#~visuals

The twins remember little of the few years they spent in the mortal world before their mother whisked them away to the Feywilds. Phoenix has vague memories, more like emotions and impressions of her father. She has tried to use the main fey power she inherited--telepathy--to find out more, but her powers are no match for her mother, a quite powerful halfling in her own right. 

Their mother insists, however, that they are in the Feywilds for their own protection. As children, she would try and scare them with tales of how dangerous the mortal world is for those of fey heritage. When they got older, near the maturity they reached from aging at a human rate, the twin’s mother explained to them that there were people specifically after them because of their father, and they wanted to claim them for nefarious purposes. Despite the warnings, Phoenix has a desire to go and see the human world and learn about that part of her ancestry.

The mind games that faeries are so fond of can make it difficult to bond with others. Phoenix and Griffin have become adept at twisting words like the other inhabitants of the Feywilds, but they have one advantage others keep forgetting about--they can lie. Nevertheless, the pair spends much of their time paranoid about everything they do or say. Phoenix especially makes it her mission to protect her brother from the harsher aspects of the Courts of the Feywilds. 

Despite her mother’s past, Heather’s life wasn’t too hectic. She got along well enough with the other children in the village, though she always wanted to explore outside of their corner of the world. She had an insatiable curiosity about everything in the world worked that led to her asking everything of people passing through her village, especially scholars.

She grew up weary of the Fire Nation and their colonial plans, so it was a terrifying shock to her when she accidentally firebended the first time. Luckily, no one saw her, and her mother didn’t seem too surprised though her father was visibly distressed at the news. Her mother sat her down and explained that she was from the Fire Nation but had left because they wanted her to do bad things. Imogene was a bender herself who had sworn never to use her powers against another person again. She told her daughter how important it was that she keep that ability a secret. 

Heather struggled with keeping her firebending in check, so her mother made sure to teach her the basics. She started to feel different from her peers, and the hardest part of all was how her father looked at her when she talked about or used firebending. 

When Heather was a teenager, the Fire Nation attacked their humble village, looking to claim more land for their empire. There was little that the members of their village could do, but her mom stepped up to defend them, using a staff, and when it got bad, firebending. Her father spirited Heather away to hide, despite her protests that she wanted to help her mother. But they didn’t get away. A few soldiers caught them on the far side of the village, and one went for Arthur. Heather didn’t think; she just reacted by blasting the soldier. 

The soldiers captured the two and brought them back, despite Heather fighting tooth, nail, and flame. They arrived where the captain had her mother tied up and badly bruised and burned. Arthur was accused of harboring a fugitive, but Imogene insisted desperately that he had known nothing. They let him go, but Heather will never forget seeing her mother set ablaze right in front of her. 

Then there was nothing Arthur could do as his daughter was dragged onto a Fire Nation ship. The captain sat her down and assured her that she was not responsible for her mother’s crimes. He also lamented that she had been kept from her home land and culture for so long and declared that they would fix that. 

Heather found herself thrust into a school in the Fire Nation’s capital, where she bitterly observed how ubiquitous the propaganda was. How could everyone be so stupid and blind? They were clearly being led on to perpetuate this horrible regime. She ran away several times in the first year, trying to reach the Earth Kingdom and her father, and one time she even made it a few miles out in a stolen boat. Eventually however, she learned to bite her tongue and lower her eyes, for the punishments there were not light. 

After she graduated, Heather was conscripted into the Fire Nation army, forced to fight for the corrupt power she despised. They had been making her take bending lessons since she arrived in the capital in preparation for this, though she had held out a desperate hope of leaving after gradation. Heather enjoys the rush of power from using her fire, but every time she does, she also hears her mother beg for mercy as the flames consume her.