Malka's page

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1 level
Detect Radiation, Magic Missile, Technomancy, Gravity Bow, Shocking Grasp, Identify, Mage Armor, Mirror Polish, Shield

Pre-Subject#7
Malka had lived at Silver Mount for as long as she could remember. Those that worked in the research labs at Silver Mount were required to live on site to mitigate spread of classified information. She had vague memories of a kind, older man who she assumed was her grandpa but she hadn’t seen him in over ten years. Her parents were nothing like him so there were times when she thought she must have made him up in order to comfort herself when she questioned why she wasn’t more like her parents and why she never really fit in at Silver Mount. Her parents were researchers at Silver Mount and worked for the Technic League studying machinery and magic. They were highly ambitious and had high expectations for their only child. When Malka showed signs early on of being gifted intellectually, she was immediately shuttled into proper schooling for her to learn how to manipulate metal by both magical and crafting means.

Malka studied hard because she was punished harshly if she didn’t. Her parents did not accept anything less than the top marks and often used physical and emotional punishment when she was less than perfect. The other children had no interest in being friends because they were always competing with each other for who was the best at everything. This pushed Malka to spend all her free time reading or practicing her magic and craft. Thankfully she had a natural curiosity which made her studies enjoyable and her intelligence caused things to come easy for her which eventually placated her parents. Even though books became her only friends, she still longed for a real friend whom she could talk to.

Close to the end of her studies, before moving into working in the Technic League’s labs, Malka was surprised when her parents gave her a petromin. She was told to take care of it and had assumed that it was meant as a pet. She knew that there was a colony of petromins bred by the Technic League at Silver Mount and so wasn’t surprised by the exotic animal. In her naiveté she had always thought they were bred to preserve the species since they were from another world. For months she took care of her new friend and gave it the name Blu. He seemed to like her as well and took to curling himself around her neck so that it looked like she was wearing a fur collar. Even though she knew he couldn’t understand her, she often found herself talking to him and treating him like the friend she’d always wanted.

One evening at home, when her parents thought she was in her room studying, she overheard a conversation that made her blood run cold. They were discussing Malka’s future and where they thought she would be placed once she killed that furry research specimen as part of her final exam. Apparently she wasn’t supposed to know that this was part of her final exams until the time of the test. It turned out that she wasn’t given Blu as a pet as reward for all her hard work but rather as a sadistic test. Part of her final exam would be to kill Blu. Technically the petromin was killed for research purposes and would be used during the exam; however, it was also a test for everyone becoming part of the Technic League to make sure that those with weak emotions were rooted out before they were given any important duties. If an unimportant, unintelligent animal couldn’t be killed to follow orders then the person couldn’t be trusted and needed to undergo more ‘training’. Malka quickly retreated back to her room and spent the whole night weighing her options. She knew that she could never hurt Blu but that also meant that she would be in serious trouble herself. Then she remembered that there was the breeding colony of petromins and concluded that all those other animals would also be killed if she didn’t do anything. In that instance she decided to figure out a way to free all the petromins and run away from Silver Mount.

Post-Subject#7
The day she decided to sneak into the laboratory portion of Silver Mount to find the petromins, radically changed her life. She knew her parents assumed she’d be studying and wouldn’t check on her so she snuck out with Blu in his usual place around her neck. She slipped through the halls undetected and made her way towards the area where she had learned the animals were housed. She must have made a wrong turn because when she opened the door to where she thought they would be, she was surprised to discover a caged human instead of petromins. He looked to be in rough shape even though he was alive. She took in the contents of the room and was horrified by what she saw. There was a table big enough for a body to lay on with numerous restraints attached as well as many instruments to make cuts and others that she didn’t recognize. Malka was shocked and could only conclude that the Technic League had to be experimenting on the human. It was bad enough when she thought only animals were being hurt but torturing humans was unthinkable. All thoughts of the other petromins faded from her mind as she now felt like she needed to free this person. Creeping towards his cage she began to whisper, ”Are you ok? Can you understand me? Why are you in there?”

Malka never got all of her words out before he reacted quite violently. She scrambled backwards with her heart pounding but she felt empathy for him which kept her from fleeing. She may have been physically caged or tortured but she had felt like a prisoner of sorts her whole life. After a few more attempts to talk with him, she realized that she had to leave and that she couldn’t do anything that night to free him. The Technic League had obviously shown him no mercy and had skewed his perception of all people. Thankfully he was being kept in a metal cage so she should be able to manipulate the bars to free him when the time came but she would have to gain his trust first. Even with everything he had gone through, Malka could see that he was strong and he may be helpful in getting them all out of Silver Mount before her final exam. Over the course of the next week or so, Malka would visit Seven nightly and bring him food. She also read up on anatomy and figured out ways that she could ease his discomfort without alerting his captors that he was being helped. In her other free time she investigated their best route for escape without detection. Thankfully the Technic League was so arrogant about their external security that they never put much thought into locking most things internally. This made Malka’s movements inside the facility easier but it would also make their final escape harder.

A few days before her scheduled final exam she told Seven when she visited that they were going to escape from Silver Mount. She had managed to ferret away some supplies and some tools needed to free him from his cage. Seven, Malka, and Blu would be leaving their prison.

The night of their escape arrived and Malka studied her plans once more while waiting for her parents to go to sleep before sneaking out with two packs full of supplies. She was extremely nervous but also excited about leaving. She had briefly researched where they would go and Torch seemed close enough to get to and they weren’t under the Technic League’s absolute control. Malka quietly made her way to Seven’s prison and managed to get his cage open with little difficulty thanks to her studies. She was taken a little off guard by the speed in which he exploded from the cage but her reflexes allowed her to recover quickly and she barely managed to stay on her feet.

