art by ammycchin

As a child, Shiki benefited from a loving father who cared for her well. Quiet and careful, she saw and heard everything which occurred nearby. She enjoyed a relatively peaceful childhood, despite the threat of the shadetouched dragons which menace her birth clan. Deciding to strike out on her own as soon as she had fledged, she was trained in the use of the naginata in order to protect her from what she might encounter in the world.
She flew where the wind carried her, arriving first in the realm of the Tidelord. There she met a strange person, a traveler as mercurial as the wind itself. They were nameless and genderless, a shadowy mystic who told very little of their past. Shiki saw past the smoke and shadows, and knew that their heart was kind. Desiring to travel the world herself, and hoping to learn more from the mystic, she took up as their traveling companion. They made their base in the sea of a thousand currents, and flew all over Sornieth together.
Shiki and the mystic traveled together for a long time, until disaster struck. During a routine return to their home in the sea of a thousand currents, a hurricane boiled up from the ocean. Trapped in the howling storm, both Shiki and her companion were battered and hurled into the sea. Sinking beneath the waves, Shiki saw her breath float up to the surface with darkening vision, and then lost consciousness...
In the darkness of her dreams, and in the embrace of the Tidelord’s sea, Shiki dreamt of what was to come. She may have died under the waves, or perhaps the Windsinger took pity on her and gave her breath while she lay unconscious. Whatever occurred while she slept, the boundary between life and death is permanently blurred for her, and she can walk between each side with ease. The future she dreamt is emblazoned in her mind, and she plans constantly for what is to come. (--SpectralDragon)


by Momiji

by AnneBonny

by Grillbz