❀ history.

[oleander]

original history
( look this way for world info. )

Kaori Seje'areth Masen is a descendent of the flower children through her maternal side, which had lived in the world of Anatolia for a few generations. She lived a peaceful and happy childhood with her parents, Kanoke and Edwin, and her twin brother, Kaoru. She and her brother would often practice their abilities to manipulate the earth, and to some extent wind under their mother's tutelage, who warned them never reveal their abilities to others, for even in this supposed world of refugees their kind were sought out for greedy purposes. Worse for Kaori was that she was a Le'sachi, and Auria half-breed. When a child is born from the union of an Auria and a Human the child always comes out as one or the other, never in-between. This is because the Le'sachi body is weakened terribly by Human blood, barely able to contain the magical energy of an Auria within it. This often results in a very weak immune system, and with a Human state of mind the Le'sachi could barely handle the overwhelming emotions Auria are capable of. It is mostly because of these hybrids that Humans continue to fear Auria. Fortunately for Kaori she had the attention of the Yaneila of Emotion and Understanding, Seirou. His kindess and presence around her helped to keep her body stable.

Things changed when she was six years old. One day instead of opening the door to welcome her husband back from work, Kanoke was greeted by government officials. They seized the family and took them in for experimentation, and here is the last time the twins saw their parents. Though they were frightened they leaned on each other for support and on other Auria in the same facility who were being detained. They befriended one boy in particular, Masude Satorei, and as time passed they managed to formulate a plan that would allow as many of them to escape as possible. Once the twins turned eight years old they went through with the plan, and though they found their way to freedom they would now have to face life in the streets. Despite this new way of living they managed to stay optimistic, even as they were met with cruel realities and, on occasion, people who suspected what they were. Their will to stay together no matter what, and Masude's teachings to the twins that not all Humans want to hurt them, helped them to make it through each day.

One year later, Kaori found herself being followed by a group of people who suspected her of being Auria. Despite all efforts to throw them off her trail they caught up with her, ready to reap their reward for finding one of her kind. Masude and Kaoru came to her aid, fighting tooth and nail to keep from being separated. But it was an intense battle, and though they had defeated the group of Humans, Masude lay dead at the end of it, having taken multiple stab wounds to the heart meant for Kaori. The twins themselves had had their wings injured and various broken limbs, Kaori even suffering from several slashes to her throat, causing her to pass out. Though he was just as injured as she was, Kaoru took it upon himself to half-carry his sister in search of help. Luckily for them they were found by a friend of their mother's, Keryl, who specialized in treating their kind. He tried to heal Kaoru first because he had a higher chance of survival, but Kaoru refused to allow the doctor to touch him until Kaori was taken care of. Keryl obeyed his wishes, but Kaori had lost so much blood, and the trauma of Masude's brutal death was the last straw that would send her into a coma for several months.

When Kaori woke up, her optimism and faith in Humans were shattered completely, and she became bitter and pessimistic. Even though she had someone to look after her for the time being, she still would sneak out and create situations where Humans would deliberately be put in danger. Sometimes she would just outright kill them if they reminded her in any way of the Humans who had experimented on her, or if they were like the ones that had killed Masude. Sometimes this would occur when she recognized another of her kind in danger, and though the others would be thankful, they would be saddened that she killed the Humans rather than just try to run away, which angered Kaori greatly. She simply couldn't understand why they would so easily forgive someone who had just hurt them. Eventually Seirou took notice of Kaori's doings, and proceeded to blind her. When she asked why, he explained to her that until she understood the message her kind stood for, she will remain blind. This angered Kaori even more, but she did not question it. This still didn't stop her from wishing ill on Humans, or hurting them when she could. This caused Seirou to warn her that if she continued to go down this path, he would have no choice but to give her the ultimate punishment, though Kaori does not know what this punishment is.

Kaori would be greeted with another scenario similar to the one that had triggered her current lifestyle. Someone had ratted them out, and government officials raided Keryl's home, arresting the doctor while the twins managed to slip past them. Though they wanted to go back to help him, they realized that there was little they could do for him without getting caught themselves, which would make the effort he put in to give them time to escape worthless. Once again they were in the streets, with Kaori being even more bitter and full of hatred that Humans had hurt them once again.

Weeks later they were found by Hasho Iwanoki, a distant relative of theirs. He managed to gain their trust easily, especially because they could sense that they were related by blood. Hasho took them to the home world of their kind, but when they passed through the Sorrows, a cemetery-like dimension that one must pass through in order to cross worlds and to many Auria the ultimate torture because of the many negative emotions concentrated there, it proved to be too much for the twins, and they both passed out. When they woke in Hasho's household they were both emotionally and mentally exhausted, Kaori to such an extent that many of her memories of the past several years were repressed. This proved to be a mixed blessing, since it did rid of most of her pessimism, but she would at times feel guilty that her brother was left to suffer through the memories alone. Yet they both knew that there was a reason they memories were sealed for her, so she didn't try so hard to get them back.

