Lady Grey Coulbourne

Interagir avec la tête coupée du roi

Bien qu'un peu hésitant et châtié après la récupération de Sir Jory (le vieux chevalier était beaucoup trop loyal pour oser jamais parler contre elle, mais il avait des façons de faire un regard réprimandant) Grey assis dans la région de Coulbourne et regardé le tournoi attentivement. Ils ont eu des compétitions dans la forêt, mais pas tout à fait comme cela – si grande et si variée dans leurs événements. Elle a applaudi et ri lors du premier événement, se réjouissant à la vue d'hommes nobles essayant d'attraper un faisan. Nyle, habituée au terrain boisé, avait excellé dans cet événement, et Grey sentit une enflure de fierté pour sa cousine.
Mais sa chance n'a pas duré, et il a été éliminé au tour suivant. Les gens de la forêt ont été construits pour la ruse et l'agilité. Le lancer de marteau nécessitait un ensemble de compétences entièrement différent.
Nyle, nettoyé et embarrassé à son élimination, vint s'asseoir dans la région de Coulbourne dans la place vide à côté de Grey lors du quatrième tour. Grey s'est penchée et a tapé sa cousine sur la main, un sourire sympathique mais fier sur son visage. Nyle a levé les yeux et, après un moment, a offert un petit sourire de son propre. Serrant la main, Grey retourna à l'arène pour continuer à regarder le tournoi.
Le duel était féroce et avait Grey debout dans son siège comme elle regardait, ses yeux fixés sur les deux hommes qu'elle n'avait jamais rencontrés auparavant.
Et puis c'était fini et l'aîné, Jeyco Swan, a été nommé vainqueur. Grey applaudit poliment, mais sans la même intensité que les autres spectateurs. Il était... un peu vieux pour épouser un enfant de treize ans. Elle a tourné son attention vers la jeune princesse, qui ne semblait pas trop satisfaite de ce développement. Gris soupiré d'empathie. Les mariages arrangés étaient des choses délicates.
Grey regardait Madeline comme la bannière de Lord Swan déballée.
Et la tête sanglante du roi Samson tomba sur ses genoux.
Grey était gelée, stupéfaite quand elle l'a regardée. La peau, lâche et laxiste et ridée avec l'âge, était une couleur pâle cireuse. Les yeux étaient partiellement ouverts, les paupières étaient presque fermées, sauf pour un éclat de blanc et de brun exposé au fond. La droite a été ouverte un peu plus large que la gauche. Des cheveux longs et wiry enchevêtrés dans des touffes cordées, les extrémités encroûtées de sang. La mâchoire était ouverte. Le sang de la souche manculée qui avait été un cou était déjà pooling dans les genoux de Grey, tacheant sa robe, l'humidité chaude et collante coulant sur ses jambes sous les couches de tissu.
La réalité a enfin trouvé Grey et elle a crié. Frappant à ses pieds, une main serrée sur sa bouche pendant que la tête roulait de ses genoux et tomba sur le sol avec un bruit humide. Elle s'est enflammée alors que les gens ont enfin commencé à comprendre la situation.
Le roi était mort.
Nyle et Sir Jory ont tous deux tiré à leurs pieds et se sont précipités vers elle, en essayant de la maintenir et de la tirer alors qu'elle reculait, seulement pour frapper sa chaise. Elle ne pouvait pas regarder loin de la tête coupée du roi.
Grey Coulbourne

Revenge has never healed a wound.

◾ Name:
Lady Grey Isadora Dalisini Coulbourne
"Lady Fair"
“Isa"
"Bastard Bearer"
"The Forest Whore"
◾ Age:
19
◾ Gender:
Female
◾ Sexuality:
Bisexual
◾ Origins:
Vaernin Forest
◾ Residence:
In the process of moving to Hyland’s Keep

