Verona Hayward is one of the protagonists of Pale.
Personality[]
Verona is a middle school student in Kennet, Ontario. On top of dealing with the usual frustrations of being a teenager, she has a massively dysfunctional family (see relationships). She is somewhat more skeptical and imaginative than her two friends.[1]
Verona is artistically creative, and does crafts as well as drawing. Verona doesn't do well in her regular school classes, due to lack of interest, but excels at learning the practice.
She cares more about having clothes that she likes deeply and are "hers" than having a lot of clothes, or having clothes in good condition.[2]
She dislikes the repetitive, never-ending nature of cleaning.[3]
Verona has expressed a desire to become Other.[4] Miss suspected this, and it may have been one of the reasons Miss chose her to become a Kennet practitioner.
Relationships[]
Kennet Trio[]
Verona has known Lucy since kindergarten, and considers her her best friend. Verona is able to make stark emotional confessions to Lucy,[5] while holding everyone else (including her parents) at arm's length.
Avery is a recent friend. [6] The three of them Awoke together to form the Kennet Trio, the official Practitioners of the Kennet Others community.
Brett Hayward[]
Verona lives in Kennet with her abusive father Brett Hayward,[7] who has full custody of Verona. Their relationship is toxic and awkward. Verona's dad demands constant emotional support from his daughter, including bouts of crying multiple times per week. He exhibits signs of depression, and claims to have migraines, as well as "an STD" (unspecified) which he says he received from Verona's mother before their divorce.[8]
When Verona leaves for summer classes at the Blue Heron Institute, her father ends up in the emergency room for a partial obstruction of the small bowel,[9] and demands that Verona return home immediately to care for him.
The full extent of her father's 'brokenness' is not known yet, but it is inarguably abusive.[10] What is known about him indicates several possibilities:
- Depression
- Codependent parent
- Narcissistic parent
- Parentification/spousification
- Munchausen syndrome
Sylvia Hayward[]
Verona's mom, Sylvia Hayward[11] lives "between two and a half and three hours" away[12] in Thunder Bay[13] and works for the Canadian government. She visits or communicates with Verona rarely. Verona would probably prefer to live with her mother, but her mother refuses to relocate closer to Kennet.[14]
Jeremy Clifford[]
Verona has a close friendship with classmate Jeremy Clifford, with whom she shares an interest in art, cats, and doing "rude stuff" together. However, Verona has no interest in being in a relationship, preferring to have "no strings attached".
Jeremy and Verona rescued and cared for Sir, a kitten they found in the neighbourhood. Since Sir was adopted by their classmate Melissa, they have become friends with Melissa also.
Others[]
Verona is very close with Tashlit, and has invited her to be Verona's familiar. She also is fond of Peckersnot, whom she named, and who does errands for her in exchange for rude drawings.[15]
Verona also has a connection with Matthew Moss, whose shitty living situation with Edith James is relatable to Verona's living situation with Brett.[16]
Appearance[]
Verona is just under five feet tall, and just over ninety pounds.[17] She's the shortest of the Kennet Trio. She has black hair and grey eyes.[18]
She cuts her own hair, maintaining it in a french bob.[19] She wears a lot of stripes, black, white and purple; often with a choker, the occasional bracelet or decorative chain, and slip-on shoes.[18] Her few outfits include too-tight black jeans, acid-washed jeans with holes at the knees, and several sweaters with horizontal stripes on them.[2] Once she's given the magic dog tag she wears it on a long chain around her neck.[18]
When Practicing she wears a simple black cat mask made by Lucy, with white highlights; a somewhat floppy matte black witch's hat, and a long matte-black cloak that cups her shoulders.[20][21][18] When she uses her Sight, her eyes often seem to flash purple[22][23][24][25][26][27] and her irises may become circles that catch the light, like a cat's in the dark.[18] In full garb as a practitioner, Verona wears a cat mask that was created for her by Lucy, as well as a witch's hat and cloak.[18] In certain magical contexts, her body is cloaked in supernaturally heavy shadows and her mask appears real, like an anthropomorphic cat woman.[27][28][29]
Abilities and Art[]
Verona has a strong affinity for the Practice, and is very curious and eager to learn new ways to improve her Practice. She has taken an especial interest in alchemy and halflight practice, and considers herself a "Dabbler in Shadow, in Half-light, in Shape".[30] Verona is the most magically educated of the three and is capable of enacting a broader suite of minor practice then her friends. She is also very proficient with shamanism, drawing on her artistic tendencies to inform her diagram designs. Shadows and darkness noticeably "cling" to Verona's body while wearing her practitioner regalia, and she has cultivated for herself an affinity for shape changing, transforming into cats with ease.
