Name: Azara

Age: 113; appears to be in her mid 20’s

Gender: Female

Species: Human

Occupation: Mage

Abilities: Azara’s skills lie in plants, potions, and elemental manipulation. She can create a variety of poisons that will either kill fast and fairly painlessly, or ones that do the job slowly with as much agony involved. Strangely enough, she can also craft strong healing potions that can heal quite a variety of wounds. She figures it’s likely because life and death are fairly similar, as one potion that heals could very easily kill someone if an ingredient is added or removed. When it comes to manipulating the elements, she is stronger when it comes to earth magic due to her experience growing a variety of plants for poisons and potions. She dabbles somewhat in illusions, though only enough to create something believable for a minute at most.

Height: 5' 10"

Appearance:

When someone first encounters Azara, they may immediately be able to tell that she is someone with power. She carries an air of importance about her everywhere, in the way she dresses, the way she walks, even the way she talks. She is fairly tall, standing at 5’ 10”, but some tend to mistake her as being taller. Her build is lithe, seeming to not carry a lot of muscle, though one can not assume she doesn’t have any. She has honey toned skin, marked with the occasional speckling of freckles on her upper body, as well as many small scars across her hands and lower arms.

Her face is heart shaped, with protruding stormy grey eyes and thin curved brows. Her nose is fairly average sized, her lips thin with a natural downturned edge. Framing her face is long, rich black hair that cascades down her back in waves. She rarely wears it loose, most commonly tying it back in some styled hairdo, though she is just as likely to tie it back with little care for how it looks, as long as no one sees her that way. Her fashion sense consists of anything ornate and made of light fabric, often flowing dresses with cloaks that trail behind her to give an air of mystery.

Personality:

Much like her appearance suggests, Azara embodies the expectations of those with wealth and power. She is bold, commanding, persuasive, intelligent, and stubborn. On many occasions her persuasion is nearly manipulation, for she is certainly not one to let anyone get in her way. To most she is cold, letting her words ring with brutal honesty and seeming to care little about how the words affect another. She has a temper that is hard to rival, although difficult to trigger unless someone knows how to get through her armor.

Most of this is a facade, an act to keep up appearances for the royal court. She cares heavily for her reputation, knowing that without it she was unlikely to last long. In truth she is a far more caring individual, albeit often over protective and fiercely loyal to those who earn her trust. A feat quite difficult to complete, for she knows she will live longer than most of her human acquaintances and does not wish to mourn a dozen deaths if it can be avoided. With anyone involved with the courts it can be even harder to earn, for she is well aware of the lies that people spew and constantly expects to be stabbed in the back.

Strengths: Magic, intelligence, persuasion/manipulation

Weaknesses: combat, stubbornness, temperament,

Likes: plants, learning, improving, poisons, winning

Dislikes: failure, being told what to do, expectations, betrayal, dishonesty

Fears: Azara fears she will end up outliving everyone she befriends. She doesn’t want to die without ever having anyone to care for or to care about her, though she also fears losing everyone she grows close to.

Simplified Backstory: Azara’s magic presented early, and thus she was brought into the courts at a young age. She spent a little over a decade working as an apprentice for another mage, before venturing into the courts and choosing what skills she would make herself the strongest in and earning herself a reputation. That's essentially all anyone knows about her, as she will not share more to anyone but those she trusts completely.

Other: Azara is well known, her name and reputation being essentially common knowledge at this point, especially amongst the kingdoms of man. It makes her quite a target herself, though few ever get anywhere close to killing her. Thus she cares very little for assassins, yet she often works with them. She also despises the people of the courts, but she pretends to enjoy it all as they give her the freedom to do as she wants.

