Maggie Thornecliff

   Penny had not reverted back to her human shape yet. Her whole time in that hole in the sea it had seemed prudent to be the little grey worg. Taller, faster, better senses it had been nothing but logical. Even after Maggie had found she had stayed a wolf. All throughout the slow and steady way home too. This had been waved off as the leftover adrenaline. After all she had stayed shifted the whole way back from Argus. This was all part and parcel of her reasoning but it could not be denied that she was a bit scared. Penny had no idea how bad the scar would be on a human face. 

  She had never thought herself to be vain. In fact she went out of her way not to be. There was an awkwardness that hung about her regarding how she was viewed by others. As a child she had been small, when the stutter had become bad this had only made it worse. Her shyness adding nothing to help all of this. As she had grown up in the Coles household it had never been much of an issue. No one really looked at a kitchen maid. If she was being honest it only had come to her attention that it was something to attend to after Moni had taken off leaving her to lead in a very public organization that it had to be at lest addressed. It was a good thing because she found herself the public face of Four Points now. 

   All of that and well Maggie. Who had been slowly drawing out something in the maid turned Lady the last few years. To allow for small amount of pide in her looks to peek out. That all felt like it could be undone in a moment and it made her head hurt to think on it. 

  She moved away form the vanity, padding over to close the bedroom door. Even with Maggie out, off someplace with Vel, she still need the security that only a closed door could offer. It clicked shut and key that now felt so small in her paw was placed in and turned. She drew it out with a sign and slipped it a pocket.  Penny shifted down into human on her way back to the mirror. At about three steps away she raised her eyes forcing herself to examine the damage in this shape.

  The mark was red and still rather angry looking. This was something that had been largely hidden up to now. It was fairly straight running form her hairline on a slight angle towards her right eye. It ended just on the outer corner, any closer and she could have lost part of the lid or done damage to the eye itself. At least the placement was the same in ether shape more or less, and she pressed it a bit with her fingers, wondering if she could hide it with her hair. 

   Penny pulled a few strand forward wondering how long bangs would need to be to hide the worst of it. Perhaps she could curl it drawing the eye away from  her face? She opened the draw and looked for the curling irons she knew Maggie had bought at one point. There she found what she was looking for as well as a pot of face make-up belonging to Maggie. It was almost new and she opened it up to take a look. Her mate had been wearing less and less of it opting to show the delicate lattice work of scars on her face and hands. Those lace like lines that criss crossed all over her mates body, had been a wonder for Penny. She desperately wanted to run her fingertips on along them. To follow them where ever it was they went. Would her own scar bring the same feelings up in her mate? Would Penny even allow for that with out disappearing?

  She dipped her index finger into one of the jars. Perhaps it was more then she needed. No she was sure it was more then she needed and it was clear as soon as she slathered it across the scar. She winced and looked in the mirror, then back down. Penny could feel that it was going to be a long day and it wasn’t even lunch time. 

It was dark for a long time. A long time. She had no idea how long it had been dark. When she was finally aware it was that her eyes were shut she struggled to open them. Her left opened blinking but her right would not. It felt sticky and wet. No not just her eye was wet all of her was wet, but the area around her eye burned. 

After a moment she realized that all of her was aching at lest a little and she struggled to sit up. She was covered in tendrils of sea weed and pulled a strand off with her paw. Penny stared at it for what felt like a long moment as if it couldn’t be hers. It was and she must have shifted at some point. No she had. Her head throbbed as bits of what happened struggled to the front of her mind.

Before she could call up what she needed though something struck her as odd. She was wet but all around her was dry. That and looking past her paw she could see that the sky seemed….how could she put this….so far away. It was as if she was deep down a well. 

The it all flooded back. The rescue with the boats, that ring of storm, the life boat with the men on it….Maggie’s face. The last thing she could recall was her mate hauling the last sailor up onto the ship from the ice patch she had made and then? Penny wasn’t sure what had happened only that she was now here in what had to be the hole in the water. The one that they had so urgently come around the back of to see if they could help. 

Great deal of help she was now laying on her back. “Get up” a voice in her head said. It was a moment before she realized she was hearing her fathers deep tone rather then her own inner monolog. “Get up wee Penvenom the water took me but not you but you have to get up” 

Her head still throbbing and with only one eye open she struggled up, but she got up. 