She sped through the maze of corridors, with Seven in tow, having memorized every turn on her map. They were making good time and managed to avoid the guards with little difficulty. They were almost at the exit when they ran into serious trouble. Coming face to face with unexpected guards caused Malka to freeze momentarily while she thought of how to explain their presence. She took one step forward when Seven exploded with palpable rage beside her. Her mouth hung agape as she witnessed bloody carnage like she had never seen before. Terror welled up inside her and she questioned the wisdom in having freed Seven. She had never felt like she had been in any danger from Seven before but what she was witnessing brought that all into question. Maybe he had been in that cage for a reason and she had just projected her own feelings on to him. In that moment she wanted to disappear and she felt Blu letting her know that he would keep her safe in the shadows, he would help protect her. She frantically looked around and saw a shadowy doorway a little ways down an unlit hallway. She ran for the shadows and kept as still as she could. She thought about what to do next when she heard Seven’s voice calling out for her. She peaked down the hallway from her hiding place and he looked so lost and his voice sounded scared. Once again she felt her heart soften towards him and she also knew that he would be killed if captured. Deciding that they had already come this far and that she could always slip away once they had escaped if he proved dangerous to her, she stepped out of the shadows and made her way over to him. She pulled one of the guard’s access cards off his body so she wouldn’t have to use the one she’d stolen from her mother. “Quickly now. We don’t have far to go and someone may have heard that.” Malka found it hard to make eye contact with Seven. “Follow me.”

Moments later, the pair made their way outside. After a few steps out into the night Malka noticed Blu was glowing in the dark as usual, she mentally hoped that no one would see him and notice them. Surprisingly, Blu extinguished his luminescent light seconds later. It was in that moment that Malka realized that Blu could understand her and that she could understand him on a level that was deeper than with that of a normal pet.

Once they were clear of Silver Mount, Malka turned to him and asked, ”Are going to go home now?”

”You mean, back to the Doctors?? No!” he hissed, fearful she meant to turn back. ”They are bad, Malka. Full of hate and they want to hurt us and put us in iron beds. They’ll turn off the lights and whisper bad things to us and won’t feed us for a long time!” It didn’t occur to him that “home” might mean anything else.

Malka placed a comforting hand on Seven’s arm. ”No, not back to the doctors,” she said. ”We are never going back there because you are right. They are bad.” Seeing him relax she continued. ”Do you have someplace different to go? Maybe a family, a mom or dad?” He stared at her blankly, “a family, a mom or dad” meaning nothing to him. ”I have Malka. I will go with you.”

After traveling a little longer, they stopped to rest. Malka hesitated, then spoke up. ”What happened to you back there with the guards? Did the Technic league do that to you? Can you control it?” Again, Seven only stared. This happened frequently between them. Malka had learned by now that she often had to rephrase her questions in the simplest of terms. She did so now. ”They were bad. They tried to hurt us. I didn’t want them to.” He left it at that. Malka pondered what Seven had said and decided to trust everything else she had observed over that single incident. She decided to stay and get them both to Torch.

Malka had never been any significant distance from Silver Mount before. Having workaholic parents had kept them close to the Technic League labs. She had taken a map of the area in her things and eventually managed to find their way to Torch. Once they got closer, the blazing violet fire served as a beacon which made it a lot easier than Malka was expecting. Knowing that Seven could potentially be a hazard to others, Malka spent some time teaching him the basics of polite society before attempting to go into town. She was surprised that this didn’t take quite as long as she was expecting. As a reward for how far Seven had come in such a short amount of time, Malka produced a crudely stitched teddy bear from her pack. “I had almost forgotten but I managed to fix it for you. I thought you may want it back. I would have done a better job if it had been made of metal but I did what I could.” Malka realized her words sounded like ramblings to Seven but knew he had gotten the gist of what she had said.

They weren’t in Torch very long before it became obvious that they would both have to find work to pay for them to live. She was able to find work manipulating metal and even learned new techniques and was able to keep learning which she found satisfying. Thankfully the work wasn’t too physically taxing for her and that her boss allowed the physical work to be done by Seven. Being able to work somewhat closely with Seven gave Malka some relief. Their proximity enabled her to keep a close eye on him and make sure that no one took advantage of Seven and that Seven didn’t accidentally hurt any of the locals.

Malka has Kellid ancestry which is reflected in her coloring. She has medium length brown hair and dark brown eyes. She keeps her hair loose as she rarely participates in activities where her hair would get tangled. Upon first glance, someone may describe the wizard as delicate suggesting that there may be some other ancestry other than Kellid in her background. She stands 5’5”, dressed in navy blue working pants and shirt. Her cloak is also navy in color and she appears to have a fur collar around her neck most of the time which is Blu, her familiar. She uses a quarterstaff more as a walking stick than anything, and sometimes carries a light crossbow.

For what Malka lacks in physical robustness, she makes up for with her fierce intellect. She is naturally curious about everything going on around her and is always seeking to increase her pool of knowledge. She has a wide variety of interests but her main focus is metal and how it can be manipulated.

She has a soft heart and hates conflict which is surprising considering the environment she grew up in. Having had no friends while growing up, she is protective of Seven and Blu who are her first true friends. Even though she has a soft heart her intelligence allows her to objectively think about situations; therefore, she is not one to be ruled by her emotions.