In addition to the shared abilities and gear of the Kennet Trio, Verona has her own distinctive Second Sight. This allows her to see in the dark (although not pitch darkness),[31][32] and she perceives the world as filled with layers of plastic and cobweb behind which strange flayed creatures are sometimes hiding. She's discovered that she can ask the largest of these beings (which she suspects are Spirits) simple questions.
Unlike Avery she's not athletic, and frankly thinks such people are weird.[33] Cat-like actions and quirks are easy to come by for Verona such as her affinity for balance, her Sight's element of night vision, sharp fingernails, and general broad talent for 'witchcraft'.
Verona created the trio's boomeranging hat trick and her use of it is the most effective, throwing it further and returning even through strong winds. [citation needed]
Tools[]
Verona has taken to using the trio's training in diagrams and Runes to make "spell cards" which can be completed with a small mark, functioning a little like different types of grenade (incendiaries, flashes, bangs) in combat.[34]
Miss gave her a quill pen which moves letters around, it was later broken by her father.[35]
Verona frequently uses Maricica's glamour to transform herself, most often into a cat or bird. Being a self-described 'dabbler in shape' she has prepared glamour-infused cat hair and feathers to aid in these transformations,[36] as well as a glamour-infused photo for casting illusionary duplicates of herself and has utilized this suite of form changing abilities to such an extent that these transformations come alarmingly easy to her as this propensity for frequent form change has been imprinted on by the spirits.[37] Verona is more susceptible to magic that inflicts transformation for having this trait but is also more freely able escape it as well.
Guilherme gave her a High Summer Rose that sheds petals that can be ground down to create glamour.[38] He also gave her a glass that can allow her to see Glamour, on the third use it will break and cut the user deeply enough that it will cause them to miss an important event.[39]
Legs gave her a bundle of twigs and doll legs that allowed her to call on his aid when needed.[40]
History[]
Early Life:[]
Verona was born to Brett and Sylvia Hayward.
In Kindergarten Verona met and befriended Lucy Ellingson. Verona grew to consider Lucy her best friend, and spent much of her childhood with Lucy and her family.
Brett and Sylvia's marraige eventually fell apart, and Sylvia left Kennet for Thunder Bay. Verona's relationship with both of her parents grew strained, experiencing emotional abuse from a depressive and dependant Brett and neglect from the absent and uncommunicative Sylvia.
Immediately prior to the story, Verona and Lucy approached by Miss with an offer to become Practicioners if they can assist with a problem. Miss connects them to Avery Kelly as a third member of their soon-to-be trio.
Arc 1: Lost for Words[]
Verona, alongside Avery and Lucy, is brought into the world of the Practice in order to investigate the murder of the Carmine Beast.
The trio meet with the sum of Kennet's Others in the woods for their Awakening Ritual. The Others of Kennet pledge them safety, cooperation, and power. Verona, Lucy, and Avery then exchange offerings with the Others and complete the Awakening. Each of the girls introduces herself to the spirits with an animal mask and a personal item; Verona claims the Cat and the Scissors.
Following their Awakening, the Kennet Trio is taken to the former Beast's den by Edith, Matthew, and Charles. Edith takes the time to teach the fundamental of runes and diagrams. Verona takes to the technical side of practice quicker than the others.
The trio begin interviewing the Others of Kennet, and recieve additional gifts and lessons from each, with one exception. The Hungry Choir stands out as an Other with the means to kill the Carmine Beast. The trio prepare to meet the Choir on the night of its next ritual, and Verona leans into the Practice to escape her awful and mundane home life. Verona confides in Miss that she wants to leave humanity behind and become an Other.
