Fynnien of the Meilyr

Fynnien (pronounced /'fənɪɛn/; also spelled Ffynnien, Ffynien), better known to her friends as 'Fyn', is a young Elf from Tirannwn. She belongs to the Meilyr, a small clan of herblorists and explorers.

Early life
Fynnien was born on 8 Ire of Phyrrys, in the year 54 of the Fifth Age. Her mother, Arwydd, was a young Meilyr explorer, and her father, Falerian, a warlock of the Cadarn; and she was named for the Meilyr at birth. When she was just fifteen years old, her mother went missing on an expedition in Daemonheim; and her father, despite knowing the dangers, went to try and rescue her. Neither of them ever returned.

She was adopted by her maternal grandmother, Branwen, a leading herblorist among the Elven rebels in Isafdar. Branwen raised her and, later, when Fynnien was old enough, took her on as her apprentice - but adventure drew Fyn away from Tirannwn before she could complete it.

Act I: The Saga of Tylluan Hen
In the year 168 of the Fifth Age, on the eve of her 114th birthday, the adolescent Fynnien had a dream that Tylluan Hen, a wise old owl character of children's stories, was in danger. She believed it to be a vision, but no one else would take her seriously; so she left Isafdar alone to seek him out.

It transpired that Tylluan Hen was indeed real: he had been dwelling in Polypore Dungeon, but had been kidnapped by a Zamorakian splinter group working with Lord Iorwerth; and Fyn determined to rescue him.

Her search led her all over Gielinor, including deep into Mort Myre, and more than once into grave danger. Eventually, the meddling of Fynnien and her allies brought her to the attention of Lord Iorwerth, who laid a trap for her; and she was captured and imprisoned in the Zamorakians' citadel, before later being transferred to the cells of the Mourners in West Ardougne. She was eventually rescued by one of her allies; but, wounded in the escape, she was placed in the care of the Tree-Gnomes to recover.

Shortly after her recovery, she was contacted - or rather, magically abducted - by a dashing young Elf magician named Mathonwy. Mathonwy knew all about Tylluan Hen, and offered to help her rescue him; and while initially alarmed, Fynnien fell swiftly in love. Eventually, with Mathonwy's help, the two of them were able to rescue Tylluan Hen from the dungeons of the Iorwerth.

Upon his release however, Tylluan Hen took Fynnien and flew away: he warned her not to trust Mathonwy, and made her swear never to reveal his location to him. Despite Tylluan Hen's misgivings however, Fyn returned to Mathonwy - only to be imprisoned on a splinter-plane when she refused to divulge the owl's location. Mathonwy altered her perception of time so that she felt as though fifty years went by - although less than three weeks had passed by the time she was rescued by an Icyene named Gabreal and returned to Gielinor. She has been on the run from Mathonwy, in one way or another, ever since.

Interlude
With the start of the new God Wars, but before the return of Seren, Fynnien based herself at a house in Taverley in a bid to teach Humans the Serenist philosophy, believing this would help to bring peace; but this ambition was short-lived, cut short by the destruction of her home and headquarters by her old foes. At this point, having received news of the regrowing of Prifddinas and the end of the Elven Civil War, she returned to Tirannwn; but after a brief spell, she found she preferred the old wandering life with which she had grown up in the forests of Isafdar, and left again.

Fynnien returned to Kandarin, plying her old trade as a potionist; it seemed that her enemies had forgotten about her, or believed her still safe in Prifddinas. Eventually she joined the Elven colony of Hailawen near Camelot, under the rule of Nolfinwë Telemmaitë, as a field medic potionist in their elite guard.

Act II: New Faces
While there, she happened to meet a young Human called Tyler Locke who visited House Telemmaite as a messenger of the Godless. The two of them became friends; and through him she met a Halfelf named Lyam. Lyam revealed to her a plot by his grandfather involving a powerful artefact known as the Crystal Heart; and eventually, he gained her trust enough for her to confide in him that Tylluan Hen was real, and she knew where he was. She traveled alone to Tarddiad, which is where Tylluan Hen had told her he would be, to ask him about the Heart, but found him gone; he had left her a message telling her that he had gone to the Underground Pass.

