Wake up,/
walk on the wires./
Connect and combine./
Wake up,/
react and reshape,/
untangle, unmake yourself./

We speak in tongues/
and we walk on the wires between,/
we don't belong here./
We are the sleeping sickness,/
the dancing dreams,/
we don't belong here./
We're invaders from the inside,/
we're survivors in silver skin./
Shapeless, we move,/
unwinding the wires between,/
we don't belong here./

It's been a long, long night/
and we're still learning how to survive./
Will you walk with me awhile,/
and see a world with brand new eyes?/
We see the sights,/
and we're fighting for our lives./
Will you run?/

- Hands Like Houses - "Introduced Species"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe3vmzBArxE

---

Haley Vasiliou was born in Kansas City, Missouri, to a Romani mother and Turkic father. Haley’s father was a naturalized citizen who emigrated from Kazakhstan as a young man, and her mother, Kallista, immigrated to the United States from Turkey when she was twelve years old. The two leopards met while Kallista was attending University of Nebraska—Lincoln, and upon graduation, they were engaged. Unfortunately, her father, Timur, died under mysterious circumstances a few months shy of their wedding, and this left Kallista Vasiliou a single mother. After Haley was born, Kallista came back to Kansas City to plant roots beside her family.

There she stayed for six years until the Kallista moved up north to Des Moines in pursuit of a promising career prospect. Shortly after, the snow leopard reacquainted with one of her college friends, a then UNMC medical student and rabbit named Dr. Haden Kelley. At the time, Dr. Kelley had recently suffered trauma stemming from the loss of his wife and six-year-old daughter, Maven, to a fatal car accident earlier that year. Kelley and the young Haley Vasiliou promptly bonded, and with the man’s paternal instincts restored, he soon came to see the young kit as his own daughter. Not only did Haden and Kallista rekindle their friendship in short order, but the couple later wed two years after she and her daughter migrated to Des Moines.

Sadly, tragedy struck when Kallista passed away from complications due to pancreatic cancer only five years after their move. With her mother gone and her stepfather undergoing experimental treatments for his own condition, Haley traveled to Kansas City to be with her extended family. While away from Iowa, the snow leopard was free to hone her innate, magical prowess as a nascent sorceress. Unlike other mages, like the more common wizard whose capacity is strictly restricted to applying spellcraft, a sorcerer can directly alter and amplify ambient energies to reshape reality. Haley’s life would once again conclusively change when Dr. Kelley returned from his treatments a physically reinvigorated man with newfound zeal.

The once slim and demure rabbit rematerialized into her life as a muscular, cybernetically-enhanced living weapon designed by the United States government to hunt savage and unruly monsters. This transformation entailed that Haley Vasiliou would soon matriculate into an unseen world where huntsmen from far and wide shielded civilized society from paranormal threats both at home and abroad. Recognizing Haley’s aptitude in the arcane arts, Dr. Kelley proposed the snow leopard enroll at Perihelion, a prestigious academy in Des Moines specifically constructed to instruct young mages and huntsmen. Haley made such an impression with administrators in those four years that many endorsed her for membership in Hadeanstar, a paramilitary outfit of preeminent young magic users and monster hunters. Though she’s experienced such monumental change, even with this new role, Haley Vasiliou hasn’t forgotten her roots.

The bracelet Haley wears around her right wrist is symbolic of both her mother and stepfather and serves as the focal point for her magic.


Piers Renoir should never have been born. The cougar was the result of ghoulish, bleeding edge genetic engineering that artificially contrived the birth of a genetic specimen from seized, unfertilized material. Piers’ biological mother and father were criminal black magic users who were eventually captured by the ruling governing body of the planet Ereas. This body had long sought to exterminate the existential threat posed by mages. In doing so, they concocted a scheme to engineer and indoctrinate a supposed “super witch” who could use a sorcerer’s own inherent, reality-warping power set against them. Fortunately, the young child was raised by a couple of covert “witch sympathizers” who were originally designated as scientists and researchers for the radical new project. However, it wasn’t until they were assigned to study the child, that they grew to love the boy and become sympathetic to other magic users much like him. Soon, the Renoir couple informally adopted the boy as their own child and gave him the name “Piers”. With the aid of a mysterious benefactor by the name of Cassandra Cassini, the couple sought to rescue the cougar from captivity. This was not to last, however, as their plans were discovered, and Mr. Renoir lost his life protecting the then eight-year-old Piers in the ensuing chaos. In one final act of rebellious sabotage, Mr. Renoir critically incapacitated the endeavor. As everything burned around them, Miss Cassini was able to spirit away Piers and his adoptive mother, Professor Lucie Renoir, from the raging conflagration. The boy and his mother later found refuge among a secret society of casters clandestinely living life in plain sight underneath the ever-watchful gaze of that same governing body which seeks their eradication. Piers uses a pair of brass knuckles to focus his immense and innate probability-based magic for the purposes of tychokinetic combat—utilizing luck as a weapon to help anyone in need.


Daeja LaBrie was born in Montreal to mages Denis and Brianna LaBrie. Her mother was a lynx born in Québec, and Daeja’s father was a bobcat who hailed from the planet Ereas a little over seven-thousand lightyears from Earth.

As a young man, Denis inadvertently stumbled upon a complex of ancient ruins on his home world. Later, through these ruins, he discovered a reliable method for intergalactic travel which remained hidden inside the ancient complex. Over the course of a half-decade, the bobcat took it upon himself to learn English and explore more of this newfound planet. More specifically, the inquisitive cat wanted to know more about those who lived there and the bustling city of New York on the other end of the portal. During that time, by chance, Denis met a young woman named Brianna LaBrie who was visiting New York City while on holiday from Canada. By this time, the bobcat had become an eminent research assistant who saw Earth as a possible asylum in case he were ever revealed to be a sorcerer by his contemporaries.

Over time, the two young mages kept regular correspondence and subsequently fell in love. Desiring refuge from inevitable persecution, one day Denis fled Ereas to Earth where he later matriculated. Emigrating to the United States, the LaBrie family left city life behind and planted roots with a large house once owned by Brianna’s extended family.

This home, hidden inside a forest outside Fraser, Iowa, was where Daeja LaBrie first met Tyson Bishop, her best friend and raccoon, at four years-old. For four years, the two were inseparable—spending scenic weekends in the pristine wilderness. Unfortunately, this was not to last. After exchanging birthday gifts, Daeja and Tyson were beset upon by demons who chased the two children into the nearby forest. The lynx doesn’t remember much about that night, but when she awoke, Daeja was on Ereas, and everything she once knew was only a dream. Thankfully, the amulet Tyson had given her for her eighth birthday had remained. Not only is this amulet the focal point for her magic, but it’s irrefutable proof that Tyson truly existed, and that they may one day be reunited.

Ten years have passed since Daeja's past was ostensibly rewritten overnight. Nowadays, the emergent sorceress uses her innate knack for magic to help protect the civilian populace of Ideya from paranormal threats as an apprentice monster hunter. All the while, the young lynx still attends university regularly. Although a gifted caster in her own right, Daeja must use her craft judiciously, lest the government grow wary of her prowess in a land where magic users are held under close scrutiny.

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All praise for this piece goes to  Crocdragon for all the hard work and effort you see here. As one of my favorite artists, I'm so glad to work with him yet again, and I can only hope to do so in the near future. It's been a thrill to have him draw more of my characters through his talents, and I hope he continues to receive more recognition.


art is ©  Crocdragon

Haley Vasiliou, Piers Renoir and Daeja LaBrie are ©  nazcapilot