------------- Tales of the Raptors – Chianna’s Tale

I was born here,… almost three centuries ago. I have seen much of this land, from the shores of the Friggian Sea to the great Western Erg of the Symballan Desert. I have stood on the cliffs of Xanthius and marveled. And I know The Hidden. They have held a prophecy since the founding days. It foretold of the desperate times, of the coming War against a darkness from the stars. But to all, it was no more than a story to scare new mentalists. The prophecy foretold of the Dorava Ha’Zhual, the chosen one who would combine the mysticism of the Symballans with the mental powers of The Hidden. And that through her, light would shine again in the hopes of the children of the forest and of the mountains.

What the prophecy didn’t foretell was who this chosen one might be. So, those of us who served went out to find the Dorava Ha’Zhual. Long we searched. And in a lonely stretch of tundra north of the Tarkas Mountains, wild, alone, half dead, I thought I had found her. Her power was unique, or so I thought. Long did we tend to her, I and the Masters. They made her my charge. Thus I swore to protect her with my every breath, until in the fullness of years she would pass on to the next life, and I would remain. I learned much about her in the few years it took to train and teach her.

Chianna Soong was, as most Tarkanian girls are, less than property to her people. Her family was killed before her eyes as a child, and she was taken as a slave to the warlord of another tribe. There she was treated mercilessly, tormented, forced to labor endlessly, and raped at an early age. She developed an iron constitution, and soon began to learn how to fight, taught by a slave gladiator. Yet she was small and weak, but her mind was keen and her ways usually wise for no more than a human youngling. More importantly, she was possessed of natural sorcery and innate psionic ability. Her martial training had begun to unleash those powers, but her rage and hatred left them out of control. By the age of 12, she had killed her captor and left a bloody swath of revenge through their camp, escaping into the wilds of Tarkania in a winter blizzard. None would have expected her to survive.

But survive she did. When I found her a year later, quite by happenstance, she had become nearly feral, a hairy, filthy, growling thing that used her powers without control or understanding. It was quite a challenge to capture her without killing her. When I brought her to the Masters, they saw in her the truth, that she was a mutation, her mind manipulated by dark forces to become a weapon. A priestess of the Symballan Empire came and inspected her. Only then did we learn that the Dorava Ha’Zhoul had been found in the Frelenat Seitches. Who then was this girl? The priestess ministered to her for months, at last presenting her cleaned and properly dressed, and possessed of a peace of mind and clarity that rarely even the Masters can achieve. So began her training as a Psi-Mystic of The Hidden.

I left with her when her training was done. Many were our adventures in the days that led up to the Shadow War. Many more have we found here on the wrong side of the Symballan Sea. Know that I will defend my charge to the death. And if I should fall, be ascertained, the beast within Chianna will be unleashed upon my enemies. And I fear her beast is worse than my own.

------------- Credits

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