The next moon arrives and the trio intrudes of the Choir's ritual to gather more information, putting many of their new tricks into practice for the first time. Verona interviews one of the participants while Avery and Lucy attempt to assist with the challenge.
Arc 2: Stolen Away[]
Verona continued on with the investigation of the Others of Kennet, eventually coming to the cave of Maricica and Guilherme. During the interview, she is turned into a weasel by Maricica as one of Maricica's gifts in glamour, a form which she stays in for most of the rest of the interview. She is turned back when Lucy throws her into the ground. [41]
Verona later on invites Avery over to her house to get ready for conducting interviews with the rest of the Kennet Others. After they have an encounter with Verona's Dad, the group leave to meet Alpeana. She takes them on her nightly trips, and Verona agrees to letting Alpeana give her dad a nightmare. After the nightmare begins though, Verona calls it off, stating she 'still loves him'.[42]
The Belanger circle begins looking into Kennet, with Nicolette investigating using Echoes and Omens. Verona and her covern accompany Miss and Alpenea to the Ruins to investigate, where they witness the Omens causing Melissa's accident. Verona intervenes and bounces one of Nicolette's summons back to attack her.
Verona notices Jeremy with a stray cat, and connect over trying to care for it. Inspired, Verona uses glamor to assume the shape of cat and visits the other witches of Kennet.
The Kennet Witches prepare for Avery to run her first Path. Verona assist by capturing an infant opossum for the ritual. The Belangers continue to spy, but are blinded by the Kennet Witches using Nettlewisp. In retalation Nicolete interferes with the ritual, and Verona is knocked down when a giant doll's arm manifest to destroy the ritual site and steal the opossum (now Snowdrop).
Arc 3: Out on a Limb[]
Arc 4: Leaving a Mark[]
Arc 5: Back Away[]
Arc 6: Cutting Class[]
Arc 7: Gone Ahead[]
Arc 8: Vanishing Points[]
Arc 9: Shaking Hands[]
Arc 10: One After Another[]
Arc 11: Dash to Pieces[]
Arc 12: False Moves[]
Arc 13: Summer Break[]
Arc 14: Fall Out[]
Arc 15: Playing a Part[]
References[]
- ↑ “Why were my eyes last to open?” Verona asked “That doesn’t seem right.”
“It’s a good thing, Verona. Those things that let you hold onto what came before, like skepticism, imagination? They’re going to be things that make you an excellent practitioner, should you follow through here today.” - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.1 - ↑ 2.0 2.1 Her mom had been so frustrated when she hadn’t wanted to buy a lot of clothes. It was Verona’s preference to have things that were very precisely hers, instead of a lot of things that kind of worked. To those ends, she had two pairs of jeans she wore, this low cut pair of skinny black jeans, and acid-washed jeans with holes at the knees. She had three sweaters, all with broad horizontal stripes, two of which were black and white, and then tops she tended to wear under the sweaters. The sweater she was wearing now had a hole in the elbow. The other elbow had had the same problem, but she’d patched it with black moleskin. There were some loose threads of wool near the collar, too. - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.1
- ↑ She’d decided. She really, really hated cleaning. She hated how insurmountable it was, she hated how cleaning off a surface often meant getting other things dirty, she hated every step in the process, and now that she was as close to done as she could get, she felt next to no satisfaction. It would just get dirty again, and she hated that. Hated that she was cleaning up a mess that would get made again and again for the next… however many years. Fifty. Seventy. Crumbs and dust and gross food on gross plates, over and over again.
She stood in the doorway of the living room, surveying it all, and felt her dissatisfaction grow until she had to turn away. - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.1 - ↑ Verona looked out over Kennet. The singing was growing in intensity.
“I heard that and I knew. I don’t want to be human anymore.”
"I suspected." - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.8 - ↑ “My mom doesn’t want me,” Verona said, her voice small.
Lucy gave her friend the tightest hug she could, but she didn’t know what to say to that.
“You’re the most important person in the world to me,” Verona said. “I don’t mean to order it like this. Like it’s because everyone else doesn’t-”
“I know.”
“Because even if I had a cool dad and a mom who wanted me, and Jeremy and a great relationship with all the Others, and friends, and whatever else, you’d be the most important to me.”
Lucy hugged her friend tight.