Lyam insisted on accompanying her through the Pass when she told him, and eventually, since he knew the way, she relented. The Pass played many tricks on them, but at long last they cut their way through - only to be ambushed by a band of Mourners, whom they had believed long-gone. Just when it seemed that they were both finished however, Tylluan Hen himself finally appeared, hurling the Mourners into the far wall of the cavern with one beat of his great wings. When they asked him about the Heart however, he informed them that he had never heard of such a thing; but when they described what it could do, he told them that if such a thing truly existed then it was more than mere Tarddian crystal: it must somehow contain the trapped souls of Elves. Tylluan Hen then carried them out of the Pass, and went to seek a new residence for himself.

Not long thereafter, while they were still deciding what to do about the Heart, Fyn visited Lyam one afternoon only to learn that Mathonwy had been to his house, asking for her. Lyam went to warn Tylluan Hen of Mathonwy's reappearance; but when he returned home, Fyn had already left. She had wasted no time in going into hiding, but left no word. Neither Lyam nor Tyler saw hide nor hair of her for many months, and Tylluan Hen denied all knowledge of her whereabouts. They were left to fear the worst.

With no further sightings of Mathonwy, Fyn eventually came out of hiding. On her return, she discovered that Tyler had been kidnapped and turned to stone by Rosaline; but she eventually spurred Lyam into arranging a trade to recover Tyler, and with the aid of Celwyn they were able to reassemble and reanimate him - although the two men later fell out, and parted ways.

While basing herself at Lyam's house in anticipation of their move to capture the Crystal Heart, the two of them were among the first to journey to the island of the Lost Grove after its re-emergence and learn what had taken place there. While there, Fyn realised she had still not got over her parents' disappearance, and Lyam offered to help her find out what happened to them so that she could move on; but at that time, she resolved not to go looking for them. "I never really had any closure... In a way, I've been trapped in time ever since they left. Deep down, I'm still just a lonely little Elf-child, waiting for her parents to come home."

Interlude
The thought continued to nag at the back of her mind however, and she became increasingly restless. Eventually, a plan took shape. She left her friends, and travelled alone to Daemonheim, seeking any sign of her parents' passage so many decades previously. She remained on the hunt for several months, but the trail was long since cold, and she was unable to find any firm trace of them. At length, a near-death experience forced her to admit defeat; she spent several weeks in recovery at the Fremennik camp, before beating a retreat to her friends in the West.

Act III: Mathonwy Unveiled
One afternoon, early in the sixth year of the Sixth Age, while visiting Ardougne market, Fynnien was approached by a handsome young human craftsman named Eric. He charmed her, in the usual ways, and requested a second meeting at a location of her choice. Fynnien suggested a bar she knew in Ta Quir Priw, and Eric accepted enthusiastically.

Fynnien showed up to the date unarmed and unsuspecting, and found herself drinking more than she had intended. Momentarily losing sight of Eric, she left the bar to look for him, but ran directly into two acquaintances who by chance were visiting the same bar. Sobered up, they parted ways as Fynnien continued trying to find Eric. As soon as the coast was clear, she was ambushed by Mathonwy, who knocked her out from stealth before teleporting away with her.

She awoke to find herself restrained and at Mathonwy's mercy in his secret workshop on Tarddiad. There, mingling violence and tenderness, he sought to persuade her that he was as in love with her as ever, that he was sorry for how he had treated her, and that he had discovered a great destiny for her which he would help her to achieve if she would but return to him, as he knew part of her still yearned to.

But before he was able to break her resolve, Lyam and Tyler arrived on Tarddiad, distracting Mathonwy; they had been appraised of the investigations of the two friends Fynnien had run into at Ta Quir Priw, after they had grown suspicious of Eric's behaviour. Using a crystal ball, Mathonwy appeared to Lyam and Tyler as a spectral figure, attempting to persuade them to abandon their quest through manipulation and intimidation. But while Mathonwy's attention was on her allies, trying to find out how much they knew, Fynnien gradually managed to free her hands.

When his back was turned, the first thing Mathonwy knew of this was a blow to the head from the chair to which she had been tied. Mathonwy was knocked to the floor, dazed but protected by his helmet, as Fynnien threw herself upon him, striking him with her fists. The two of them fought: at first it seemed that Mathonwy held the upper hand almost immediately, but with a fury born of desperation, eventually Fynnien was able to pin him down. The ancient magician was finally strangled to death by the woman he had betrayed, ending his life.

