Vestil

The first of those is Vestil the Ghost - There was a period of time before you became a dread lady where you thought Vestil had retired - the reality is that she'd moved fully into the Shadow of the Empress and continues to serve your mistress there If Doraal is a brother, Vestil is an aunt and Vestil is the person who introduced you to Thalien Vestil's personal magic is a little terrifying - people can't lie to her think of her as the kind auntie that's always watched out for you, is happy to let you make your own mistakes and learn from them and will pin your ears back if you ever betray yourself and your own heart I can't see Heiassa ever lying to her... what makes her a little scary is that she's never been shy of calling Heiassa out for lying to herself publicly, her weapon is a mace, which surprises people who expect her to be a 'lurk in the shadows and cut people's throats' type But Vestil is way too direct for that Thalien swears she isn't a fate spinner, that she does what she does manually Heissa respects the crap out of her for doing it manually Damn fatespinners... in your party, Caravel was always brilliant tactically, but Vestil was the one who kept everyone grounded in the big picture and helped your Mistress plan and architect the long arc As a teacher, she taught Heiassa _a ton_ about ripple effects, unintended consequences, and how to do a lot with a little by setting things up like dominoes The reason that I say that Vestil's public weapon is a mace is because she's cultivated a very blunt and direct public persona... that public persona isn't entirely a fabrication - she really is that direct and there are times when she says things that hit so hard you feel like you've been hit in the face by a mace What she keeps private (not from inner family) is her subtlety Things are bad when she puts down the mace and large shield to pick up a flail and smalls shield People mistake her for a heavy fighter like Doraal, and she trains really hard with him these days to keep up that appearance but the small shield is lashed to her arm to give her a free hand to grab with and the flail lets her trip, snag, and rapidly change directions in a way that overwhelms her opponent she fights _smart_ watching her and Caravel fight gets one sided fast not because she's better than Caravel, but because she's his opposite in so many ways Caravel is deceptive - he manipulates the space around him and controls the flow of a fight with feints and deception... but you can't fool Vestil, she sees truth in intention the last you heard about Vestil, she was behind enemy lines and had been for some time.... when Heiassa lost it and struck deep into the collective... Vestil met her there Vestil was part of giving Heiassa the information she needed to strike that deep and she helped you plan some of the harder parts of that assault she never fought beside you in that bloodbath... she couldn't step that far out of the shadows but that doesn't mean she let people get away with hurting her family