Amelie, Psychic Detective

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/554505772869092439

Current

She has been making a living in the Kingdom of Vopror for several years now, learning the local culture and the religion of the 4-Faced God in order to fit in better, and attract less attention.

Clues/Leads

The four suspects are Lieutenant Sanay, Trainer Erok, Trainer Lassoin, and Quartermaster Garin. Erok is up first to be cleared, since he knows something is up with Amelie

Contacts

Baron Benbornt, Sheriff of Abliqua - Hired Amelie for this job

Background

Amelie had always been unusual, from the moment she opened her lavendar-pink eyes. She had the dark blue-black hair and pale skin of her people, but they had eyes of sky and spring grass. The spirits' touch was evident, too, in the way she played more with things than people, for all things had spirits inside them, and they were fascinating. This was a rare gift, and one her father knew could be useful if she learned how to use it well. He commanded her soul-bonded personal slave, and mentor Zeidan, to teach her the old stories of the secret-finders, setting her off on quests to find information as a game, and once she was old enough, she was given the relics of conquered people to find out their secrets while they were made slaves by her mother.

She grew up thus, and was expected to inherit the nomadic business, but when the spirits of the tools of slavery started speaking to her, she couldn’t do it. She still retains many of her attitudes from her upbringing however, being impatient, arrogant, and occasionally spiteful. Despite leaving the business, she still does not consider broken slaves as fully human. To her, a slave, even a normal one, has been reduced to useful tool. The Soul-Bonded, those that her family specialized in - and charged an exorbitant amount to those wishing to have one broken for them - well, how could anyone consider a creature with only half their soul to be human?

When she'd turned 18 and had finally been allowed to watch her mother perform the procedure on the conquered, but still proud and defiant prince of a small kingdom, into a half-souled creature unable to disobey the token-holder, she'd been horrified. It wasn't the result that made her ill, however; she was expecting that. It was that what looked like an elaborate (and extremely painful) magical ritual to the others, she could see for what it truly was with her lavender eyes. The spirit of the slave-token used to steal the soul shards was a dark, cruel thing, and the ritual didn't just draw the soul in two, it called the spirit out of the token to rend and tear it, even consuming the parts that struggled too hard, until enough of the soul could be pulled back to its home, where it guarded its hoard jealously. Through its connection, the token spirit could then feed on the now Soul-Bonded slave's struggles to free itself, its anger and fury. This had the useful effect of making them unable to properly express those emotions. Furthermore, the Bond Owner, who held the token, could awaken the spirit with a specific gesture unique to each token, (encoded onto each in a secret language that only her people could read,) in order to punish the half-souled slave.

Seeing this, Amelie knew she had to leave. She took the money she felt she had earned (quite a lot of it, given the rates they charged for secret-finding) and her belongings, and fled in the night with Zeidan and his slave token. After quite a bit of experimentation, Amelie learned how to keep the one in Zeidan's token asleep most of the time, although she wasn't above using the threat of waking it again if he ever got rebellious.

Most people use the tokens as a bit of a blunt weapon, without understanding what they are, but Amelie can actually feel the soul connection faintly and convey more subtle commands with her spirit knowledge. Not like she can with regular spirits, for the human soul is much more complex, and of a different kind entirely, but still. She uses this, and their long relationship to her advantage with Zeidan, although sparingly as it is exhausting to navigate the human soul. They have established several simple commands that can be sent silently in this way, such as “Come” “Leave” “Assist” and “Silence.”

Now she travels the world, finding work as a psychic consultant to keep up the lifestyle to which she is accustomed.