the outside and the inside." Kazi frowned. "I'm not pretty. Not like you. I'm a monster. My master told me so." "Once, I would have agreed with him, Kazi. But you're kind, generous, caring, loving. On the inside, you're as beautiful as the goddess herself." No one had ever called Kazi beautiful before. There was more care and affection in a night spent with Mellara than there had been in a lifetime under Camres' dominion. She began to weep. Mellara reached out her arms, and Kazi leaned into them, the first embrace she could remember. ------------------------------- "How...how...WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" Kazi awoke to pure horror. The last thing she remembered was waiting on Camres at dinner and then eating her own small meal, but she found herself standing in the big room in the middle of the basement, with the large stone table in the center. Mellara lay on the table, bound by hands and feet and covered in bruises and welts that had not been there when Kazi had seen her the night before, a look of terror in her eyes. Camres stood at the far end of the room, his usually cool, collected demeanor gone, replaced with a seething rage. Kazi reached toward Mellara to comfort her, but stopped mid-motion in shock. She was holding a whip in one hand and a sap in the other hand, and her dress was spattered in blood. "Melly? What's going on?" Kazi whimpered. "Behind you!" Mellara shrieked. Kazi whipped around to see Camres charging, balling up his fists. Suddenly, though she could not recall ever using either of the weapons in her hands, she struck, her weapons seeming to move almost of their own accord, entangling the tall man's legs and striking his head. Camres fell to the ground and did not stir. After staring at Camres for a moment, appalled at attacking her master and protector, Kazi looked to the half elf, still lying prone on the table. Then she came to her senses and ran to Mellara's side, undoing the knots that held her friend's hands in place. "Melly? What happened? Who hurt you? Why was I holding those awful things, and how did I know how to use them? Why...was my master going to hurt me?" Mellara enfolded Kazi in her arms. "Oh, sweetling. Oh, I'm so sorry." And between Kazi's sobs, she told Kazi everything. How Camres Boleran was not a kind, caring noble uplifting and maintaining his community, but a crime lord, cruelly oppressing and extorting those under his influence in exchange for supposed "protection" from thugs he sent to keep everyone under his thumb. How the cells surrounding Kazi's were not a hospital for providing charity to the weak and injured, but a prison where Boleran would hold those who had offended him or failed to provide the bribes he had demanded. And how Kazi was not merely his ward, but his enforcer, responsible for violently punishing those Boleran held and using the threat of further violence and the weakness from their injuries to keep them in captivity. "But I...I never...I..." Kazi stuttered. "Dear girl, I know," Mellara murmured. "I see everything now. You're a half orc - do you know what orcs are?" Kazi nodded. Camres had told her stories of their savagery, and she had noticed how many physical traits she seemed to share with them. "No race is all bad or all good, child. But orcs are by nature strong, impulsive, often violent. You have those instincts inside you as well, but you don't consciously act on them; you're too kind and sweet to wish that kind of harm on others, especially someone who's never done anything to you. Boleran must have used magic to tap into those instincts, controlling you and forcing you to hurt his captives, without you even realizing..." Mellara held Kazi tighter. "It's not your fault, sweetling. His magic was strong - I've known people much older and stronger than you who were held under his sway." Kazi suppressed her sobs. "But...why did I know this time? How did I stop, if he's so strong?" Mellara smiled through her tears. "Because it's hard to convince you that someone deserves pain, when that person is your friend." ------------------------------- Kazi stared at her former master's fallen form. She could see his chest rising and falling, but he still did not move. "Melly? What's wrong with him?" "When you hit his head, it knocked him out. He's still alive, but he can't wake up right now." "So I didn't...kill him?" "No. He'll be all right. But come, we must hurry." "Why?" "With him unconscious, we have time to escape. You and I can get away from here; you can be free of him. You don't have to hurt anyone ever again." Kazi smiled, then frowned. "But what about the others? They need to leave, too! I won't leave them here!" Mellara smiled at her young friend. "You are indeed a beautiful little girl. Let's go get them." ------------------------------- Only two other cells were occupied. A tall, graceful elven man stood when they approached and leaned on Mellara's shoulder for support, while a halfling woman was still too weak to walk on her own. Kazi picked up her petite form, and the small group set off through the house. Just as their party reached the door, though, Kazi heard a primal scream from the lower level, and Mellara's face paled. "He's awoken. We'll never get away quickly enough." Kazi's mind raced; then suddenly, she knew what she had to do. "Yes, you will." "Kazi, you can't mean..." "It's me he wants," Kazi stated. "I turned on him. If I go back, he'll take me, and he may forget about you." "You, you can't...I can't..." "You have to!" Kazi hoisted the halfling onto Mellara's back. "Go now!" "But..." "GO!" ------------------------------- Kazi watched Mellara disappear into the forest with the elf and halfling, when suddenly a whip cord snaked around her ankles, and she fell to the ground with a thud. Camres' manic face loomed over her. "I'm going to enjoy this." ------------------------------- Mellara pushed as fast as she could, carrying the halfling and supporting the elf, until they reached the nearby town. She was so exhausted she could barely stand, but she managed to gasp out a plea for help. A physician came out and began to tend to the halfling's wounds, and others gathered around Mellara as she sat fighting for breath. But in a town that had been under Boleran dominion for so long, Mellara's plea for help in rescuing Camres' monstrous, cruel enforcer fell on deaf ears. "Please, you don't understand! It wasn't her fault - he forced her to, he controlled her!" Disgusted, many began to turn away. But one voice spoke up - the elf who had joined Mellara in her flight. "It seems impossible, but it's true. The girl's no threat. It's because of her that we made it out; she gave herself up so we would have a chance to run. The spell he used to control the girl was flung back at him when she threw it off - he's mad with rage at the girl, seeing nothing else. This may be our best chance to take him out for good, and if we don't act quickly, that brave little girl may pay the ultimate price." Slowly, the townspeople turned back. One offered a hand to help Mellara up, and several voices of past victims rang out, volunteering aid. ------------------------------- The townspeople stormed the house and found the basement cells, coming upon a grisly sight. Camres lay unmoving on the floor, dead when the rage from his rebounded spell consumed him. Kazi lay bound on the stone table, but she had been subject to no mere whipping; a long knife glowing with a faint aura was in Camres' cold hand, and horrific cuts covered Kazi's still form from head to toe. Mellara fell on the girl's body crying, convinced her friend had perished; but a faint heartbeat still continued, and she could feel soft breaths on her cheek. Some people fashioned a stretcher, and exhausted as she was, Mellara insisted on bearing one end all the way back to town, supporting her fallen companion. ------------------------------- Kazi now serves in the Shelynite order of paladins, having adopted the faith that held out its hand in the form of a frightened half elf who chose to redeem instead of revile. The scars of her final encounter with her former master never diminished; the knife Camres used was enchanted so that such physical reminders would never be left behind, and the emotional toll has left her shy and retiring, nervous around those who may misjudge or condemn her. But Shelyn teaches that all can be redeemed. Kazi's scars are surrounded by and incorporated into beautiful tattoos, changing the ugly shapes into graceful, flowing forms of roses, songbirds, banners, and brushstrokes. Her past experiences have made her strong, enduring, and above all, caring. She now devotes herself to the pursuit of caring for the hurts of others - her lifelong wish. She still knows nothing of where she came from before the Boleran estate, but Shelyn has given her a new family; and if people find it strange to see a half orc embracing the half elf she calls Mother, Kazi will gladly share the story of how she was brought from darkness to light, and the incredible healing that love can bring. |
