#ferrikh

While the buyer was willing to pay fare for caretakers to travel to Coriolis and back to Algol, both Ferrikh and their guardian knew it would be their only chance to leave the planet. On their last night in Algol, their guardian presented Ferrikh with their own Algolan coat.

Worn open, the coat is a communal symbol worn by all Algolans if they can afford it. The hem is embroidered in the traditional Algolan style, with symbols of region, personal attachments, and good luck. The front of the coat is embroidered with major events of the wearer's life from bottom to top. Family members often pass down a coat, if the wearer bequeaths it, but it is taboo for a wearer to make or embroider their own coat; a coat must always be made by another as it symbolizes events and achievements the group thinks is important, not the wearer.

In Coriolis, Ferrikh followed their love for history by joining Ahlam's Temple. The Temple of Ahlam trains Courtesans in the arts of the eight religious Icons - including but not limited to dancing, poetry, song, and death, as well as sex. Ferrikh's primary art was poetry and history, although they also studied mourning. (A common advert for Courtesans is professional mourning.) They do not regret leaving Algol, but the isolation haunts them sometimes; particularly as they embroider their key moments - leaving Algol, and becoming a Professional Courtesan - themselves.

Several years on, Ferrikh's growing knowledge of the Portal Wars and pre-Portal War artifacts begins to alarm them. Nobody in the Third Horizon knows what started the Portal Wars, only that the ruin and devastation in the wake ended planets. But Ferrikh is almost positive that before it, people began showing odd powers and figures calling themselves the Emissaries of the Icons arrived.