(this is kinda long, so no need to worry about matching it unless you want to. I tend to be a little lengthy when it comes to starting posts for whatever reason)

Azara was already in a bad mood, it was still quite early in the day. The king was sending her on some stupid mission to kill some dwarven queen, a daughter of a dwarven king she’d been in the service of for a short period. The king claimed it was to make sure the assassin he was sending would actually finish the job. Yet she knew the truth was that he simply just wanted his son to quit spending time with the lonely mage and focus on courting a pretty princess to wed. It was true that the prince spent far too much time in her little study, going through her journals in fascination with everything she’d discovered. She’d enjoyed his company, except it was probably for the best. Azara had grown attached, she’d started to look forward to his visits and found herself looking for him at any of the court gatherings. If it was easy for her to realize, others would have discovered that as well, and he’d become a weakness. Some target for others to kill in order to get to her.

The prince had already come to express his discontent with her leaving, now watching as she wandered about her study, shoving various vials and containers into a small pouch. She was dressed as plainly as she could manage in a solid black dress and hooded clock, the only item that may draw attention being an antler handle dagger. In her bag was a variety of poisons and healing pastes, all of which items that any person in their right mind would want to avoid without knowing exactly what the item was and what it would do. Some of these items William has assisted in the making of, though only through his own curiosity. It helped a lot, as some items she’d never thought to combine until it had been suggested. Part of her wondered if he had any magic skills, except it was probably because he’d read nearly all her journals that recorded the effects of every plant she’d gathered and experimented with.

Finally content that she had what she needed, Azara turned her stormy eyes towards the prince. “Would you walk with me to the stables?” She hadn’t really needed to ask, William was already up and out of the chair he’d been waiting in before she even spoke. She gave a small smile, starting towards her destination through the many halls of the great stone palace. When she’d first arrived it had been intimidating and confusing, now it was like a home. Except for the backstabbing nobles that liked to attempt to ruin each other's lives through networks of spies, assassins, and honorless mercenaries.

A frown was persistently present on the prince’s face, his eyes wandering about as the two made their way to the stables. Azara did her best to ignore him, already doing her best to avoid an emotional farewell. It always made things difficult, and she didn’t want to deal with foolish ideas of refusing to leave, maybe even marching up to the lazy king and telling him off. She’d dealt with enough of his dirty work for the past half a century to last anyone a lifetime. Even though the ideas were tempting, she wasn’t going to give the king enough reason to have her executed.

They arrived in the small stone courtyard outside the stables quickly enough, the pair staring down the buildings as if they were the last thing they wanted to see. Eventually Azara gave a heavy sigh, stepping away from the prince. She caught sight of two guards making their way over, likely to escort the prince to wherever he was needed. In response, she hid whatever sadness she felt under her usual facade, giving the prince a small nod before entering the stable.

She was quick to spot the assassin, the corners of her lips pulling down in a small frown. He was far from what most people in these courts were just in appearance, wearing clothing that most would find atrocious. Part of her found it intriguing, as she wasn’t stuck in the company of another stuck up noble. He was also quite short, though she was told he was half dwarf, so it did make sense. She may have actually expected him to be even smaller. Her gaze did linger on him for a moment, though before long she’d directed her attention to her mare instead. She was a fairly tall and stocky dark bay mare, tacked and ready for her departure as she’d instructed. Azara reached a hand out and stroked the mare’s cheek, letting herself decide what to say before speaking.

“You are the assassin, Erik, correct?” Her tone made it clear she wasn’t really asking, her gaze falling upon the man’s face. “Hopefully they at least told you that you were to be accompanied by a mage, though I wouldn’t be completely surprised if they didn’t. Either way, the name is Azara, and it seems we are stuck with each other for now.” She knew she was awful at hiding her displeasure, but she didn’t have the time to practice playing nice with every person in the world who probably wouldn’t do the same for her. Though she was hoping he didn’t take it too personally, she was simply fed up with people who had probably faulted him as well.

