Jessies story  fmcharact1.htm

Well Chi Zen has asked me to add my story to the archive of the library so here goes the story so far.

I came to the library when I was 5 yrs old. My father had just died and my mother had given birth to a pair of twins. A lone woman with three children is not in too good a position in Utopia, when the shadow stalkers turned up and asked to take me. It was a wrench but she couldn’t support the four of us so she agreed, they left her with money and a new house all paid for. Funnily I never felt that I had been “sold” it was what she had to do.

 The scary people told me that I had potential as a chaneler of chi, meant exactly nothing to me at the time but they brought me to a room full of books. Books were my favorite things in the world and I was entranced. I can vaguely remember clambering up a bookcase and finding the crystal pyramid. As Chi Zen tells it I went straight up the ceiling high bookcase in no time and when I couldn’t reach the pyramid I used chi to pull it towards me. By the time I reached the floor the pyramid had been filled with channeled chi. I remember nothing of this but it showed I was a rare magic chi chaneller. It was explained later that some people could channel chi, the energy of the body and mind, into spectacular effects, however a rarer few could channel it as old-fashioned magic too. I can channel my chi into a ritual focus (my pyramid) and produce effects beyond the personal power chi chanelers can. Chi Zen himself does not understand how we can do this but he was very willing to teach me. The old librarian T’ao Yuan-ming or Tau as he allowed me to call him became my surrogate father and teacher. I was already able to read and shortly after arriving I could read, write and speak several of the old languages.

The library keeper is an ancient position, Chi Zen has a huge library of books, even pre burn books and is always hunting for more. I have been on several expeditions to old ruin sites following the merest rumor of a surviving book. I was taught to care for the books and to copy and illuminate them in the old way. I was also taught to fight as the library holds vast knowledge and valuable artifacts, and has come under attack from time to time. My size and appearance made the traditional fighting arts unsuitable so they found me a teacher of street combat and I have learned enough to take care of myself, at least until I can run.

When I reached adulthood this is how I turned out. 5ft 1” tall with a mass of uncontrollable red curly hair, bright green eyes that glow brightly when I channel any more than basic level 1 chi. However due to some quirk I show less of an oddity than normal when channeling small amounts of chi, usually we glow for all to see but if I am careful I can escape notice for a while.

I am more often than not to be found in the library with my nose buried in a book. The occasional training session on the field but the library is my home and my passion. The smell of the old books and the thought of the knowledge they contain is overwhelming sometimes and every now and then I just stand amongst the shelves and breathe. Of course to some this looks like prayer, they are not far wrong.

I don’t have a terrible close relationship with many of the other students but like most of the females I went through the crush on Jean Paul phase but lately it is Matthew who has gotten a lot of time and attention. Where he came from and what he is are secrets held by only a few and as Chi Zen has said the journey to find knowledge is often more important than the knowledge itself (roughly translates as find it out yourself kid) Matthew is a deeply troubled soul, his mother is Silke of Naxo and an accident led to his bionic arms. That is all he knows however.

During one really bad episode of melancholy I decided to try to help. I took him home. Every now and then I return home to watch my family, they never see me and I don’t even know if they know I am still alive. My mother still thinks of me I am sure as I see her cry sometimes and know it is for me. I showed him this and told him my story.

I then asked if he had every given any thought before then about my background. He said he hadn’t, I asked if knowing that made any difference to us now, he said it didn’t. That as Chi Zen would say is the lesson for today I told him. It is who you are now that matters and what you do now that counts. I think I got through to him a little and hope it helped although he is never going to be truly at peace until he knows everything, unfortunately I don’t think that will be comforting knowledge but he has a right to find it.

He has always liked the peace of the library but now he talks a little more, at least to me. A little more being subjective here, most only get a word or two, I get a sentence.

And the bionic arms are a real boon in a library full of heavy books.