Appearance
Rei has always been a woman of modest appearance. Her short blonde hair, one of her strongest features, frames a pair of grey eyes and an otherwise unremarkable face. Prior to this week, she would have been wearing clothing to suit whichever identity she’d assumed, but is now reduced to wearing a rough pair of breeches and a loose fitting woolen shirt while in Branderscar.
Personality
Having spent her childhood as an urchin living on the streets, Rei was hardened at a young age. She lacks anything in the way of empathy, and is often aloof even to those she’s known for a long time. Under the tutelage of San, she has learned to use her cold, calculating intellect to make up for her lack of personal charisma. Over the years she has grown adept at manipulating people emotionally, and takes some pleasure in being able to deceive others successfully.
Background Synopsis
Rei was born in the slums of Farholde. Her mother died while giving birth, and her father abandoned at the local church, where she spent the first few years of her life. After finding she had a habit of walking off with items and skulking about where she wasn’t wanted, the church turned her over to an orphanage. There she continued to cause trouble, sneaking out and around town, getting into fights with the older orphans and so on. It wasn’t long before the orphanage decided as well that she wasn’t worth the effort, and eventually decided to turn her out onto the streets. Before they could do so, however, a man came to the orphanage and offered to take any problem children off their hands. Without thinking twice, they handed over Rei and sent them on their way. For the next few years she was handed from family to family, all of whom were fairly well off. She never knew how long she would be in a given household, but she was generally kept busy, doing chores, answering the door for visitors, etc.
Oddly enough, after her sixth or seventh foster family over four years, she began to notice similarities among all the families she’d been with. There were never more than 6 members, and they always seemed to share a similar set of personalities. Shortly after being handed off to another family, she managed to catch one of the foster family off-guard, and got him to respond to the name of the corresponding member of the previous family.
Surprised by the girl’s cleverness, the man took Rei to the basement that evening. There the rest of the family assembled, and after a brief discussion in another language, all turned to her. One by one they changed from their human forms into fox-like humanoids, which she would shortly learn were known as Kitsune. They introduced themselves as the last of the Shadows, and informed her that from this day forward they would train her in their ways. Asking their names, they replied that they were respectively Ichi, Ni, San, Yon, Go, and Roku, which they explained were numbers in their dialect. Names, they said, were a tool that could be used against you, and that from this day until the day she was formally initiated, she would be known as Rei, the number given to all initiates of the Shadows.
In the following years she was taught the art of manipulating people using her intellect, and learned the various tricks they used. While she wasn’t able to shape-change as they did, she was able to disguise herself effectively, and served in various capacities. The group would infiltrate noble families, gathering information and eventually replace them by assassinating them and taking their forms. Since the purges they’d been working their way quietly through various minor families, hoping to set up a chance to assassinate the King and his daughter. Originally the clan had been numbered in the dozens, and had been feared throughout Talingarde. During the purges, many of them were caught and executed, and the remaining six had vowed to take vengeance on the King for that.
After years of work, Rei and the rest of the Shadows had positioned themselves in place of one of a family directly, though distantly related to the King. It was with these identities with which they gained an invitation to attend one of the balls arranged by his majesty during the harvest festival. Two days before the event, however, they received a visit in the middle of the night by the Royal Guard, who somehow had been tipped off as to their identities.
Leaving the building in chains, Rei saw a woman speaking to the captain of the guard as they were being led away. As the woman made eye contact with her, she heard San mutter under his breath “Hachi” and spat at the ground. Had another member of the Shadows survived the purge? Why would she have betrayed them? Rei had many questions to ask, but she never saw any of her mentors again. Like her, they were charged with High Treason and sentenced to death by drawing and quartering. Since she was the only member of the group who had no innate magical abilities, however, her execution was held.
Now she sat in her cell staring at the ceiling, awaiting her turn to be executed in three days.