Azara watched his reactions, raising a brow at his statement. It wasn’t worth a response, she wasn’t going to bicker like a child over the smallest of insults. At most it drew her curiosity, given most outside the courts seemed eager to shower those within with praise. Then again, he’d probably dealt with people like her enough to know what they desired. Most frequently, it was in fact compliments. Empty compliments, but still they yearned for them like starving beasts. “Mostly because you aren’t trusted, yet also because you can’t kill a target if you don’t know who they are. Besides, someone needs to finish the job if you somehow fail.” She let her words be honest, for there really wasn’t a good reason to lie. His previous comment about clothing did draw her thoughts there for a moment, as he was correct, although she didn’t like to admit it. A dress wasn’t really suited for the type of travelling they were doing, so luckily it was just for that day. She couldn’t quite ride out of the castle dressed like a man could she? Appearance was quite literally everything here, she wasn’t going to throw that away for the sake of practicality. She could mount a horse in this dress, and that was truly all that mattered at the moment.

She didn’t care if he thought her useless, she didn’t want to be going anyways. If she was just to play the role of some sort of nanny, then that was how it was going to be. She turned her head to look out at the courtyard, her gaze wandering across the near empty area. It was safe to say she was far from excited to leave, morseso hoping someone would come up and tell her she wasn’t actually meant to be leaving, that she was needed for something else. There really wasn’t a need for her to be going, she belonged here with her plants and her journals. With the prince. It was a selfish thought, and she found a scowl working its way across her features. That was why she was leaving without a fight, she had to agree that it was the right thing to do. Her attachment was a weakness, for both of them. Should this task go wrong, if they both failed, the repercussions could take those attachments away. Dealing with the pain of something being taken would be far worse than if she let it go. Her face was calm again when she returned her focus to the assassin, knowing he’d most likely picked up on some of her emotions. He seemed the observant type, someone she needed to keep an eye on.

His next words didn’t come as a complete surprise, though anger still flashed in her eyes. “It is quite nice. What a shame no one said farewell to you.” Her response needed little thought, she’d dealt with enough similar comments to handle them with ease. If he wanted a reaction out of her, he’d need to try a little harder. He couldn’t say anything that hadn’t been said at least once before, she’d grown numb to the little stabs the nobles made at each other, including her. She’d simply stab back, except she knew how to make it really hurt. Secrets were easy to learn when had lived longer than most of those around her, things that might have been forgotten could easily be unearthed again. Though she didn’t really know any of his secrets, and she doubted she wanted to learn them. Some secrets were meant to be known, she had quite a few she wished to rid herself of. Maybe screaming them out to the world would work, at least then they wouldn’t quite be a secret.

Azara had given no response to his question, simply stepping into her mares stall and checking her saddle bags. She stuck her small bag into the emptiest of the two, tucking them in amongst other items to hopefully minimize the risks of anything breaking. It wouldn’t be a good day if any of the healing items broke, particularly if one of them ended up injured. She may not be quite fond of the assassin, and it really wasn’t quite his fault that she didn’t, but she wasn’t going to just leave him to die if he did sustain an injury of that degree. Maybe she’d want to, depending on whether they found some form of peace or they continued to irritate each other, but she still wouldn’t. Though as she watched him struggle to mount, it seemed more difficult to create peace than not to. She attempted to resist a small smile, growing both amused and increasingly curious. She mounted rather easily, jumping twice to launch herself over. The dress did somewhat get in the way, but she easily pushed it aside once she was seated. She quickly steered the mare out of the stable, holding her steady as the mare made her eagerness to leave quite clear. Once her traveling companion had begun to move, she nudged her mare forward.

She was glad to be moving, her eyes searching ahead of her in an attempt to make out her surroundings. Traveling at night seemed to make little sense, for they couldn’t see their surroundings well, but they also wouldn’t be noticed quite as easily as if it were day. Even if she didn’t like it, she did have to admit that it was the smart choice. When someone entered or left the castle grounds, people tended to notice. Particularly if one of those people was someone who was well known. They loved their gossip, and if anyone had seen her depart, they’d be trying to figure out what business got the mage to leave the castle walls. What a tale they would spin, something they’d whisper behind her back for years, until they all died to some illness or their own greed. She found herself gritting her teeth, having to force her thoughts to more pleasant topics. There was no use getting upset over something she had no control over, particularly if it was the part of her life she embraced as openly as she did. She was one of those nobles whether she liked it or not.