“Same.” - excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.3 - ↑ '“I made them an offer, five weeks ago. The two girls were friends already. I pointed them to the third because three makes a good number."' - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.1
- ↑ “Hi, Brett Hayward.” - excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.8 Spoilers
- ↑ In the light of his television, she could see the moisture in his eyes. The tears started flowing.
“I’m so alone, Verona. I’m trying so hard and I have nothing to show for it. No friends, no wife- your mother gave me an STD from someone she cheated on me with and then left. I can’t convey how alone I am.”
She remained silent, standing in the doorway.
Her father sat there on his bed, sobbing. - excerpt from Lost for Words 1.8 - ↑ “What happened?” she asked.
“I nearly passed out from the pain, is what happened. I got a ride to the emergency room from a coworker I am not a fan of, and I had to wait ten hours, getting told it shouldn’t be much longer, it shouldn’t be much longer, except people kept coming in, needing to use the machine before me. And all the while, I’m trying to call you.”
“What was it?”
“It’s not fun, wondering, is it? Imagine how I felt, for those ten hours. With nobody, not a single soul, to turn to. Not even my own daughter. Especially my own daughter, who is ignoring my calls when I really need the support. It was a partial obstruction of the small bowel.”
“You’re constipated?”
“No, Verona! No. It obstructed and my intestine twisted. They put a tube down my nose, and they had to give me fluids by IV, because I’ve been throwing up from the pain and everything else. There’s a very real possibility I’ll have to go into surgery. They’re saying it’s fifty-fifty, but every hour that passes, the odds of surgery rise, and it’s been a bit. If I do end up needing surgery, I won’t be able to handle things on my own. I’m going to need you to put down whatever you’re doing and come home, just in case. I literally have nobody else who can help handle these things.” - excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.9 - ↑ Verona - a thank you to Wildbow for representation.
- ↑ “Sylvia Hayward,” Verona’s mom said. She shook his hand. - excerpt from Dash to Pieces 11.2
- ↑ cited from Leaving a Mark 4.2
- ↑ Leaving a Mark 4.2
- ↑ “It’s really not great,” Verona said. “He’s kind of intense, and Lucy isn’t even coming over because of it. So I was thinking, like, I don’t want to leave my friends, or school, or anything like that, but how possible would it be for you to move closer?”
“It’s not really a consideration, Verona.”
“But if you moved closer and I moved in with you?”
“No.” - excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.2 - ↑ “In the interest of not taking advantage of you, I would like to acquire your services, as a general errand lad and lookout. Stuff like me asking you to go run and find Tashlit, so she can come with me tonight if she wants. Or watching my back in the Undercity of Kennet while I get a trap or something set.”
He nodded.
“I know you like my art. So if we take a piece of art that took me forty-five minutes to draw, the sort of stuff you like, and factor in value, talent, side benefits like me paying you in snacks and fun stuff while you’re hanging out… we should probably account for the time costs of me having to do extra laundry because you got me snotty…” - excerpt from Playing a Part 15.1 - ↑ Same page as you, Matthew. Different scales of intensity though.
It was a hard and bitter circumstance, to be caught trying to change the mind of someone like this. Whether it was Edith’s imagined future, her dad’s imagined past, or this Resident’s imagined reality where he thought he stood a chance, they lived in fantasy, in delusion. - excerpt from Playing a Part 15.1 - ↑ Verona was just barely over ninety pounds, and just a hair under five feet. - Excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.6
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 18.5 Verona
Verona is thirteen, with grey eyes, a paler complexion, and a somewhat unruly/scruffy (stray hairs/strands or such) French bob with black hair. She has large eyes that may have eyeliner on them. She's petite, a bit shorter than Avery.
Her clothes are on the packing up extra materials, like the others. Stripes, whites and blacks, lavender and black, and a lot of clothes that most girls might buy because they think it's neat or unique and then never bring themselves to wear (incidentally, she remarks that she collects a lot of accessories, but doesn't end up using them - maybe a choker or bracelet, but that's about it). Shoeswise she might haves slip-ons. She doesn't care about shoes because her inclination is to dwell more on things that appear in the mirror, and shoes don't do that - she dresses for herself, not others (in stark contrast to Lucy).
