Shira

Shira

“They’ll hear you at the bottom of the Deep,” her mother used to complain, emphasizing her complaint with a snap of a wet rag over the windowsill. When she was small, this threat could shut Shira up, songs drying up in her mouth in a heartbeat. She’d seen the fishers and divers bringing in their haul from the Deep. Eyeless, gelatinous things that gasped with no lungs. Slick violet lumps somehow baring sharp teeth. “Eat it,” her mother would insist, shoving in front of her a bowl of freshly-caught critters with tubers like fingers, folding and unfolding in the steaming tin. And there were bigger creatures in the Deep, creatures that ate people instead of the other way around. If they heard Shira singing, leaning over the railing of their shack hugging the east cliff of Weepingfort, what would stop them from swimming, climbing up and plucking her off, into the depths from which they came?
The thought didn’t scare her anymore. She didn’t feel that icepick-like skitter up her shoulders when she thought of what awaited her below. Her stomach didn’t clench and contort itself in tight little coils when she stared down at the inky waves, as if trying to squirm away from the Deep. Some dawns, Shira would stroll along the metal walkways of the Chimer District with her boots clanking against the steel and her songs jangling through the streets, ignoring those who shook their head. Everyone had heard her mother’s scolding while she was growing up. Now that her mother was gone, no one seemed willing to take up the complaining.
Shira sometimes wondered if her mother could hear her singing, now that she was at the bottom of the Deep herself.

Current Location

Weepingfort

Circumstances of Death

And the Deep was full of beauty, gasping for music, holding its treasure with love face-down in the water.

Eyes

Shadows under dark brown eyes from too many sleepless nights, listening to the sharp song of the maids-o'-the-depths. Wrinkles from squinting over too many ripped seams and liquor stains.

Hair

Brown hair pulled back in so tight a bun it must hurt, but at least it hides the split ends. These kinds of things had always been important to her mother...

Height

5'4"

Weight

140 lbs