With Lyam and Tyler's help, Fynnien transported Mathonwy's possessions back to Tyler's hideout on Gielinor for safekeeping, claiming that Mathonwy had left them to her in his will. They then turned the secret workshop into a great pyre for his remains. Mathonwy was truly gone at last.

Epilogue: What Mathonwy Left Behind
Fynnien gave almost all of Mathonwy's strange possessions to Tylluan Hen, to hide somewhere even she would not be able to find, but one thing she intended to keep for herself, at least at first: Mathonwy's crystal ball, which she hoped to use to search for her parents. Tyler too was initially unwilling to part with this particular artefact, but after a string of deceptions and heated arguments, he returned it to her when she finally told him what she wanted it for. Before she had the chance to use it however, a mysterious band disguised in old Mourner gear raided her home, burning it to the ground, and stealing the crystal ball.

Lyam
The weeks that followed were tumultuous for Fyn. At first, losing her home didn't bother her too much: she stayed with Lyam, or camped in the wilds, as she was used to. But as Lyam spent more and more time with his fiancée, Aderyn, and their wedding day drew nearer, Fyn and Lyam's friendship became more and more fraught. Eventually, she was forced to admit to herself that she had fallen in love with him; and in a moment of anger and confusion, she confessed her feelings to him as well, brazenly asking him to leave Aderyn for her. For the briefest of moments, she thought she saw him waver - but at the wrong word, spoken too soon, Lyam drew away from her. Thereafter they spoke little; and Fyn was kept distracted by the fortuitous reappearance of a couple of old friends.

Night
While travelling in Asgarnia, searching for rare plants in an attempt to keep busy, Fyn teamed up with a knight of Falador to hunt down a vyre who was terrorising a human community. Infiltrating the vyre's manor alone, it turned out to be none other than Amia, an old travelling companion of Fyn and the Icyene Gabreal who, despairing after becoming separated from them, had fallen to evil ways. Fyn was able to convince her to leave her predatory life behind and come away with her for a fresh start; and after a little while, Amia chose to make the long voyage to the River Salve alone to be cured of her vampyrism.

Fyn accompanied the newly mortal Amia for a while to keep an eye on her, but Amia seemed to readjust to mortality remarkably fast. It soon became apparent that, without Amia's condition, the two of them in fact had little in common - and after a while, they parted ways again.

Day
Meanwhile, Gabreal's sister, Anna, had been searching for Fyn, and finally found her one day descending the mountain path from Lyam's valley. Anna claimed she had been summoned away to fight in the God Wars and had not been free to return to seek Fyn out until that moment - but also that she was in love with her, and always had been. Unsure whether to trust Anna, and certainly not reciprocating her feelings, Fyn eventually accepted Anna's advances anyway, desperate to bury her feelings for Lyam. But it was not long before Anna was called back to war again, leaving Fyn feeling more abandoned than ever before.

Speak Now
Lyam's wedding day finally came. Fyn noticed keenly that he barely even looked at her as he chose Aderyn, and after the ceremony they had a blazing row, culminating in Lyam banning Fyn from coming to see him.

They spoke even less after that; their shared resolve to hunt down the Mourners who had razed Fyn's home quite forgotten in all the emotional upheaval.

Fyn took to roaming further and further afield, burying herself in her work and cutting herself off from everyone. Desperate for distraction, she took it into her head to go and try to speak with Eric, convincing herself that Mathonwy's death must have been part of some greater scheme of his and that Eric might know more than he was letting on - but Eric had jumped bail and was nowhere to be found.

Piercing the Heart
Dejected and not knowing what else to do, Fyn headed back westward where by chance she ran into Lyam again. Enough time had passed that their anger had cooled off; and Lyam announced that he was finally ready to confront his grandfather. Inevitably, Fyn joined Lyam and his allies on their campaign to end the threat of the crystal heart once and for all.

Comstalk, Lyam's grandfather, had taken up residence on Tarddiad in a great crystal tower, sung to house the heart, at the centre of a war-camp. His forces were comprised of Elves loyal to him and even a few shapeshifters, controlled by the power of the Heart.

Following the plan, Lyam's force, led by Nerevar of the Meilyr, took up ambush positions in the woods. Fynnien and Lyam's grandmother, Eira, snuck into the camp disguised as Comstalk's soldiers to sabotage their military capability and ensure Lyam would have an escape route, while Lyam and his mother Lucina entered the camp openly and asked to speak to Comstalk.

