Image Credits: frame Arkane; figures City of Heroes

Name: Faith Sedlow

Gender/Preference: Female, she/her, 'anything you like, if the coin is right'

Age/DOB: 20 in 1837; 18th day, Month of Seeds | note that she is definitely still alive in the 'modern' era in 1855, and does not look a single day older than she is in this image ^

Faction: Marked, Courtesans of the Golden Cat

Family: Unknown family, she has distanced herself from them in as much as she does know who her mother was, never knew her father; the girls (and later men) at the Golden Cat are her family; no known children (mostly thanks to prevention)

Height/Build: 5'8" / slender and exactly as curvy as needed, flexible and much stronger than she looks

Hair: dark red, straight and shaggy, kept to nape of neck as shown

Eyes: crystal blue, perfectly done with liner and a bit of shadow

Appearance: peaches and cream skin with heavy tattooing on her arms, shoulders, back, and spine; these tattoos do glow at times, mostly when she's making her semi-ritual potions and charms; while she does have 'regular clothes' you'll more often notice her in her courtesan style leggings and dress, corset and choker - she likes lacey things, furs, and leather in equal amounts; she does wear makeup but her lips are dark red already; her voice is her power, she can speak in whispers and screams, her speaking voice sounds like thick peach brandy

"She would become a legend, but allows others into her spotlight, enough to keep that word off the lips of her customers. A sensible thought, for someone who has not grown old with the rest."

Skills and Occupation: She is versed in the sensual arts, like all the girls at the Golden Cat. She won't say how she learned these things, nor when, but she is very, very skilled indeed. Faith will work up to blackmail with some who come through the place, but only while Prudence was the Madam there. She plays a long game with others, and doesn't want the establishment to become known for losing secrets, or gaining diseases... She's not necessarily an herbalist, because her skills with plants and poisons or toxins come from the Mark she bears, and she can easily feign innocence of the effects with batting her eyes and claiming they were 'just so pretty, don't you think they look good against the wallpaper'. Her true skills however also include the paperwork for legal messes, payoffs, bribes and extortion, pretty much every interaction you'd expect out of a semi-legal establishment deep in the capitol of the Isles. She can dance 'backwards in high heels', and more than dance with anyone that tries to harm her - she will swiftly take out any intruders and call it 'lucky that vase was above him when he tripped and screamed like that!' Also while she is apt with deception, she only lies to those who intrude or are attempting to do anything that harms her or the girls, or the business.

Residence: While she works in the Golden Cat, she doesn't need to sleep there, making more than enough coin to afford a nice place overlooking the harbor nearby, with a two-floor apartment that has access to the roof. Under that roof she has a shrine to the Outsider and a spot where she mixes her potions and works on items for the girls at the Cat.

Notable Possessions: She has quite a few items of clothing, but also a number of garden planters that hang outside her balcony and along the walls of her attic space. These contain exotic herbs and poisonous plants, both pretty and painful.

^After the events of the late 1830s, Madam Prudence wisely decides to retire, and brings several of her 'best' girls forward to vie for the position of Madam. While the other two girls are definitely popular among the patrons and experienced with dealing with the City Watch or Overseers, it is Faith that takes up the mantle of Madam there in 1844. However, she does move the other two into positions of importance, because she has plans to expand the place, perhaps across the Isles...

Magical Preferences or Abilities: She was not a witch and does not consider herself one now, even though the Outsider granted her his Mark a few years before she joined the Golden Cat. But magic comes very easily to her, as do bonecharms, herbs and potions, runes, and heretical books. While she does use the herbs and potions and such, she fully reads and commits to memory any important things in those books and immediately resells them - she knows some people who know others, import-export people, to get rid of them quickly and safely. Her skills with people mean that she hears a lot of rumors or dirt, which often lead her to 'take that strange tingling artifact off your hands', she'll work in trade for those items, but only with customers that she herself vets for security.

Shown below are some notes taken by observers...

Personality: Worth Every Coin! That's what everyone says about her, anyway! She is canny and resourceful, a much smarter woman than most people would imagine given both her looks and her profession. She is calm, attentive, coy, it is all very much an act for whoever is paying - if she's relaxing with her friends she likes to laugh and reassure, comfort those who are stressed, or help plan behind the scenes if there is a bigger event working up. Even if she is protective of her Mark, she is rarely visibly defensive, knowing that looking honest is far more important than being honest...

