Helena Satine

Appearance
Helena has a very focused look. She has dark golden eyes and sharp gaze. Her long black hair is naturally straight, but it takes a wave or curls just from getting wet and slept on. Her skin does not really tan, remaining the same shade of light brown year round. With the obstinate set to her jaw, she looks like she would expect walls to break for her, if she should decide to walk through them.

However, she is very skinny, with thin arms and legs. With how easy it is to slip substances into food and drink, Helena doesn't trust anything that she does not prepare herself. This lack of trust and the depth of her jewels is a fire that burns not only in her psychic scent, but in her flesh as well, keeping her undernourished. It makes her seem too young in some lights, though in others the years mean nothing to one of the long lived races.

The healer's clothes are often ragged on the edges, or have holes torn in them. The apparent disregard for her flesh and clothes is another way to encourage the belief that she walks in the Twisted Kingdom. While she will allow herself to be cleaned up for court functions, she generally prefers to let people believe that she is indeed quite mad. After all, if she looks crazy, she can't rule, so she isn't a threat to Marcella, and if she frightens others, she is a useful tool for the Queen.

Personality
On the surface, Helena seems to enjoy causing pain. Her healings are always agony, more so than needed, and she tends to prefer leave deformities and scars on purpose. She has mastered the art of smiling at screams when she honestly wants to gag. She hurts people herself, knowing they will live and the pain will fade, rather than letting others do it and try to make the pain and humiliation linger.

This elaborate ruse wears heavily on the Healer's true nature. In truth, Helena wants nothing more than to spare people pain, avoid injuries, and keep each and every soul that passes through her life whole and unharmed. She flays herself in order to keep her place because it offers hope. Someday, Marcella must fall. Someday, the slaves will be freed. If on that day, Helena's life must also end, so be it, but until then, she will work to bring that day about. Quietly. Secretly. As patiently as a spider tends her web.

Helena does not realize that her ruse may become the truth. Pretending to be insane and sadistic might push her fully over the edge and into the Twisted Kingdom further than she could come back from. She needs someone to provide balance for her, and pull her back from that edge.

History
Helena was a natural Healer. From the time she was old enough to walk, healing came to her as easily as breathing. Her mother was a Black Widow though, and through her arts she learned that she had to teach the skills to her daughter as well. If she wanted her daughter to live, the lessons had to be given. If she herself wanted to survive, the lessons had to be secret, even from others of the craft.

Helena's brother, Marcus, was centuries her junior, and the girl was well on her way to being a full fledged Healer in public, and a full fledged Black Widow in secret. Their mother was proud of him wearing the Rose, though many other boys teased him about having pink Jewels. The little boy was a Prince, and spoiled a bit, but he felt more comfortable around Helena than their mother. They all feared the day that Marcus would make his offering.

When the day came and his strength was revealed, Helena had been drugged by their mother so she would not witness the young man being first beaten into submission, and then ringed when he could no longer fight. By the time Helena was able to struggle out of the sleep, the boy she had loved was gone.

The betrayal was enough that Helena has not spoken to her mother since. She even changed her name and accepted the loss of connection to an Aristo family rather than make a reference to the woman ever again. While Helena knows in her heart and through her secret craft that her mother had no other choices at the time, she would still never forgive her.

When Helena finally found Marcus, the best she could do was numb the pain for a while. She stole him so she could have complete access to him, which is how she discovered the potential for the flaw in the Ring. When the boy was free, he was different. He was afraid of everything. The kindest thing Helena could do for him was send him out of the Territory, to hope to find peace in another land.

Since then, Helena has played the dangerous game. She has fooled many in her climb to the position she wanted. Her secret craft has helped her many times, not only with visions and webs, but by careful use of poisons. Mostly she is content to appear to be just a powerful healer that danced the edge of the Twisted Kingdom.

To fool Marcella, an additional level of cruelty was required. Helena could not embrace it without a personal cost, but she would pay that price until the end, whatever that end might be.

Recent Events
Helena's plan was a success, the spell was set and sprung, the slaves in Draega are free, but it was too late to save Helena, The Queen had discovered her plot and sentenced her to be beheaded for treason. Though with her death her trap was sprung and every slave in Draega was set free.

Thread Timeline

 * 1) A Healers Touch
 * 2) Cause for Celebration
 * 3) Whatever Happened to Helena Satine or the story of Hayll's Healer