◾ Joyful ◾ Guileless ◾ Resilient ◾ Impulsive ◾
◾ Personality:
In spite of her name, Grey has always been someone of boundless warmth and joy, never one to love in finite amounts. Her kind, sunny demeanor earned her the affectionate nickname of 'Lady Fair' among the common folk of the forest. But with her kindness comes an eagerness to see and believe in the best in people. Grey is someone unfit for the deception and intrigue of court simply because she's too naive to question other's intentions, and too compassionate to cut someone else down to further her own ends.
Grey is an impulsive adventurer and an incorrigible flirt, finding a game in everything she does. But while she has a reputation as a bit of a rascal, she's surprisingly easy to silence. A raised voice, a stern look, and Grey is still and submissive, too meek to push back. But once it's passed, it's usually not long before Grey is back to her warm, playful ways. What she lacks in force in the face of adversity, she makes up for with sheer resilience.
◾ Role & Career:
Only daughter to Lord and Lady Coulbourne
◾ Hobbies & Interests:
Archery
Exploration
Singing
Dancing
◾ Likes & Dislikes:
+Her daughters
+The outdoors
+Good food
+Good drink
+Good company
+Running
-Isolation
-Selfishness
-Arrogance
-Politics
-Large bodies of water
-Yelling
◾ Other:
A terrible cook, but can tell the quality of individual ingredients based on the taste of a dish
5'2" (157cm)
Never learned how to swim

◾ Family Members:
Lord and Lady Coulbourne – parents
Three trueborn brothers
Linara and Fayne Oak – daughters
Doran Trynne – ex-lover, deceased
Tiras Sky – fiancé
◾ Biography:
Lady Grey Isadora Dalisini Coulbourne was born the second child to Lord and Lady Coulbourne of Vaernin Forest, and their only daughter. Their's was a sternly religious, almost militant household, one that pushed for excellence and discipline, and accepted nothing less than the best. Perhaps this harsh upbringing was what drove Grey to mischief and adventuring, searching for some escape from her regimented home. Too impulsive, too honest, too warm, she was always the black sheep of her well-kept family.
And so, it really should've surprised no one when she gave her heart too easily to a man who didn't deserve it.
Doran Trynne was handsome, charming, and just the right amount of dangerous. And oh, how she loved him for it. He only loved her last name and the feeling it gave him to know that he'd managed to catch her. But Grey couldn't look past her idealism to see that. Predictably, he played with her, used her, and left her, but not before planting seeds of life within her. It was her younger brother Orin who found her crying, curled beneath an oak tree after being missing for two days. Between her tears, Grey whispered the truth to him: she loved Doran, and he was gone. She'd told him of their future child, and he'd left after a thunderous rage. Orin was quiet for a long moment as he looked at her. Then without a word, he helped her to her feet, and escorted her home.
Her parents took the news as well as could be expected. That is to say, not well at all. As they yelled and glowered and bemoaned their luck at having such a disgraceful, foolish daughter, Orin snuck away. It wasn't until three days later, after Doran Trynne had been found dead at a riverbank with an arrow through his chest, that Grey's little brother returned home.
Grey was hidden from sight for nearly a year, but in that time rumor festered through the forest. Lord and Lady Coulbourne carried the disgrace of having a foolish, unmarried mother for a daughter. Scandal stained their name with every whispered name and drunken speculation.
When Grey finally gave birth, it was to two tiny girls, Fayne and Linara. Her parents wanted to abandon them to the forest and let nature take its course. But then Grey did something she'd never done before: she spoke against them. Though by no means an obedient child, Grey had always submitted whenever her parents raised their hackles.
But exhausted and impassioned, Grey finally fought back. And they conceded to allowing the bastard twins to live.
She entrusted her girls to a household servant, Liliana, her oldest friend (and first unrequited crush). Grey gave them enough money to hide away at the far edge of the forest, away from rumor and speculation. The two women exchanged letters weekly, idle gossip mixed with news of the two young girls' daily lives and development. Grey's heart was in a constant flux of crumbling apart and sewing itself back up again. Sadness at being separated warred with the sheer joy of knowing her girls were alive and cared for, and the hope at being with them again.
Then her parents told her that they'd arranged for her to marry one of the Hyland bastards. Grey was to be sent to Corevial to attend the princess' festival with an entourage to represent House Coulbourne, and then from there return with House Hyland to Mount Promonon. The scandal surrounding her had grown too shameful, and even though she showed no hint that she'd been pregnant, even though no one knew of her daughters, her family name could not bear the burden of her mistakes. And so she was to be sent away, to the mountains, and hopefully the forest would forget. Her daughters were not to go with her – if they were seen together it'd only reignite the rumors they were trying to douse.
Grey could weather her family's shame. She could adapt to a marriage with a man she'd never met. But she will not be kept from her daughters.