Melehan

Icy clings to Melehan's feathers, keeping his chains bound to his wings and his body bound to the ground. They're mostly hidden from prying eyes- but he cannot remove them, and suspects he never will. Whenever cool winds blow or winter chills the Demesne's subterranean lair, Melehan feels the Icewarden's frost creeping back into his marrow.

Once, he excelled at breaking in and out of places he had no business being. His skills were honed outmaneuvering the Lightning flight's stringent, dangerous security systems, evading capture at every turn. His infamy grew so great he had to leave his homeland until his reputation faded. He fell in with a gang of thieves plotting to steal artifacts from the glacial reliquaries of the Southern Icefield, who were impressed by his infiltration skills. With the promise of an equal share of profits he eagerly joined in, confident in his skills and forethought.

The heist's planning took months. Melehan scoured the Icefield for information- scouting locations, seeking rumors of lesser fortifications, and talking to pilgrims from the Icewarden's seat of power. The scheming paid off; they got inside a reliquary and cleared out its treasures.

Getting out was where everything went wrong.

The alert went out swiftly. Guards and soldiers flocked to the reliquary, shadowed by packs of grim gaolers. The thieves were set upon the instant they set foot outside. Melehan avoided the guards the longest, but was soon captured.

Because their burglary was nearly successful, they were sentenced to the most severe imprisonment: Frozen eternity in the Fortress of Ends. They were only spared to be analyzed later at the Icewarden's leisure. Melehan was dragged to a deep, icy cell in a behemoth glacier, beyond the sun's warming reach. He was bound in chains frozen fast to the walls, and then his cell was filled with solid ice. Occasionally, he was thawed out and hauled away for interrogation. His terrified silence spoke louder than his stammered words, as the gaolers ripped what information they pleased from his mind.

Despite his dire situation, part of Melehan refused to succumb to despair. Whenever he was removed from his cell, his brain went into overdrive analyzing his surroundings and every visible aspect of its fortifications- memorizing cell block layouts, straining his ears to hear guards' steps. Eventually, he was ready to make his desperate move.

Melehan scarcely remembers his escape. He was in the thrall of instincts that pushed him past his every physical and mental limit as he evaded guards and finally hurled himself through a window onto the rock-hard ice below. Melehan's body slammed into the ground and rolled into a deep crevice, then lay still, his mind blank from fear and exhaustion. With no thoughts to pick up on, and winds whisking his scent away, the gaolers couldn't trace him, and the crevice sheltered him from the night's cruel chill. For weeks he crawled from crag to crag, emaciated and half-dead. At the coast he stowed away on a merchant ship bound for the Ashfall Waste.

There he shed some of the ice that bound him, the Icewarden's magic yielding to the heat of the Flamecaller. But Melehan did not remain in the land of fire. It was still too close to the prison at the bottom of the world. Once he recovered his strength he went on running without rest, always looking over his shoulder and policing his thoughts as he fled ever northward. He trusted no one, hiding his ever-growing paranoia beneath a mask of his former smooth and calculating personality.

He only stopped at the Demesne because he dared not go farther toward the cold north. He was given a guest den, and promptly shut himself in for fear of discovery and extradition, only leaving to get a mouthful of food. On one excursion he ran into Rajaion, clan nuisance, who struck up a friendly conversation and slowly grew on Melehan like mold on a carcass (Melehan's words). Melehan quickly deduced that Rajaion was much more cunning than he acted, but decided if Rajaion was an agent of the Icewarden out to get him, he'd already be captured, as Rajaion knew where he lived and got his food. He figured Rajaion was some sort of crook, but never told anyone else of his suspicions- after his imprisonment, Melehan would never turn anyone in unless they were getting him into trouble.

But, being so clever, Rajaion noticed the only mostly concealed ice, and realized what it meant. If Rajaion knew, then his mate Altena knew, and if the chief of security knew then so did the council, who were surprised that Fortress fugitives not only existed, but that one was in their midst. Altena had her subordinates watch Melehan's movements to gauge the danger he posed, but they couldn't link him to so much as a pickpocketing. He was a total recluse. After much coaxing- first from Rajaion, then Altena, and finally Pele herself with promises not to let Ice dragons extradite him- he agreed to appear before the council, and soon after joined the clan.

Melehan's still a recluse, and still hides his extreme paranoia behind the veneer of who he used to be. He loathes ice and fears Beruka for her telepathic abilities. He sees Tianlong regularly for the pain his shackles cause his wings, and Vesuvia when his fears are unmanageable. His thieving days long behind him, he now works with Lugh and Altena to find gaps in Demesne security. So ironically, the people he's closest to are Altena's subordinates (and Rajaion), who go out of their way (well, Ladon does) to make sure Melehan spends some free time outside of his den.

He doesn't know how many years he was imprisoned, and tries not to think about it, for he does not know what befell his old acquaintances or family.