While his face remained in resting position, her bluntness caused him to pause a moment without a clarifying question ready. He gave a side glance toward Azara, now enlightened that she was very capable and willing to kill someone. He wouldn’t underestimate her like he might have been tempted to do before. She must be a cunning adversary, if she was entrusted to clean up his possible mistakes. While he believed that most nobles had blood on their hands, it was more unsettling when they were willing to do it themself. They became more volatile and unpredictable. As far as he was concerned, a high ranked mage was as good as a noble.

His jabs weren’t necessarily supposed to be offensive, but it was often an effective way to get information. Causing someone to lose control was one of the quickest ways to learn some basic information about them. You learned some of their triggers, and you saw what words or actions they would do when they lost control. You learned how much control they actually had, or how well they could conceal when they were bothered. Whatever she had planned for him wouldn't change because he was nice to her or not unless she was such a vengeful person she covered anything she did up. She had a reputation, so he deduced that she was better trained than that.

When he tried to needle her, there wasn't any over reaction from her. He thought he detected annoyance or an emotion that was similar, but he hadn't calibrated his brain to easily understand her words and body language yet. Azara had lived for quite a while. As she worked for royalty, she couldn’t avoid others hearing her name and learning something about her. He knew that she was at least twice his age, and he wondered what her powers were that caused her continued youthful appearance.

While he believed that she was very sly and conniving, he continued to be willing to do what Azara wanted until they got to the country where he would be doing the killing. He couldn’t question her plans because he didn’t know where they were going yet. He would want to know what they were and take charge when there was a higher chance of being detected, because it was his neck on the line if they were caught. Azara would return home to the protection of the king (as long as she wasn't caught going home), however, he would have to avoid wanted posters while he tried to make a living. He tried to keep an eye out for those who could be watching them leave. When they were out of sight of the castle, he kept an ear open for followers.

Once they were well on their way, seeing no one, he decided it was time to break the silence again. “What country are we going to?" he decided to ask. "Or, if that's too soon, when are you going to tell me where we are going?" He was supposed to return with her, so he would get payment. At the same time he knew there was a chance the king and mage would go against their word, because they considered assassins despicable and dispensable. They wanted to get rid of such low creatures.

"But on a more serious note, I really didn't mean to offend. I'm just genuinely curious about the prince hanging out with you. It seems incredibly unusual for an heir to be the last person to say goodbye to a possible killer." She was as good as a killer if she was accompanying him. Was it possible that a noble could love someone who was lower in station than themself? Quite honestly, anyone who was related to his royal family, he wasn't sure if he could ever trust them.

He had felt very rejected, when his father didn't wnat to deal with him anymore. He had called him a waste of space, and it had made Erik question his place in the world. Where could he go, if he wasn't welcome there? All he did was take up resources that his father obviously believed could be used elsewhere. He hadn't even taken the thought of using Erik for some underhanded job. He had assumed that he would be useless.

Abruptly, he turned the conversation back toward the prince. "Does the prince know about all that you can do? Does he know about what you do do? It's quite curious how you ever attracted his attention. You don't have a very flattering tongue. Or, I must be that unimportant, if you don't feel the need to butter me up." He took a moment to mold his face so he appeared to be offended. Easier to kill him off, if she kept things estranged between them. "Think you could possibly become disposable or do you truly believe that you can't be replaced? You have lived for how long, and you don't seem to have learned cautiousness or subtleness. You weren't sneaking around at all," this was the first time there was any real emotion in his voice, and he sounded a little disgusted. "You're supposed to be older than me right? Have you never had to learn how to be discrete? King's have no sympathy," he warned wondering why he cared if she avoided the pain of being rejected.

(This might be really bad, since I am tired.)