Verona's mood ranges from the neutral to mercurial, depending. Serious, scared, stressed, focused? Her mouth is in a firm line, her already large eyes open wide. Happy with friends or into the practice? Laughing, talking, whatever. She may be sitting, leaning, fidgeting, or distracted at a given point in time, if she's not engaged by her friends.
Her Sight turns her eyes purple, with the irises becoming like reflective circles, catching the light in gloom like a Cat's might. Her hat is a matte black has a bit more flop to it, and her matching cape is straighter, but has a portion that cups the bend of the shoulders. Her mask is a black cat's mask, with white highlights at the eyes to make it not disappear entirely in darkness, and similar for the pink of the nose and white, upside-down 'Y' shape of the mouth. She wears the dog tags at her neck, with a long chain that loops once around the neck, and some other decorations like a choker or other thin chains.
-Wildbow on Reddit - ↑ After a quick glance in the mirror, she grabbed her scissors and tidied her bangs. She picked up a hand mirror to fix a few stray hairs at the back.
[...]
“Scissors?” he asked.
Oh, she was still holding them. She touched them to her hair. As part of the back to school shopping, her mom had taken her to a stylist to get a french bob and she’d been trimming it herself to keep it in approximately the same style ever since. - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.1 - ↑ Verona had put her bag down, and now she unzipped it. She pulled out the mask. A deer mask, carved out of wood and painted with tan at the nose and around the eyes, a speckled darker brown at the edges and ears. She handed it to Avery.
Avery handed Lucy a fox mask, painted orange.
“Damn,” Lucy muttered. “You’re way better at carving than I am, Ronnie. That deer mask is great. Sorry yours is…”
Verona shook her head. A black cat mask. It was simple, but she liked it. She hugged it to her chest with one hand while offering Lucy the hat she’d made herself. Each of them had a gift for the other two. And for themselves, short cloaks.
- excerpt from Lost for Words 1.1 - ↑ They’d shared online videos about the mask carving and a website with tailoring templates for the making of the hats. The differences in mask were intentional, any differences in the hats accidental. Verona’s hat was just a bit floppier at the brim.
When they’d done the search for the capes, they’d agreed to use the first blueprint on the list. They’d been halfway when they had discovered the cape designs were all different. Not that it mattered. Verona’s was closer to a cloak, and Lucy’s closer to a shawl, it was so short. Avery’s looked like more of a cape, with a wreath around the neck and shoulders. She wore it ajar, so it covered most of one arm.
- excerpt from Lost for Words 1.2 - ↑ Lucy looked over, and tapped her finger to her lower eyelid.
Verona’s eyes turned purple in a way that caught the light. Avery’s eyes got misty, literally, in a way that brought out details, rather than hid them. They looked. - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.1 - ↑ “Cheating?” Verona asked. Her eyes flashed that weird almost-purple color. [...] She was aware of Verona and Lucy giving her concerned looks. In that one corner of Avery’s eye where her Sight was stuck, she saw Verona’s eyes as purple again. Lucy’s as red where they should be white. - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.7
- ↑ “Nah,” Verona said. She looked off to the side, and her eyes turned purple. - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.5
- ↑ Verona’s eyes flashed purple, as she joined Lucy in walking a circuit around the little building. - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.8
- ↑ “Talking to spirits,” Verona murmured, pointing at the same group. Her eyes glowed purple, which radiated out into her eyeshadow. [...] Verona jumped forward, onto the back of Mr. Cold Tears. Her eyes were wide and violet in the gloom. [...] “Eyes open.”
Avery’s eyes flashed, the mist sweeping over them, in a way that made the outline and darkness of the irises stand out in even dimly lit gloom. Verona’s eyes turned purple. [...] Verona’s expression was blank. Her eyes lacked the purple that had dominated them most of the night. - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.3 - ↑ 27.0 27.1 Three figures were approaching. They could almost be mistaken for the children that were scattered everywhere, but they were too animated, and too curious about their surroundings, looking around and looking up at the moon, where the children of this place were focused wholly on the ritual’s participants. They couldn’t be Witnesses, because they had faces…
Animal faces, two of them wearing wide-brimmed hats, the other with a cord tying her hat to her neck.
