Legends of Belariath
Devon
Devon was born into a coastal tribe of the Wolve’s Blood Clan on the outskirts of Ti’Clirth. Strong and agile, she became an expert hunter like her father, trapping small game along the rivers winding throughout the kingdom’s forests. However, she was very dissatisfied with the chauvinistic patriarchalism that dominated clan society. Women were treated as nothing more than slaves and breeders and a commodity to be traded for favors, property, and power. And despite Devon’s prowess, she was considered no different than a common “kili” (kil-lee) or “river girl”. This did not sit well with her, and more than once she made her discontent all too vocal to the village elders.
Although he loved and respected his daughter, Devon’s father feared that her opinions would bring dishonor and harm to his family. At 16 he finally managed to marry her off to one of the village elder’s sons, an arrogant half-wit by the name of Rexx. Devon was furious and humiliated. She thought Rexx was a total jackass. He already had two wives and several concubines, and the idea of mating with this fatuous man disgusted her. She never consummated the marriage, always finding a convenient circumstance, and came close to being raped by her own husband on several occasions. The final insult came when she refused to complete the “Rite of Atonement”. After a night of heavy drinking and revelry, Rexx recklessly butchered a traveling gambler in a drunken frenzy. This goes against the clan’s sacred law of the needless taking of a life. The rite of atonement involved the transgressor’s mate to masturbate them and then drink of their seed, and he chose Devon to assist him with this ceremony. Devon didn’t even want to touch this man, let alone drink of his semen. When she refused he attacked her for dishonoring him, but she managed to escape into the countryside.
Devon fled to the city of Nubiscus. She became infatuated with the metropolitan culture of the high-humans. She adopted their dress, their language, and even learned to read and write. Using her talents as a ranger, she became a rat catcher, then a watchman, until finally she made the move into a bounty hunter. She became very successful tracking down and capturing 23 petty thieves and scoundrels during her short career. Then she got the job of a lifetime.
She was called to court by Duke Fabian Diethelm, a handsome high-human nobleman. He issued a warrant on the safe capture and return of an escapee from the Ti’ Clirth Royal Asylum by the name of Rayn. The inmate was to be considered armed and homicidal, but it was insisted upon that she was to remain unharmed. Devon had heard rumors that the girl was unjustly institutionalized by her master, a dark elf diplomat, because she knew too much. But Devon wasn’t getting paid to think or pass judgment.
For nearly two years Rayn fled; from town to town, kingdom to kingdom, always staying one step ahead of the bounty hunters. Between Devon and Rayn it became a personal game of cat and mouse. Every time Devon would close in on her quarry, Rayn would enlist the aid of some starry-eyed man or woman to help her either physically or financially. She was very good at doing that. She was very good at conning lonely people into doing her bidding, and there was more than one town that one of the heartbroken swung from a hangman’s noose. She has tracked this girl down through three kingdoms and countless towns. In her wake, Rayn has left a trail of dead bodies and broken hearts, casualties of her lies and doe-like eyes. The chase had soon become Devon’s obsession, her proverbial “white whale”.
Devon finally tracked her down to Nanthalion. It didn’t Rayn long to find another sugar-daddy, a knight as twisted as her named Revan. In a plan to skirt Devon, Revan seduced her, taking her virginity and misleading the sexually naïve girl into a sadistic love affair while he and Rayn plotted behind her back. Rayn had become Revan’s slave, and according to Nanthalion law, as property she could not be claimed by foreign bounties. Frustrated, Devon could do nothing but wait. But in the interim, she had grown accustomed to Nanthalion society. Since her deflowering she has taken many lovers, but only two have stolen her heart. The lovely barbarian healer Ro`bijanje` is her best friend, lover, and sister. They are soul mates on a level deeper than mere words can describe or the casual lesbian tryst. The other is the wolven mist raider, Logan Shadowhunter. Devon had developed a feral fetish for wolven men, but this particular one touched her so that she has given up that which she so cherished, her feministic convictions, to become his slave and apprentice.
Yes, life in Nanthalion has changed Devon. She has loved and hurt. She has gained friends, companions, and has grown wiser. Her only fear is to give it all up and return home, and for this new life she has renounced her bounty on Rayn. But for this sacrifice she knows there will be repercussions, a price for happiness that will remain to be seen.