Likes and Dislikes: lace, leather, repeat customers, and being able to let loose with magical screams on the rare nights when there are no Overseers to ... overhear. She doesn't care for dock workers touching her, but only because they leave lingering smells, she wants to be fresh not fishy

Fears or Interruptions: Some of those Overseers pay for pleasures that will condemn them to the Void later; she never - ever - takes Overseer coin, putting them with other ladies (or gents) to avoid the very real threat of them seeing her Mark and knowing what it actually is

History: Though Faith was not born to one of the courtesans of the Golden Cat, they eagerly accepted her into their ranks, and she quickly developed a following among the City Guard. Equally quick, the watchful eye of the Overseers of the Abbey - because certainly any girl working this bawdy house would be breaking numerous Strictures.

They'd be right: not only does she attract the Wandering Gaze, it leads to men with the Lying Tongue offering their wives or families excuses instead of dedication. She has Restless Hands with her painted lips and colored tattoos. Her Roving Feet lead right into the Golden Cat, a den of whores and thieves with unrestricted Rampant Hungers - the Wanton Flesh in focus. Perhaps the only Stricture she doesn't break is that of an Errant Mind, but who knows what she whispers to her patrons.

Not only all that - but she IS Marked by the Outsider, and these whispers can turn to shireks or shouts at any moment.

**

After having settled in to the routine and occasionally spicy goings on at the Golden Cat, this golden cat-dragon brought something to Faith's attention. The Outsider's energy had been and gone a few times recently, but he hadn't interacted with the pair, even on a slow night. But then this one very-early morning, a sharp squeek and hiss faintly pierced Iotee's half-slumber. Her human companion was still asleep, the day before had been exhausting.

Iotee still padded on four paws but at a smaller size - still big as a lion, but no thumbs just yet. That squeek was a rat being bitten, she was sure of it. Aha, she heard slight bumping, the batting-around of said now-dead rat, more than likely. But there hadn't been any actual cats in the Golden Cat building for a while, probably her own influence. So there was a brave new arrival then?

That new arrival could be heard happily chowing down now, and as Iotee moved into a bipedal form quietly to peer around a door frame... There was a 'cat', certainly.

It had wings, and a thick tufted tail like her own.

"You have wings!" She blurted out, before she could stop herself. The small hungry creature jolted, red fluff standing all but straight out from its neck and legs. But then it turned, looked at Iotee, and plopped its butt back on the wooden floor of the attic where it'd found that rat and chuffed.

"Oh, it's just you, I wasn't sure who was there. Y'want some?"

It had a tiny little voice but it wasn't speaking 'cat', it was speaking.

"He," he said, "I am Noumei." He nodded, his own mop-top of a mane reminded Iotee more of her human companion than anything else...

While Noumei cleaned up and groomed, getting all the little bloody fur bits off or tucked back into his mouth, Iotee still blinked, her round black eyes just staring.

"You've seen stranger things than me," Noumei commented as he trotted past her, even with his wings fully up and extended he was hardly the height of her knees. Bigger than a cat, not by much. And, a 'cat' in the same colors as both Iotee and Faith...

This little hunter who had kept the place rat-free for about half a year now, vanished and came back with a 'gift' for Faith and Iotee. Proud of himself rather a lot like a cat, in fact, he rolled this golden egg right up to Faith's bedroom hearth and sat there looking like he'd brought literal gold. The egg was barely as big as a hen's, almost as small as a quail's.

"Found this, she'll need you." He said, simply, as though that would clear it all right up.

"Did you eat its parents?" Faith asked, somewhat guessing that it was in fact a bird's egg. That however elicited an incredibly shocked look from Noumei.

"I. Am. Not. A. Cannibal." He stated as clearly as he possibly could.

That got Iotee's attention in addition to the Marked woman. They shared a moment mentally, and Faith picked the egg up carefully and held it close. "It's another of your kind," she whispered.

"Obviously," Noumei grunted, and laid down in front of that same hearth to take a nap.

The egg didn't show any particular signs of being ready to hatch, however, and also seemed a touch on the cold side. Iotee took charge of keeping it warm while Faith took care of customers and the paperwork for the Golden Cat over the course of a couple days, which turned into a week. It was during a blustery storm that caused patronage to dwindle to a single person. Iotee and Faith walked the balcony looking downward at the empty dance floor in the center of the building, and then Iotee (who had two feet just now) gave a little startled look.

"Oh! Here, he did say you would need to attend... her?"

As the egg she had been keeping safe and warm in her little magically conjured way started to bump and buckle, Faith gently held on to it. Her hands could hold a bucking antelope or a buckled customer, as gently or as firmly as needed. And in this case, gentle was certainly the right word. Bits of the shell came away with a slightly damp goo glistening, but by and large the creature within was able to skooch her way out of it nose-first. A small thing, smaller than either the dragon or the woman could imagine turning into a full sized creature.