From here on they were adopted by Hasho, becoming so grateful to the man that they would do anything for them. Their skills in surviving the streets allowed for them to best some of Hasho's most elite guardians, allowing them to be enrolled as personal guardians of his wife, Sazuka, and their daughters. They would sometimes even go into battle alongside the others of their clan, learning more and more about the Auria as they went on, about how despite the amount of suffering they went through and their short lifespans, with so many rarely making it to their twenties, they fought on to survive. The twins took this too heart, and became all the more determined to fight on Hasho's behalf. But when Kaori was thirteen, Sazuka was murdered while under her watch. While no one blamed her, it left Kaori very distraught that she had failed to protect her adoptive mother. She faced doubts about herself, though it was often hidden by the happy-go-lucky facade she had developed over the years as a means of dealing with all the pain she had been through. Noticing this, Hasho decided to send her on a series of missions, one of them requiring her to return to Anatolia with another one sending her to observe his nephew in Riosna, whom he planned to engage her to.

When Hasho's eldest daughter showed Kaori the young man she was to observe in Anatolia, her blindness was briefly lifted. As if being able to see again didn't leave her emotional again, Kaori also connected to the young man immediately, sensing his loneliness and that in many ways, he was like her, and they needed each other. She swore to herself that she would protect him even if it cost her her life. Over the months she collected information on him like Hasho had asked while working as a maid for the household, but she took it a step further and watched him while he was sleeping, taking note of the nightmares he often had. She would try to comfort him whenever she could, but one night she accidentally woke him out while trying to pull him out of the fit he was having. Somehow Kaori managed to convince him that she was someone sent to watch over him, which was technically true. As the months went on they grew close even though he thought her to be a dream, and before she knew it Kaori was in love with him. On her last day there she decided to propose to him, leaving one of her feathers, the Auria equivalent of a wedding ring, hidden under his bed. When she returned later that night she found the feather still there, completely untouched. Heartbroken, Kaori left, not even having a chance to properly say goodbye to the young man who had changed her life so much in just six months. Instead, she left him a flower she bred especially for him, hoping that he would take it like the other small trinkets she had given him.

When Kaori met up with another of her adoptive sisters in the Sorrows, she was upset to find out that upon leaving the place for her next mission she would forget about the young man she had just left behind. She begged her sister to do something, but there was nothing that could be done. Quietly accepting this, Kaori fell into the next world. Though she clung to the memories with all her might, they were gone when she woke up. It wasn't all in vain, however, as the feelings she had still lingered faintly. Drawing hope that something had allowed her to be so happy, Kaori was able to push past the illness that followed not long after, determined to start pushing aside her prejudice to Humans in favor of happiness.

And then she woke up in Luceti.

canon update

That was likely why, when she was introduced to Aleos Sadres that day, the younger brother of her brother-in-law Ryouhei Neruyl, she didn't try to fight that her likely fiancé was a Human. Though she was startled and secretly upset, she spent the day getting to know him on top of what she already knew from having exchanged correspondence with him since they were roughly eleven years old. Though she had her doubts, Kaori realized he genuinely cared for her as a person when, despite realizing she was blind, he vowed to still care for her and want to help her break free of whatever chained her down, just as she had helped him over the years by listening and loosening his own chains. Touched by his answer, Kaori accepted the likelihood she would marry him and gifted him a citrine pendant her adoptive mother had told her to give him while she was still alive, when they first started communicating. (this was also threaded with Freyjadour Falenas during A Trip to Another World.)

Over the following months Kaori was tasked with watching after the welfare of her brother-in-law, who was becoming increasingly stressed by supernatural occurrences that were likely of Auria origin. She tried to help him out as best she could, and even tried to determine whether they were being deliberately caused by other Auria hiding in the city. Above all, Aleos was becoming more distant from Ryouhei and his behavior increasingly erratic as the months passed. Around the time of Aleos' birthday, his biological father became permanently bedridden and Kaori took it upon herself to try and keep watch over Aleos even if it had to be at a distance.

And that's how, seven months after she met him for the first time, Kaori was there to sense when Aleos' power as the Heir of Earth awoke. The awakening had gone terribly wrong, with Aleos going berserk and eventually begging his Yaneila to seal away his power. When she reported this to his father, he had her swear she would tell no one else of this change: if Aleos had been granted the opportunity to seal his dangerous power and live out the remainder of his life as a Human, then it was for the better. He would continue to be left out of the dark about his true heritage because it was safer for him, and this angered her.

So she vowed to herself that she would try to make it so that maybe someday, kind people like Aleos wouldn't have to live in the dark, whatever it took. As she made that vow she felt a faint tug at the back of her mind, remembering the feelings she had when she arrived in Riosna and realizing she was on the verge of touching memories just out of her reach.