| History: Saegrmr Hrafn was a Spae-Crafter, a man skilled in magic and the runes. Descended from the children of Huginn and Muninn, the fabled ravens of Odin, he grew up on a small green island that had been misnamed to keep people from settling there. His teachers were a group called Yggdrasill's Keepers, a group styled after the Norns of myth, affilitated with the Tradition of Mages called the Euthanatos. As Saegrmr grew in power, he put out one of his eyes, wore a low-brimmed hat, and occaisionally attracted some of his shifting kin to his doorstep,where he cared for them as the All-Father cared for Thought and Memory.
Elizabeth 'Numbers-Feathers' Thatcher had spent her earliest days with her wings clipped, being fed by Beefeaters in the Tower of London. One of these was a homid-born Corax who had dedicated himself to looking after his Kinfolk in old age, and had performed the Rite of the Spirit Egg upon her when she was recently arrived from her own, mundane egg. She found a gift for cyptography in her human-shape, and took a job with the British Foreign Service, de-crypting messages in embassies.
Fortune brought her to Iceland, where she was acquainted with Saegrmr from a tip from a fellow Corax. Unlike many of the others, though, she stayed with the gruff old Norse Mage, and a daughter was born to them in the summer of 1976. Called 'Ellisiv' after her mother's human name, the Rite of the Spirit Egg was performed on her too before she was born, her own mother sacrificing a part of herself to create her daughter a were-raven.
Duty to Raven and Helios, as well as Queen and Country would not permit Numbers-Feathers to remain in Reykjavik. She left when Ellisiv (or 'Elizabeth Seagram' as her UK papers would record) was a scant two years old, able to only drop in for periodic visits and guard the Spirit Egg from afar.
Ellisiv grew up in her father's quiet house, among Iceland's small community of Mages and even smaller community of Corax Kinfolk. Both were blessed in those years; the Magi who came to her father's house were piqued by the vast amounts of spiritual energy surrounding the child; they were told, not of her true nature, but that she had been blessed by Odin All-Father, and treated her like a little queen in the house, letting her sit in upon important rites, which she watched and obsorbed with great curiosity.
The Ravens were fortunate to have not one, but two fledgeling Corax to shepherd; besides Ellisiv, a wild raven fondly called 'Anders' had been chosen by a Homid-bred visiting from Sweden. Despite the differences in their races, Libby and Anders were reared together until their First Changes.
Their Rites of Passage, guided by Numbers-Feathers and the Swedish Homid Eyes-of-Baldur, named one 'Wings-of-Thought' and the other 'Voice-of-Memory'. From that moment, they were nigh inseperable.
The pair of them grew together, arriving plces in tandem to gather information and pass it along. For a time, they were not only honored guests, but welcome mascots at a Fianna Sept in Ireland. Anders was daring,diving headfirst into danger and escaping, usually, with only a few ruffled feathers. Ellisiv was more retreating; her early upbringing leading her off towards paths of mysticism and the spirit world. Her crowning acheivement was bottling a bit of Helios' light into a Fetish, to guide the twoof them in all of the dark places they wandered.
They advanced in Rank together, and became as close as brother and sister, or old lovers, when, suddenly, the world tumbled around them.
Anders vanished.
It was sudden. They had gone to sleep, curled about each other for warmth in their van in the chilly Toronto night. Ellisiv woke to find him gone, a black feather and the remains of some clipped copper wire the only clues to where he had gone. A Rite of Becoming. Into the Umbra.
She headed off after him, calling his name acros every Realm she knew to reach quicky. No one answered.
The numbing pain of the sudden abandonment by her life-long companion wore on her. She returned to her duties as best as she could, but sometimes, she looks at the stars in the Umbral sky and wonders which one he is on...
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