For a time Azara was silent, pondering the first questions asked of her. She was debating whether to lie or to continue to be truthful about the matter, concluding that this wasn’t worth a lie. “I’m not supposed to tell you where we are headed, nor who you are meant to kill. When I decide to tell you is up to me, though I was asked that I say nothing until we are nearly there.” She didn’t care to try and soften her bluntness, he may as well get used to it. “Whether I decide to tell you sooner is up to me, and as it currently stands, you are going to have to wait.”

To put the whole thing simply, she didn’t trust him. That distrust wasn’t really to do with anything other than the fact that she hardly ever trusted anyone at all. His career path didn’t help him either, most likely only supporting her reasons as to why she may not trust him. He’d probably piece together where they were headed once they drew close, or at the very least have suspicions once it became clear they were headed for the mountains. Whether his guesses would be correct or not was another matter, and she didn’t plan to clue him in. She needed to be sure he wasn’t just going to run off after the details were revealed before she even thought of saying anything. At the moment he didn’t seem bothered about this whole ordeal, while moments before she’d been prepared to drag him along if he refused. She was in no way an assassin, and she didn’t want to have to report to the king that the assassin had run off.

Azara’s short bark of laughter came suddenly, her head tilting as she pondered his words. “A possible killer? I’m afraid far too many people have died due to my creations for me to not be a killer myself.” Her tone had softened, amused by the phrasing of his statement. “Isn’t every person in power a killer? Though it is true they don’t really kill anyone using their own hands, they always do so through another. I figure you’d know quite a bit about that.” She made sure her last words were pointed, trying to make it clear she had no interest in covering that topic. She should have known it was hopeless to try, he hadn’t seemed to realize her resistance to the topic after his last attempt at bringing it up. Normally she didn’t get so touchy about any topic, but this one had caused her far too many troubles for her to want to discuss it further with an individual she just met.

She rode in silence as he rattled off his questions and concerns, any amusement she’d had long gone. Left behind was irritation, though she quickly felt her facade faltering. Normally she’d care little about what others had to say about her, but he was pressing a touchy subject she had been failing to direct her thoughts from. His words seemed to dig at the insecurities she’d worked so hard to keep hidden, leaving her struggling to keep her expression emotionless. Any control she had cracked at his final words, her hands turning her mare to block the path of his gelding. “Do not talk as if you know me, as you do not,” her words came out sharp, her gaze focused on his to make sure he understood. “I know I can be replaced, I am not so foolish to think that I cannot be. If discretion had been my intention, I would have been discrete. So do not try to warn me of the evils of the world, I know them well enough to deal with my own problems without the advice of a stranger.”

She’d stopped herself from saying more, steering her mare back in the direction they were headed. In the minutes that followed she was silent, drawn into her thoughts as she attempted to soothe her temper. Maybe it would have been smarter to say nothing, though she didn’t regret letting her annoyance be known. Some part of her, likely the part that was in fact quite foolish, still wanted to try and find some common ground. They were to be traveling with each other for quite a bit, if they didn’t end up splitting, and they couldn’t quite do so with no way to understand the other. They were most certainly quite different, though she wasn’t sure if they were opposites. “Next time you want to start asking questions about my life, do not do so without revealing anything of yourself. If you don’t want to share, then neither shall I.” It wasn’t a deal she was fond of, except it was the only thing that made sense. She wasn’t particularly interested in his life, as she wasn’t one to pry about it, but it seemed to be the only way to get him to stop launching personal questions at her for no reason other than his own curiosity. Sure, she was curious as well, except she wasn’t bugging him for answers. Nor was she making comments about his capabilities. He was a stranger to her, someone she hardly knew. At least she seemed to have enough respect to not go prying into his life.

Erik feared that the truth was one way she was trying to manipulate him, or that there were deeper hidden reasons. However, her explanations had the ring of truth to some extent. The fact that she took some time to think about her answer spoke about her character. She was not a person taken to making hasty decisions, and he needed to keep that in mind when she did things that he wouldn't think were advisory. "You wouldn't want to trust the halfling would you?" he frowned, but didn't protest the fact that she didn't want to trust him. He figured he would nudge around later about their destination once they were closer. It didn't matter at this point. Lots of things could happen to throw them off course.

