Hélène

Table of Contents

Her past

Her secret

Her current life

Her problem

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The daughter of an elite imperial family. She ran away to stop anyone from dictating how she should lead her life. She's since set up a successful enchanting business and made new friends, all the while keeping secret her status as one of the emperor's soulmates.

Her past

Hélène is a daughter of one of the elite families of a prosperous region of the empire. She "ran away" from home in her early twenties to get independant from her family and not be forced into an arrange marriage and a political career. In reality, she only changed the last name she was using and hides from the head of their family, but she has not cut all bridges with the rest of them. And she of course made sure to leave with plenty of money.

Her secret

When she was a teen, she realised that her magic is fully complementary to the emperor's own, making her one of the few soulmates he has in the whole world. All soulmates of the emperor are supposed to make themselves known to him and to go live a life of luxury in the imperial palace where they can be properly protected.
However, Hélène decided that it was not what she wanted to do with her life. Just like when she left her family, she's ready to do nearly anything to get what she wants in life, even if this include breaking the taboos surrounding soulmates. She's refused to make herself known to the emperor or to even reveal her link to him to anyone.

Her current life

After she left her family, Hélène moved to another region, got her mastery as an enchantress and set up a successful enchanting business, having her make complex artefacts taylored to her rich clients. She is satisfied with her life and friendships as they are; she loves her job and how it allows her to practice different elements that are important to her: making art with the magical artefacts she crafts, while at the same time researching new magics and solving engineering problems.
Hélène has powerful magic—she is the equal of the emperor, after all—but she's not a soldier. As the child of an important family, she was taught basic self-defence skills, but they remains limited. Like all imperial citizen, she is doing some fitness training regularly: with her friend, they do magical parcours over the weekend as a hobby. What she excels at is analysing artefacts, deconstructing and rebuilding them. Relying on artefacts and clever startegy suits her careful nature a lot more than fighting heads on.

Her problem

The only problem Hélène has in her life is that she has become too attached to another woman she has met during a work collaboration, and that she's now very inconveniently ready to make some sacrifices for this friend's well-being. The friends parents were important imperial dignitaries who betrayed the emperor and so were cursed as a punishmet. As the emperor was really angry at the betrayal and he is a very powerful person, the curse has tooken roots a lot more deeper in their body than it was supposed to, and when they later had a child, it was transmitted to her. The curse has manifested itself as a general chronic pain that often becomes debilitating.
As Hélène is getting closer to her friend, she is becoming more and more upset at her suffering. She has been able to use the similarity between her magic and the emperor's to interfere with the cuse and lessen its effect. The rare—and expensive—ingredients her parents give her have been especially helpful for that. However the roots of the curse are too deep for her to fully destroy it by herself. This is making her contemplate more drastic solutions that risk upsetting her perfect life.

Her plan was as perfect as it was suicidally daring. But once Hélène had decided she wanted something, she would not let anything stand in her way. And right now she wanted to blackmail the emperor. Really, the occasion was too good to pass and the foreigners had to agree.
As she entered the hospital, Hélène straightened her spin and raised her chin, automatically adopting Grandmother's posture and haughty expression and letting her magic blaze gently around her. No matter how many years had passed since she had started hiding who she was, this immediately came back.
The effect was imediate. People who glanced with boredom at her entrance did a double take at her, and nobody protested when she cut the whole line to address the secretary.
"May I see the director of the hospital?" She took care to delicately place her hands on the counter and to make her House ring prominently visible.
The woman blanched as she recognised both the ring and her accent.

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Hélène

Relationships Hélène's family · Friends (Julie, Hélène's friend, Old Malik) · Soulmates (The Emperor and his soulmates) Work Enchanting · Overview of the professions in the Empire · Runic diagrams · Fixed wards, clothes wards, and portable wards Problems Soulmates · The Sannian kidnapping announcement · The imperial curse—the ultimate judgment on traitors · Winners of the neighbourhood wall painting competition Locations Geography of the Empire of Arboise · Ilara—Hélène's home region · Quanahr—Hélène's town · Arboise—Capital of the Empire · The imperial palace · The emperor's quarters