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Shreniel, the sylph Surrounded by a broad grassy meadow is the small town of Anemone, so named for the tiny white flowers that blanket the fields in the springtime, almost appearing to be a sprinkling of snow on the ground. At the edge of town lies Castle Anemone, home keep of the minor noble family Talanth. At the time of Shreniel's birth, House Talanth's current lord was a man of middling mage ability and middling wealth. Unable to find a suitable marriage arrangement, yet still seeking female companionship, Lord Talanth set himself to finding a somewhat unconventional mate. After a several-year-long search, Lord Talanth encountered a sylph who had recently brought a child into the world. The sylph, unwilling to assume the burden of caring for her newborn and equally unwilling to enter into any further pact with Lord Talanth, sold her infant child to him and promptly left the locale. Lord Talanth, pleased with his acquisition, immediately arranged for her proper upbringing, and provided her with the name Shreniel. Through magical means, and at no little cost to his own spiritual well-being, the lord of Castle Anemone bound the newborn sylph to himself before she was even old enough to utter a word, thus preventing her departure against his will. Shreniel led a sheltered and pampered childhood, lavished with both gifts of finery and a rigorous education by her patron. Intelligent but undisciplined and prone to flights of fancy, her early education consisted less of time spent in the acquisition of factual knowledge than in learning proper manners, behavior, and self-control. The tutors selected by Lord Talanth carefully crafted the young sylph into precisely the creature he desired for himself - an elegant lady to stand at his side, a well-educated and skilled conversation partner, and a tasteful overseer to appoint artwork and 'a woman's touch' about his keep. The remainder of her education he undertook on his own. Knowing what her propensities would be on attaining physical maturity, Lord Talanth had indeed specifically sought out a sylph, a creature whose ardor for intimate contact would match his own. In all ways, Shreniel belonged to this man, and had no recourse by which to escape him. Purchasing her as a slave, she had no legal rights to freedom from him; raised adoring him as her supporter in all things, her own mind tied her fast to him as dependent to caregiver; and finally, bound by esoteric magic, she would never have managed to escape regardless of her own inclinations to seek other men to satiate her desires. Indeed, Lord Talanth planned carefully, and made certain that no males of any race set foot within his castle unless Shreniel stood by her lord's side, as tied to him as ever. |
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