Tialla

Meadow Tea Cups

Apparel

While these tea cups are not destined to become heirloom pieces, they are certainly serviceable... for now!

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Madame Tialla
Driven | Worldly | Stern

Tialla was always incredibly competitive, and though her drive for learning was great, she still frequently got into spats with any of her classmates that disagreed with her.

It was for that reason she was expelled from her clan's highly-acclaimed dance studio.
She was upset at first, but it soon occurred to her she was already quite good at ballet from the lessons she did receive - the others were holding her back, really. She couldn't focus.

So she went to a neighboring city in which a dancer's troupe had stopped to perform, and vehemently insisted on joining up. She would travel alongside them for over a decade to come, exploring every territory in Sornieth.

Though it wasn't enough, not quite.
She grew expensive habits, fancying fine clothes and jewellery - they were business expenses, really - alongside drink.

She wasn't paid terribly for her work as a dancer, but some times it was so hard to get the best spirits imported.
And she grew so frustrated at times, so angry, but she had no outlet for it. Not even in dance, it simply wasn't enough - and she didn't want to risk being removed from the troupe either.

So she'd go to the bars at night, drink just a bit (it was rare to find a place that had anything good, anyway,) and picked fights.
People always underestimated her, such a delicate-seeming young woman. But she was all muscle, all balance, and perfectly capable of dodging.

And she hit hard.

It wasn't long before people took notice, and would know to come to bars to watch the other show whenever the dancers rolled into town.

Eventually, someone came to her with an extra proposition, asking her to intimidate someone in particular and offering more gold than she'd get paid in two months.

Thus began her side job as hired muscle, and not much later, an assassin.
It was strange how easy it was to get away with. Honestly.
The authorities never really seemed to believe a petite young dancer was capable of such things, but the people who wanted her services always knew how to find her.

She made more, and spent more, over and over again in a dizzying cycle.
She became famous and infamous, and hardly had a moment with clear thoughts where she wasn't driving a blade into someone's throat or trying to keep her exhausted body in rhythm with the rest of the dancers.

Her life started to catch up to her. In spite of her exhaustion, she began to go without sleep, fearful of waking to someone coming to take revenge for a lost loved one.
Sometimes, she was right.

She was at her wits' end, and trying to think of any way at all to escape her fate.
But she still didn't see her way out coming.

A longtime patron of the troupe - to the point of traveling to cities just to see them - stopped her one night after a performance.
She was at first terrified, hand on the dagger she kept hidden against her hip, but he hadn't come to hurt her.

Instead, he professed his feelings. He loved her, he said. He also explained he was nobility in light territory.

There were many statements she, frankly, doubted. But she saw the jewels that adorned him, the kindness in his eyes, and the earnestness in his plea.

She felt certain that, at least, she'd be safer going with him than continuing on with the life she was leading.

He suggested they leave together in a few days. She insisted they leave that very night. She packed her things, briefly wished the people who had been her family for most of her life goodbye, and she and her new fiance took the first carriage they could find.




He remained kind through their long journey across Sornieth. She found him easy to talk to, and at certain times even felt able to relax.

She wasn't sure if it was possible he loved her - it was probably infatuation, she figured - but it was enough. She tried not to let herself grow comfortable, to feel safe in such a volatile situation until she knew where she stood. And for the mostpart, she succeeded.

His family frowned upon the marriage. And absolutely hated her. It was hilarious, really.
He was definitely "marrying down", as they said. She couldn't believe he was actually telling the truth about being nobility - a freaking prince, no less.

She liked the guy. She'd decided that fairly early on. But as months, and later years, passed, she fell slowly but easily into love.

And she was happy. She was content.
They had children, and in spite of how terrified she'd been of being a mother, she loved it. She loved the family she'd formed with him.

She grew so comfortable.
Gods. What a mistake.




The affairs of royals are a ----show.
His father died, the throne was contested, and soon a war broke out within the tiny kingdom his family owned.

She, of all people, was the one blamed for treason. Slated for public execution and locked away by his godsdamned brother.

Her husband and children facilitated her escape the day her death was slated, her oldest son promising he'd found someone to take her place at the guillotine so she'd be safe, but still sorrowful.

They all were. She'd never see them again.

She rode out of town hidden under hay and manure, on the trailer pulled by a local farmer who had just been paid more money than he'd made his entire life.

She was dropped off at a tiny town two days later, with nothing but the clothes on her back and reeking of the things she had to ride with.
"There's good folk here," the farmer assured with a weary smile. "And they won't know ya. You can find food and a bath, I'm sure."

She'd begun to weep long before he turned and left, her heart shattering as she was forced to face with absolute certainty that she would never see her family again, that they wouldn't have somehow found a way to meet up with her.

She felt so stupid.

She wept until someone came from their house to offer help, and for a few days after did little but sleep. She hardly spoke - she hadn't thought up a story to tell aside from the far too painful "I lost my family" - and briefly after that, wandered aimlessly through the town.

But then, something within her sparked.
It flared, and roared to life; an inferno.

She was angry. She was so incredibly angry.
She left the quiet little town that had helped her, setting off on foot to the nearest major city outside of the Sunbeam Ruins.

She went to the bar and started picking fights. She met up with the shadiest of clients.
She made her money, and she didn't drink it away.

Her moves were strategic from then on; disguises, never stopping in the same town twice, and making sure to avoid one territory in particular.

She spent a few years like this, living the unabashed life as an assassin - and doing it so much better this time. Nobody knew who to look for. Nobody followed her.

After she'd amassed enough, she moved to the last territory. It was there she would start her life anew, again.

And she would do it right this time. By her terms only.