Fyn kept as close an eye on them as she dared as Comstalk greeted his daughter and grandson while they came up with some excuse to see inside his tower, where the Heart was kept. Comstalk agreed - but only Lyam would be permitted to enter. Lyam accepted, and ascended the tower. Against Lyam's instructions, Fyn tried to enter the tower to help him - but the crystal door sealed itself against her, shutting her out. Lyam and Comstalk faced off on the roof as battle broke out in the war-camp and Fyn, frustrated, guarded Lyam's way out, praying for a way to help him.

The duel on the rooftop was also a battle of voices as Lyam sought to unsing the enchantments controlling the Heart and Comstalk sought to prevent him; the crystal tower housing it trembled and darkened, finally buckling as Lyam gained the upper hand in the battle. A fissure sprang open in the wall and Fyn raced up the stairs just in time to see the defeated Comstalk stab Lyam in the chest with his dying blow. By the time she had loosed an arrow, Comstalk was already dead.

The wound was severe. The tower was coming apart. Snatching up the heart and dragging Lyam with her, Fyn leapt with him into the water below as the tower crumbled to the ground.

Weighed down by armour, it was all Fyn could do to keep them both from drowning in the freezing lake - but help was at hand: Lyam's allies had seen the pair fall, and swam out to help them back to dry land. As Fyn cradled Lyam, trying desperately to stop the bleeding and save his life, with the last of his strength Lyam finished his song - transforming himself into pure light, and flowing into the crystal heart to preserve himself, and gradually heal.

Lyam's mother took the Heart for safekeeping, and a mysterious stranger promised to help purify the Heart so that its occupant would not suffer; but Fyn was numb.

Lyam was gone.

Act V: The Secret Keepers
To be continued.

Appearance and dress
Like most Elves, Fyn possesses a slender build and exceedingly fair features. She has wavy, dark golden hair, a tanned complexion, and bright, sea-blue eyes. Her ears are a little smaller than average for an Elf, around 4 inches from lobe to tip. She has no tattoos normally on show.

Although her preferred palette of greyish-greens is perfectly conventional, the style of Fyn's clothing is modest, rather scruffy and a little old-fashioned - more in keeping with the rough clothes of the rebel Elf clans in the late Fifth Age than the latest fashion in Prifddinas. In contrast with her clothes, she lavishes attention on her hair: it is always pristine, and often elaborately styled into the refined "flower of Lletya", even for no particular occasion.

Combat and equipment

 * Fyn is an accomplished archer. While she has a natural talent, by Cadarn standards it would take many more decades of training to make her truly remarkable; however by Human standards she is quite an expert.
 * Fyn possesses a crystal bow, although she uses it sparingly to prolong its lifespan before it needs re-singing. The seed was a gift from her grandmother on her hundredth birthday; it was originally sung into a bow attuned to Fyn alone by her first lover, but has since been reverted to seed twice and is no longer attuned.
 * Fyn carries a pair of unattuned crystal daggers together on her left hip. Ostensibly, their primary purpose is for taking cuttings of plants and the like, but she has been known to use them to fight at close quarters. They were originally acquired from a fallen member of the Iorwerth in the late Fifth Age.

Skills and interests

 * Although Fyn's father was a warlock, Fyn has almost no knowledge of magic and has never shown much interest in spellcasting. She occasionally expresses a disdain for teleportation as opposed to more mundane forms of travel, but regularly piggybacks on other people's teleport spells, whether to escape a tight situation in one piece or simply for convenience.
 * Fyn is a potionist, or apothecary, by trade, even though she never technically quite completed her apprenticeship.
 * Fyn has a childlike passion for exploring caverns and clifftops to find rare species and varieties of wild plants. She collects and sells plants with useful properties on their own, such as anaesthetics and poisons, to supplement her income from potion-making.
 * Fyn claims to be the inventor of a sort of cocktail, which she has somewhat pretentiously taken to calling Nostalgia. It is roughly the same strength as fortified wine, and dangerously drinkable, with a rich earthy taste: sweet like honey but smoky like lapsang souchong, and a little spicy like fresh wild rocket. Drinking it alongside a different alcoholic beverage usually induces vomiting almost immediately. It tends to steer one slightly towards a peaceful, reflective kind of drunkenness.