Mya Neils's page

Mya could only be described as the Sylph embodiment of a mouse. She is small, easily overlooked in a crowd, and quiet. In fact, quiet is an understatement; she doesn’t speak. It’s not entirely clear if she can speak or simply doesn’t speak, but for all intents and purposes she’s effectively mute. She was not intensely curious like most Sylph are, but she was highly observant of others. She did not like to be touched. She seems to have what could only be described as a permanent look of fright and reservation on her face, but her form is lithe and if anyone happened to watch her move they could almost call her graceful. This observation is astute if one were to play music around her. She was a beautiful dancer and it was clear that she could get completely lost in the music. Her movements were fluid as she danced with such control one could almost mistake her dance as dangerous if it weren’t so captivating. However, if anyone knew her story they would find it to be quite tragic, but no one has been around her long enough to know her tale.

She spent most of her childhood as a street urchin ducking in and out of dark alleys and tiny crawl spaces. She has always been incredibly flexible, so she could get into places few others could. This was especially useful for the times when she had to steal food to survive. This is partly where her observation skills came from. She was always looking to go unnoticed, and did for the most part of her childhood. However, one day in her early adolescence she was running by a traveling minstrel group playing a beautiful song. It had a steady rhythm that captivated much of the crowd, but none more than Mya.

She stood at the back of the crowd listening for no more than a minute before her eyes closed and she began to sway. The swaying began to grow and before long her eyes were open again, but she wasn’t herself. It was almost as if she was possessed by an otherworldly being and she began to dance. The movements were perfection, flowing like water, and witnessed by none save the minstrel group’s leader.

He was a business man above all else, and while he appreciated good music he was still more concerned about money than anything else. Seeing Mya dance left him in awe, but the awe changed to thoughts of gold within seconds. He had his bodyguards move to take her, taking advantage of her lack of awareness of the world around her. There wasn’t a struggle initially until the hands were around her waist and mouth. She snapped back into reality, but by then she couldn’t escape. The bodyguards took her around a dark corner, out of eyesight of passersby squirreling her away into the leader’s wagon. It wouldn’t be a leap to figure out that this is where she became haptophobic, being grabbed when she was at her most vulnerable state, existing in another world in her head.

It wasn’t long before she found herself dancing for the crowds as the minstrels played. She was a slave. Her only escape was while the music played she could be a different person entirely. She wasn’t entirely mistreated. She was always fed, never beaten, and had her own bed to sleep on, but it was clear that she did not have the option of leaving.

The troupe leader also found another use for her between shows. He noticed that every time he would go to her cart, she would frequently be found in the smallest of spaces and had a knack for a complete lack of movement. The first few times he actually thought she escaped. It soon turned into another idea, he could use her to spy and bring him information that she could sell. The lack of talking was a problem, but he figured he could teach her to write. He tried to teach her, but he never could tell if she was learning and she certainly never touched the pencil and paper he would give her to replicate what he tried to show her. At the very least he could interpret simple mimes from her, which isn’t quite as effective for reporting information she could gather, but it would have to do.

She took to the spying quite naturally. There is a very fine line between being unseen to spy and being unseen after stealing food. As the years went by she got better and better at remaining hidden, and her dancing even improved as well. Nearly 40 years into her captivity she began to almost look empowered when she danced.

As it turns out, a minor celestial being took pity on Mya and her tragic story. She began to feed the music of the heavens into Mya’s head. It was clear that Mya would never escape on her own, she was far too fearful, but music turned Mya into a different being all together. Not only did she feed music into Mya’s head she would plant subtle cues. Nothing blatant, just a flicker of light in Mya’s vision of a small tunnel she could escape by or a figment of a sound that would cause Mya to look behind her where she could see a break in a crowded street that was just big enough for Mya to slip through if she chose to run.

It took another 6 years, but all these subtle cues eventually brought Mya to a place where she was considering escaping. The celestial being took her chance and fed a powerful song into Mya’s head, one with a beat that shook Mya’s very heart, and spurned her to action. All of the years of Mya’s dancing, the smooth grace that would be easily described as turning her body into a weapon if it weren’t for how beautiful it was.

Mya opened the door of her cart. The two bodyguards that had long since replaced the original captors stood their guard as they always did. She stepped down the stairs, swaying slightly as she moved. The bodyguards were confused as they had seen her move this way before, but only when the music was starting to play and they could hear nothing. They’ve also never seen her leave her cart without being told to do so. One stepped up, reaching a hand out to stop her just as the music in her head reached a crescendo. She snapped into a flow like wind on the water, taking the bodyguards hand as she twisted. The twisting motion yanked his body forward in way that looked as if somehow his hand had been taken by a hurricane, spun him like a ragdoll, only to crash his head into the base of the stairs killing him instantly. The second bodyguard didn’t even have time to gasp before meeting a similar fate. She was free, and disappeared into the city they were camped next to.

Mya returned to a vagabond lifestyle she knew as a child, because as a free person she knew no other way despite reaching mid-way through her 6th decade of life. She slept on the streets in tight, dark spaces. She continued to observe everyone for clues about their intentions. However, unlike her childhood, she never reached a point of starving, as she knew she could earn money with the dance. Though, no one ever knew that the music they heard as she danced was different than the music she heard being fed to her by her perpetual celestial guardian always keeping a watchful eye keeping her safe if anyone tried to harm her again.