➼ Poison was born to Hew and Faraway, in the village of Gull, deep in the heart of a region called the Black Marshes.
➼ When Poison was twelve, her mother died of swamp lung, just after giving birth to her second child – Poison's sister, Azalea. Her father remarried, wedding a cold beauty from the next village named Snapdragon, and from the beginning there was friction between stepmother and stepdaughter, and they hated one another with a fierce, bitter intensity only kept under control by their mutual desire to see Hew happy.
➼ Until the age of fourteen, Poison's name was Foxglove, but on her fourteenth birthday everyone in the village gathered around a platform to hear the name that she’d chosen to be called from then on, as was tradition for the people of the marshes. An outcast amongst the villagers even at that age, no one was surprised when she proclaimed that her new name would be 'Poison', a choice provoked by an argument that she had had with Snapdragon the morning of the choosing.
➼ On Soulswatch Eve of her sixteenth year, Poison had her first real brush with the Phaerie Realm – specifically, with a creature called the Scarecrow. On Soulswatch Eve of her sixteenth year, the phaeries stole Poison's baby sister, and replaced her with a Changeling.
➼ Poison's grief quickly gave way to anger, and she made the decision to travel to the Realm of the Phaeries and demand that they return her sister to her.
➼ Passing through Shieldtown she spoke with Lamprey, a phaerie-cursed man who told her how to get through to the Phaerie Realm after she won a game of riddles with him.
➼ She travelled through the house of the bone witch Maeb and, though she was caught, was saved by a girl who lived in the house and the soul catcher who had brought her to Shieldtown from Gull. The three of them went to the Phaerie Realm together.
➼ Told to go and see the Hierophant, Poison reached the palace of the Phaerie Lord in quick time thanks to the Coachman, and were met by a man who introduced himself as Scriddle. Without much ado he took them straight to the throne of Lord Aelthar, under the terms of Amrae's Law, which granted an audience with the Phaerie Lord during which they could not be harmed. He demanded she complete a task in return for her sister, which she agreed to.
➼ After completing this dangerous task she discovered that Aelthar was planning to double-cross them and resolved to take her sister back by force.
➼ Stowing away in the Phaerie Lord's retinue as he made his way to visit the Hierophant, they made their way to his castle. Here, she discovered that she - and everything else - were just stories and characters written by the Hierophant. Learning this almost broke her entirely.
➼ Unable to cope with the undeniable fact that her entire life had been the product of another's fiction she simply stopped trying to do anything, and the world began to slowly crumble around her. She was the last to realise that it was because they were currently in her story.
➼ Then, they discovered that the current Hierophant had been murdered.
➼ Poison fled the Hierophant's castle and found an ally in Grugaroth, Lord of the Trolls. Under his protection she returned and accused Lord Aelthar and Lady Pariasa, the Hierophant's wife, of Melcheron's murder.
➼ Not long after the murder of the Hierophant, Lord Aelthar summoned Poison to meet with him privately. Again, she accused him of plotting Melcheron's murder, and though he didn't deny that he'd taken advantage of the opportunity, he did deny the murder itself. However, Aelthar suspected Scriddle, and he confided as much to Poison, telling her that he had given her the task of retrieving the dagger believing that she could never accomplish it. She did, though the Phaerie Lord never put his hands on the weapon, and it had only been a convenient part of Scriddle and Pariasa's plans that the knife they used to murder the Hierophant would belong to the Lady Asinastra.
➼ Again, Lord Aelthar offered Poison a deal. He showed her an image of her sister, revealing to her that humans were taken only for the purposes of breeding, so that he might find the perfect replacement for the Hierophant. He promised Poison that her sister had not yet been 'used', and if she retracted her statement of his guilt in front of the lords and ladies, then returned home and never bothered him again, he would return her to Poison immediately. After conferring briefly with her friends, she returned to Aelthar to give him her answer, only to find that he had been poisoned in the short time she'd been away. Lady Asinastra had got her revenge. The Phaerie Lord was dead.
➼ Moments later, Scriddle and Pariasa entered the rooms. Though she tried to hide, she was discovered, and almost killed by the furious half-human as he admitted to her that they had never had her sister to give back to her.
➼ As Pariasa pleased with Scriddle to spare the girl's life the last pieces fell into place. Poison was the new Hierophant, and killing her before the end of her tale would bring an end to everything.
➼ Even knowing this, Scriddle still stabbed her. Pariasa reacted by killing Scriddle and subsequently saving Poison with her magic.
