Circe is one of the Sisters, and is almost never at the Sisters' farm.1 Hazel saw her there once at about seven years old, and she has not aged a day since.1
Description
Appearance
A lean human woman who appears to be in her late twenties, with smooth skin, deep maroon-auburn hair and sharp amber eyes that are almost bright yellow and catch the light like a cat’s.1 She dresses in practical earth tones, a heavy dark green wool coat over dark browns, with nothing ritual about any of it.1 She carries a staff of gnarled dark wood that was cracked and shattered at some point and then put back together, with veins of gold running through the breaks.1
Hazel had to work out which sister she was looking at, and placed her by a single childhood memory.1
Personality
Circe says very little to anyone she has not chosen to talk to. She looked at Rhysaene once, said “huh”, and walked away.1 She left a greeting unanswered and went on staring while Rhysaene drew her, and did not ask her to stop.1 She passed the whole party on her way to prepare for the ritual without looking at any of them.1 At the Standing Stone she said nothing to any of them, whispered to Hecate and left.2
Circe fiddles with something in her coat pocket, and gripped it tightly when Lathiel came up.1 She left her staff leaning where it stood to come and look at Rhysaene’s drawing.1
Circe treats Hecate as an equal. The Sisters who have finished their training still treat Hecate with reverence, and Circe does not.1
Biography
Session 6
Circe was in the backyard of the Sisters' farm with Hecate on the evening of 27 Coldrise, 1714 PSF, when Hazel arrived with the ritual reagents.1 She looked at Rhysaene, said “huh”, and walked off to stand halfway between the barn and the rest of the party.1 As the sisters left to prepare, she passed the group without looking at any of them and said, “Tragic thing. No wound weighs heavier than a broken heart.”1
While the party waited, Rhysaene sketched the witches. Asked how she knew about the broken heart, Circe said she did not know anything, and that it had just felt like the thing to say. She asked whether Rhysaene had ever had a tarot reading, and said that Rhysaene’s question had told her more than anything else had.1 Circe stood still and let herself be drawn, staring back the whole time, and came over afterwards to look at the finished picture. She said Rhysaene did lovely work. She had put in a request to have her portrait done by a talented artist living in Argentum, who had not been able to, and Rhysaene’s style reminded her of the artist’s. Asked the artist’s name, Circe said, “She went by the name Lathiel, but I think you knew that already.” When Rhysaene put a hand to her heart, Circe said she understood now and gripped whatever was in her pocket. Rhysaene said Lathiel had been a mentor and a friend. Circe said they would talk more at a more appropriate time, and that she would seek Rhysaene out in the city and have the portrait done properly.1
She carved fresh runes into the outer ring of the Standing Stone with a hooked blade before the ritual, and laid down the ring of black salt during it.1 She was one of the three sisters who worked the ritual.1
Session 7
Circe worked the ritual at the Standing Stone through to its completion. She then whispered something to Hecate that nobody else was close enough to hear, turned into a snowy white owl and flew west.2 Luma and Hazel both saw that she spoke, gestured and drew something out of a pouch to do it, which is not how Hazel changes shape, and Luma placed it as a spell of transformation.2
Session 8
On the road south Rhysaene asked Hazel what she knew about Circe. Hazel said she knew no more than the rest of the party had gathered from meeting her, that Circe works to keep it that way, and that the only person besides Circe who knows much about her is Hecate, and even Hecate does not know all of what she gets up to.3 Circe looks only a year or two older than Hazel, and has been with the coven since before Hazel joined it.3
Session 9
Hazel told the party that Circe and Hecate can take the form of birds, which Hazel cannot yet manage, and that it shows their skill as witches.4
Relationships
- Hecate: Fellow Sister. The two of them talk as equals.1
- Lathiel: An artist whose work Circe knew and wanted a portrait from.1
Quotations
- “Tragic thing. No wound weighs heavier than a broken heart.”1
- “She went by the name Lathiel, but I think you knew that already.”1