She peeped a little, her voice would be high and sweet, but for the time being, she couldn't speak in words. But her eyes said everything that was needed. Her eyes were blue as the sea, brighter than Faith's, but filled with all the love in the World.

**

"We should race to the rock," Kieshome said, bumping up to her slightly-smaller companion. If he was bothered by the very slight size difference (well, to them it wasn't slight, but to any human eye it would be a matter of hardly a handswidth) he didn't say or didn't even notice. He was a powerful flier. He could beat this upstart to the rock.

Which he did, handily, because while Kieshome was delighted to be in the air, she spent most of her time gliding with the birds, or diving into the choppy water below. She giggled as she landed a moment after Noumei.

They spoke mentally, about this or that, the wind, the birds, the chill of the water. Did you actually bring me to Faith because you thought she'd be my bond, or because Iotee and I are like, exactly the same colors?

Noumei rolled his furry head around and then chuckled. Maaaaybe both.

"Well that didn't take long, did it," Faith chuckled, as the eggs - a whole nest of them - started wobbling. Iotee peered at them closer, and was batted away from the nest by Kieshome. Not fiercely, but decidedly to keep her distance.

"Hadn't realized they would be so small," Iotee admitted.

Faith looked at the currently-humanoid Iotee, "would you carry octuplets in your current form?"

The dragon's black eyes widened and then shone with laughter.

"They will need time to grow a little," Kieshome announced as the eggs began to hatch into the tiniest little kits. "I will train them to do the basic things, like staying out of the main rooms, don't worry." She wrapped herself around the nest again, contented as a momma should be. Noumei busied himself with the fish that he'd caught, tearing it into the smallest little shreds for the barely-chick-sized hatchlings to eat.

**

It might be 'some time' before they would be ready to leave their nest and the Golden Cat, but for whatever reason, Levi took it upon himself to monitor this situation with one of those mysterious half-smirks. "I know some people," he muttered with an echo that said he was digging around in the Void for something. He apparently found it, and it was... a door knob. He waggled it at Faith.

"Put this somewhere, it will open to where it's needed," he told her, and then faded back into the smoky shadows of the Golden Cat's upper hallway.

"Y'pervert we take coin if you're going to keep peeking!" Faith called out, though anyone that overheard might have thought it was just about some lingerer wandering the halls of the brothel.

When she did put that doorknob somewhere (it was black, made of void-stone certainly) it outright created a small door. From within, she could hear the sounds of the kitlings as they romped through the attic space. Kieshome's muzzle poked around the frame, "where did this -- oh, I see!" She detected that same chill as her mate often had on him after jaunting through the Void.

"Will it work from the other side?" Faith asked, and shut the door, which promptly reopened with the paw swipe of Kieshome confidently operating it. "Oh good."

She heard another voice, Noumei's, from the darker area of the attic, "wait, wait hold on, shut it again!"

Faith pulled in a breath and slid the impromptu door closed. She and Iotee waited, and waited, for nearly two minutes before it opened again.

"It works!" Noumei announced happily.

"It took you a while to figure out a doorknob," Iotee muttered.

"I was opening it to other places, Iotee," he shot back with her own tone.

Iotee gave one of those okay okay expressions, and wandered back down to the main hall, there were paying customers waiting.

**

Eventually the nest of tiny kits had grown into 'young teens', and had started looking around for more fun than could be had by the careful prowling around indoors or the equally carefully monitored flight training outside. It was time they started finding their own homes.

All but one. One of the two larger sized kits, she'd be a good bit bigger than both parents by the look of her paws being so floppy. Snowy white fluff, icy white feathers, and brilliant orange fur, combining the features of her parents ideally.

"You knew I would stay," she addressed Iotee and Faith, "but have I ever introduced myself? I am Vaenilae!"

Faith had to stifle a chuckle, because she certainly did have that vanilla look! That got her thinking though, and the young-looking Madam zipped away into her personal chambers, and came back with a small sachet that had a delicious scent to it. The Terigon's head bobbed with interest as she sniffed the air, and then rubbed up against the cloth eagerly.

"Now you're the perfect package, aren't you!" Faith announced. She would always slightly-mispronounce the name as vahNILuh, but Vaenilae would never correct her.

**

"Do you think the guards placed will be enough?" Faith asked, and Iotee nodded, leaning around to look beyond the balcony.

"There are plenty, don't worry, my friend."

The patrons tonight paid in exotic offworld goods, traded from who knew where, distant ports that could never be reached by getting on a ship here in Dunwall. One or two would go home with interesting gifts themselves (never a disease, stop it Shard that's rude!), leaving trinkets or gifts, stealing only hearts.