Natasha Musashti was born into one of Magnimar's many Varisian families, although hers had a long history of giving birth to the magically inclined. Rather than making their living in fortune telling or magical services, the Musashti's instead indulged in normal business, at which they excelled not so much because they performed well, but because misfortune and mistakes never seemed to happen to them. Natasha's mother Irgratha used her gifts of second sight to help her husband avoid the mishaps running his shop of curiosities usually entailed, and his own knowledge of archaeology and history let him trade in some very rare items indeed.
As such, he was occasionally consulted by the Pathfinders in Magnimar, and it was through him that Natasha was first introduced to the society as a child. It was not until her eight birthday that her own gifts became apparent, when she turned a card of her mother's harrow deck and screamed a warning that "death follows the blade of blood!" Her concerned parents and siblings tried to console her, but she was hysterical. Not an hour later, a cloaked man approached her father with a magical sword he claimed to have recovered from a Shoanti tomb, a sword with a red cast to the blade, and blood rubies set into the pommel. The price was enticing, but remembering his daughter's warning Vagloro Musashti refused to deal with the man.
The next morning the stranger was found dead in an alleyway less than a stone's throw from the house and shop.
From then on Natasha learned the Harrow from her mother, yet seemed not to take to magic in the same way as either of her parents: she could neither grasp the book-learned spells of her father, nor the spontaneous arts of her mother. Only when a stray kitten chased a butterfly into the shop did her talents become clear, as she scooped up the kitten and calmly announced she was called "Butterfly" and had been sent by Desna. Certainly the cat had an odd set of markings, but to have been sent by a deity?
Natasha had no doubts as her dreams took her to strange realms, stranger even than her father's many arcane books. Sometimes it seemed that the magic moved her as much as she moved the magic. Soon she found the name for what she was: a witch, one who stands on the cusp of magic between the arcane and the divine.
At the age of fifteen she began telling fortunes for herself, finding ample clients among the children of the wealthy that occasionally bought from her father. Most were simple fates and some were satisfied with a mere patter of words and a flash of cards for their silver. One of them, a handsome young man of the Derexhi family, shook her to the core with the strength of the foretelling. Without warning she felt the first true touch of Fate, and words tumbled from her lips. It left her reeling, and the young man left before she could warn him of how close his first touch of destiny was. Recovering she chased him, and found him sprawled in the street, the sight upon him and his eyes stricken by the newfound sight.
With the help of her older brother Enrik she was able to haul him back to his house in the rich end of town, and bundle him over to startled servants and run before his family could be roused. Natasha often wondered what had become of the boy, but had scant time to do so. At her own request her parents had negotiated with the Pathfinders for her to journey to Absolom and learn to become one of the legendary explorers. There she found herself joining the ranks of the Harrowed society, and began to discover that the hands of destiny moved many pieces. She also learned a great deal of the arts of magic, and made many friends among the other students of the arcane there in the Centre of the World.
Recalled to Magnimar, she has rejoined her extended family, and her mother gifted her with the family Harrow deck. However her ship was delayed, and when she arrived at Heidmarch Mannor she discovered that a team were already active in the city, and she needed to follow them as swift as she may….
Appearance: An ordinary young Varisian woman, with dark curling hair and deep green eyes Natasha takes care to appear to be no more or less as an ordinary itinerant fortune-teller. That isn't saying a great deal as like any Varisian is happy to wear bright colors and fine cloth.