Her bark of laughter was harsh, and caused him to flinch and spin in her direction. The noise from her was unexpected. He dipped his head conceding the point and snorted. "I suppose you would know wouldn't you." He should as well, as it was his business to know people who killed and he also had had experience with those in power. "There is still a difference between someone who is willing to get their hands dirty, and someone who is dependent on someone who has less qualms, or perhaps someone who has clumsy accidents. Everyone is probably going to be a killer at some point. Everyone else won't have to face the guilt directly.." He bit off that's why he didn't mind being one. Killers were the one who decided fates and changed the course of history. One of the main ones was those that hired others might not have the skill set for easy killing. He was tempted to ask about the prince if she was a killer, but he knew that was too far. A small smirk crooked up the corners of his lips. "Yes, with my job title, I would hope I was familiar."

While she wasn't being super clear about how she felt, he could see that her desire to completely hide her emotions to lessen, because of his needling. He was hitting weak points, so his efforts weren't without purpose. He was a little surprised by how quickly she snapped at him, but he bore it without any major face changes. Now, he thought that she hadn't spent too much time on this particular situation, which went against his earlier assumption that she didn't do anything that she had considered thoroughly. It seemed either he hit something that she worried about, or she was prideful, and didn't want anyone to tell her what to do. Probably a mix of both. What was the point of not being discrete? Was she trying to get kicked out or worse? Did she wanted the prince to be on bad terms with his father? He watched her in silence knowing that there was a chance it would make her uncomfortable, or it would make her feel like she had intimidated him. It didn't matter.

He raised a brow surprised that she had decided to speak again to him so soon, and it wasn't out of necessity either. He opened his mouth preparing to tease her for gracing him with an interaction with her, but soon realized that somebody else would find it hurtful or odd, so they moved on. It made sense, and he felt like he should say something to show that he didn't mind sharing, but he didn't really want to tell her anything about himself. "I might have considered saying something, but I didn't think you would be interested in me...." he hesitated realizing that sounded bad, "and my life." Now he felt like it made him sound like someone who was clingy and needy wanting someone to listen to him. Would she ask questions? He assumed that she would consider the more knowledge she possessed better, but perhaps he had entirely misjudged her.

"Will we travel through the night and this day and only rest at tomorrow evening?" he began to inquire and think about sleeping. He could keep going for a while, but he wasn't much of a horseman to keep going. Once they were well on their way, he would walk some as well, especially when they weren't trotting their horse. "If you have a rest stop destination in mind, we can trot our horses for a while." He liked the idea of getting more time to rest if they were on schedule or perhaps even ahead. He wouldn't be going faster than a canter unless they were being pursued.

"Hmmmm," he sighed thinking. What was something he didn't mind her knowing? It didn't have to be super detailed or personal, but perhaps he should come up with something that it would be hard to find out about him. He was tempted to mention that he had never been in a relationship so he could dig more into her personal relationship, but that seemed dangerous. Could he talk about work with her? Was that a reasonable idea? "I became an assassin primarily, because I'm illigitimate." It was something easy to guess because he was half dwarf and half human, which was a rare combination. It would take some interesting people to be willing to make that happen.

"They look down upon you so much, you might as well take the lowest job you can find to support yourself. It is risky, because everyone wants to kill you, and often you get paid. Being an assassin is a thankless job. How did you come to be a mage?" He didn't add that he was decently hopeless at anything else he might consider trying. While it wasn't a surprising story of his, nobody could be completely sure that's why it happened. Of course there were always other reasons, primarily showing talent for it. Would she find a way to stab that in his back as an insult later? That was the main reason he made self deprecating jokes. It was harder to be considered funny if the object of humiliation had already used that particular way to insult themself.

(Sorry it took so long)