➼ Despite reserving the right to refuse it, Poison accepted the role of Hierophant and took her place in the Realm.
tl;dr
➼ When Poison was twelve, her mother died of swamp lung, just after giving birth to her second child – Poison's sister, Azalea. Her father remarried, wedding a cold beauty from the next village named Snapdragon, and from the beginning there was friction between stepmother and stepdaughter, and they hated one another with a fierce, bitter intensity only kept under control by their mutual desire to see Hew happy.
➼ Until the age of fourteen, Poison's name was Foxglove, but on her fourteenth birthday everyone in the village gathered around a platform to hear the name that she’d chosen to be called from then on, as was tradition for the people of the marshes. An outcast amongst the villagers even at that age, no one was surprised when she proclaimed that her new name would be 'Poison', a choice provoked by an argument that she had had with Snapdragon the morning of the choosing.
➼ On Soulswatch Eve of her sixteenth year, Poison had her first real brush with the Phaerie Realm – specifically, with a creature called the Scarecrow. On Soulswatch Eve of her sixteenth year, the phaeries stole Poison's baby sister, and replaced her with a Changeling.
➼ Poison's grief quickly gave way to anger, and she made the decision to travel to the Realm of the Phaeries and demand that they return her sister to her.
➼ Passing through Shieldtown she spoke with Lamprey, a phaerie-cursed man who told her how to get through to the Phaerie Realm after she won a game of riddles with him.
➼ She travelled through the house of the bone witch Maeb and, though she was caught, was saved by a girl who lived in the house and the soul catcher who had brought her to Shieldtown from Gull. The three of them went to the Phaerie Realm together.
➼ Told to go and see the Hierophant, Poison reached the palace of the Phaerie Lord in quick time thanks to the Coachman, and were met by a man who introduced himself as Scriddle. Without much ado he took them straight to the throne of Lord Aelthar, under the terms of Amrae's Law, which granted an audience with the Phaerie Lord during which they could not be harmed. He demanded she complete a task in return for her sister, which she agreed to.
➼ After completing this dangerous task she discovered that Aelthar was planning to double-cross them and resolved to take her sister back by force.
➼ Stowing away in the Phaerie Lord's retinue as he made his way to visit the Hierophant, they made their way to his castle. Here, she discovered that she - and everything else - were just stories and characters written by the Hierophant. Learning this almost broke her entirely.
➼ Unable to cope with the undeniable fact that her entire life had been the product of another's fiction she simply stopped trying to do anything, and the world began to slowly crumble around her. She was the last to realise that it was because they were currently in her story.
➼ Then, they discovered that the current Hierophant had been murdered.
➼ Poison fled the Hierophant's castle and found an ally in Grugaroth, Lord of the Trolls. Under his protection she returned and accused Lord Aelthar and Lady Pariasa, the Hierophant's wife, of Melcheron's murder.
➼ Not long after the murder of the Hierophant, Lord Aelthar summoned Poison to meet with him privately. Again, she accused him of plotting Melcheron's murder, and though he didn't deny that he'd taken advantage of the opportunity, he did deny the murder itself. However, Aelthar suspected Scriddle, and he confided as much to Poison, telling her that he had given her the task of retrieving the dagger believing that she could never accomplish it. She did, though the Phaerie Lord never put his hands on the weapon, and it had only been a convenient part of Scriddle and Pariasa's plans that the knife they used to murder the Hierophant would belong to the Lady Asinastra.
➼ Again, Lord Aelthar offered Poison a deal. He showed her an image of her sister, revealing to her that humans were taken only for the purposes of breeding, so that he might find the perfect replacement for the Hierophant. He promised Poison that her sister had not yet been 'used', and if she retracted her statement of his guilt in front of the lords and ladies, then returned home and never bothered him again, he would return her to Poison immediately. After conferring briefly with her friends, she returned to Aelthar to give him her answer, only to find that he had been poisoned in the short time she'd been away. Lady Asinastra had got her revenge. The Phaerie Lord was dead.
➼ Moments later, Scriddle and Pariasa entered the rooms. Though she tried to hide, she was discovered, and almost killed by the furious half-human as he admitted to her that they had never had her sister to give back to her.
➼ As Pariasa pleased with Scriddle to spare the girl's life the last pieces fell into place. Poison was the new Hierophant, and killing her before the end of her tale would bring an end to everything.
➼ Even knowing this, Scriddle still stabbed her. Pariasa reacted by killing Scriddle and subsequently saving Poison with her magic.
➼ Despite reserving the right to refuse it, Poison accepted the role of Hierophant and took her place in the Realm.