    Penny came back to the small apartment her and Maggie had rented out in the harbor. It was a fair walk from the shop and Penny had made a point of keeping a separate place to live and work. Maybe this would help ease up the “you work to much” fights that seemed to keep popping up. Though things had been better since she had hired Sara on as a clerk. Tonight though she wished she was closer to the office to better make notes of what Lady North had said. 

   It had been a very long time since Penny had even been able to get word of the Bloodcrown noble. So once they had been able to connect only a few weeks past Penny was sure a meeting would soon follow. It had and the maid turned lady now had cheeks flushed from wine to prove it. 

  Now  the port of Bloodcrown was open for business, and this was exciting . Lady North had gone and done what she always said she would do and reclaimed her homeland. All that talk all that planning had been so long ago, in fact she had called her “Miss Penny” a throw back to who she was in the days after Moni had disappeared. Much had changed Amon was gone word of his death was true. Penny hadn’t pushed for details, the look of grief on her friends face was enough to halt any questions. That and she seemed to have a new paramor. 

  The void elf had been a very pleasant companion and a jeweler to boot. While it hadn’t come up Penny wondered if maybe she could ask him for a sample of his work. She was in the market for a wedding ring after all and this Kadeiron seemed as if he would be easy to work with.

  Tugging off her boots she crept in figuring on Maggie being asleep in that chair again. At lest this time her mate had known she was at a meeting tonight and they had spent sometime this afternoon. Penny was right about Maggie and covered her with a blanket before settling herself at the little desk.

   Lighting a lamp she set out to make a handful of notes. There had been an offer for export and perhaps resale of some of the most prized things Bloodcrown had for trade. She wanted to act swiftly as she was sure she wasn’t Lady North’s only friend with ships. Not only would this be good for the ever growing company but it put her in a spot to get something she really wanted. 

   Charts and maps of the area were hard to come by. Even more so accurate ones that made notes of the rocks and the shallows that dotted the water. By getting such informations from the locals and comparing it with the  whats she had amassed so far, maybe just maybe she could finally find her father island, and any family it still may hold for her. 

The Swept-Hilt Rapier

The name of the rapiers refers only to the sword’s guard, handle, and pommel. For example, types of Renaissance sword hilts include: swept-hilt, shell, half-hilt, cup-hilt, dish-hilt, dueling-hilt, cavalier-hilt, Pappenheimer, mortuary-hilt, basket-hilt, etc.

Swept-hilt is an early Renaissance hilt form designed originally to protect the unarmored hand from cuts more than thrusts, they are made up of finger-rings, side-rings, knuckle-guard, and often a variety other protective bars (back-guards and counter-guards, etc), they are found on many cut & thrust swords and early rapiers The name is actually a Victorian era term and not a istorical one.

The rapier was the first civilian weapon, developing as the use of armor declined. A thrust and cut weapon, the rapier first appeared in the late 1400’s and had its heyday up to the 1600’s. The 1600’s saw the start of the transitional rapier as hilts became smaller and blades were designed more for thrusting and less for cutting.

The cup hilt rapier and Swept Hilt Rapier made their appearances in the early 1650’s in Spain, and enjoyed popularity in Spain and Southern Italy until the early 1700’s. The rapier was often used with a second defensive weapon; daggers, bucklers, and cloaks were the most popular.

While daggers were often decorated “en suite” with their companion rapier, it was by no means unusual to have a “mismatched” set of rapier and dagger. Much lighter than the broadsword of medieval times, the rapier brought about a whole new style of swordplay and a proliferation of fencing schools.

une femme bien lue est une créature dangereuse.

1. Who would sell their soul to the devil to save the other.

2. Who would become a stalker, in the right (wrong) situation.

3. Who would pine away in silence their entire lives without confessing their love.

4. Who would leave their friends, family, and life to move overseas to be with the other one.

5. Who would be the most worried the other might cheat on them.

6. Who would run into a burning building to save a stranger while the other calls 911.

7. Who would haunt the other after death and chase away other suitors.

8. Who would stand up at the other’s wedding and say they object.

9. Who would write long, beautiful poems for the other.

10. Who would love the other no matter how evil the other became.

11. Who would be the most likely to become an addict (gambling/drugs/etc.).

12. Who would propose in a grand gesture of some kind.

13. Who would go berserk at harm or death befalling the other.

14. Who would spend too much money on expensive gifts for the other.

15. Who would fight an impossible battle to give the other time to escape.