Grahm & Maive
Human - Illusionist, Quick-witted, Joker | Companion: Maive
Backstory
Grahm came aboard the Emberwake a few years ago, a thin and quiet stowaway found asleep in the crow’s nest with an owl perched protectively atop his chest. The crew nearly threw him overboard, thinking him a spy or a thief, but Arden saw something strange in the boy's demeanor. Grahm didn’t beg for his life, he simply said, “If I meant harm, Maive wouldn’t let me live.” The owl hooted in what some say sounded like agreement... Arden let him stay.
Since then, Grahm has worked every post without complaint, rigging sails, cleaning decks, sorting gear, patching the hull, doing what he’s told with a sharp hand and a sharp tongue. Though only sixteen, the boy is quick to joke, deflect, and laugh, often lightening the mood when tensions run high. Behind the grin however, is something quieter, something haunted, a ghost that still lingers from his past.
No one has seen Grahm’s eyes except for a few who keep the nature of them under wraps so to speak. He wears a black cloth etched with faint symbols over them at all times. Most assume he's blind, but he walks the deck with sure footing, climbs rigging with ease, and can fire a crossbow with eerie precision when it comes to fending off sea beasts.
They say the boy is cursed, and that may hold more truth to it than they realize.
The Truth of His Eyes
Grahm was born in a village that was not charted on any maps, and no longer exists. A hidden community known simply as The Gulch, tucked into a coastal ravine and bound by pact to an ancient spirit called Tahriel, an illusion weaving being of memory and reflection. Each generation, a child would be chosen to become Tahriel’s Mirrorbearer, a vessel through which the spirit could see and act.
Grahm was born with mirrored irises, glassy, silver, always swirling with phantom images and haunting visages. Through them, Tahriel could see the world and enact his will. At first, Grahm thought it a gift, he could see through illusions, glimpse distant places, and perceive truths others missed. But over time, his visions grew worse. He began to see things yet to happen, or might not ever happen. He dreamt of people dying days before they did, he watched the village burn long before the moment came.
One night, he screamed during a vision and the effects of it destroyed the mind of his own mother when she peered into his eyes. She lived, but she never spoke again after that day.
Fearful, the village elders pleaded with Tahriel to silence the boy, but Tahriel had grown too curious, too entangled with the world through Grahm’s eyes. It refused, instead, it forced open a gate through Grahm’s sight, letting through strange beings and fragments of other places, ghosts of memories that did not belong.
The village turned on him, and decided their was only one course of action... execution.
It was Maive, an owl said to be the last familiar of the village’s first Mirrorbearer, who saved him. She led him to a sealed cavern where an old blindfold rested, woven from the night-silk of a forgotten fey court. Grahm took it and bound his eyes with it. The visions dulled, the spirits quieted, and Tahriel could no longer reach him, not entirely.
But even with eyes binded, hidden behind the cloth, Grahm isn’t blind, he sees the world clearer than most. He sees where someone might move before they do, he sees the shimmer of illusions, he sees through lies, and can feel when things are going to go awry.
There are rare moments where he peaks from beneath the blindfold, just to take in the sights, and to see the faces of the people he calls family.
Maive
Maive is Grahm's guardian, and a remnant of ancient magic, and possibly the last living being who truly understands the burden Grahm carries. Her bond with him is of mutual protection, to ensure that they both survive. She has struck men who got too close to Grahm’s blindfold and has perched beside him during sleepless nights, whispering small sounds only he can understand.
She was once able to speak through dreams, perhaps she still does, but only to the people that need comfort from their nightmares.
“I’d rather be blind and kind than open eyed and cruel. The world sees too much and understands too little.” - To Thalion
“I don’t need people to believe in me. I just need them to laugh while they can.” - To Celu about why he jokes so much
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