The cat-faced girl had shadow clinging close to her cloak, to the point it was hard to make her out in the dark, not helped by the dark fur of her face. Her eyes flashed violet as she looked over everyone and everything. Her cloak was pulled over her hat, brim and point swept back, and made the hood more pointy behind her head. - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.z - ↑ She lifted up the dense, metal dollhouse, setting it in a metal box with about 20 segments. There were a horrendous number of figures, pieces of furniture, accessories, animals, and little colored blocks inside, sliding around, rolling down stairs, and falling out. The box itself had zipper-like creases at the edges of each segment, knitting them together. She centered the dollhouse and then collected the fallen bits, pushing them in through windows.
[...]
She whispered, “Show me the three girls with animal faces,” and opened it up.
Three simple figurines with rectangular blocks for bodies were topped with the heads of a fox, cat, and deer. They were within a cabin with an open top. Ribbons filled the space, tying to a center mass. A circular bit of wood, shallow, sat in the center.
There was no sign of the other figurines that had been within, or the diner, or the old house.
“Why animal faces?” she asked.
“If it’s this omnipresent, it may be the Sight equivalent of labeling something at the root level. I could see changing or obfuscating your name, taking on a title as part of the implement or demesnes rituals, but faces… I don’t know. If it was one individual, I could say it’s a Host with an exceptionally strong rider, or a practitioner with a familiar strong enough it was leaking through, but I’d expect to see that leak somewhere else.”
- excerpt from Stolen Away 2.z - ↑ The room’s appearance shifted, to become something very much like the spirit world Lucy had visited together with Verona and Avery. The floor was covered in an inch of water, littered with flower petals. She could see the nose of the ‘mask’ she wore in spirit, and her hair was far longer, pale pink tendrils blowing across her shoulder.
Other students changed as well. Avery had the deer mask. Jessica had two silver lines running down from her eyes, her skin and hair beaded with moisture. Dom, Talia, and Jorja weren’t as affected as some, but Lucy could see how Dom’s hands were paler. Talia resembled her doll and her doll resembled her. Jorja had little pastel pellets littering her hair and shoulders, in stark contrast to how dark her clothes and hair were, and how grim her expression was.
“Spirit is one source of power. Basic, simple, easy, but it can be hard to negotiate for the particulars, or to control the fine results.”
[...]
The lighting changed. Everything became a slow-motion flow of smoke, but where transparent wisps overlapped, they painted silhouettes and details.
She wore the fox mask here. More smoke traced the outline of her cape.
“This is what one might see with a particular variety of the Sight, ignoring connections. Lucy here-”
- excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.6 - ↑ excerpt from Keeping Tabs, Kennet
- ↑ They descended past the tops of the trees, into the recesses of thick forest. It was dark, to a surprising degree. Verona had first experienced this when going to save Avery from the Forest Ribbon Trail. She kept her Sight on, but it didn’t help much. She tended to see better when there was at least a little light, and there wasn’t much. - Excerpt from Back Away 5.2
- ↑ “I’m fine,” Verona said. “I can kinda see in the dark if I use my Sight.” - excerpt from Lost for Words 1.3
- ↑ Lucy nodded. “If it isn’t another trap. And crap, that’s the warning bell. Run!”
“I’m all runned out after gym class,” Verona complained.
“You barely ran,” Avery said. - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.7 - ↑ The goblins reached the illustrations. Cherrypop was fastest, running across one-
It detonated into a whirl of wind. She was sent skidding across more papers.
Smoke, a gush of water. Other papers flew through the air. Gashwad got touched by one, and it flashed, a bright light that made Lucy’s eyes hurt, even though she was a good distance away.
“That’s about ten hours of drawing gone,” Verona huffed. - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.8 - ↑ She pulled out the word-changing quill, broken in half.- Excerpt from Shaking Hands 9.9
- ↑ She reached for the feathers in her pocket and found the fur instead. Glamour. She touched it to cape and pulled the cape around herself.
She’d been trying to make the glamour use with the cape a thing, in the same way they’d been told about glasses being tied to the Sight. [...] She flipped, head over heels, and the flipping might’ve been higher velocity because of the way she’d balled up, cloak pulled around herself.
She screeched, tumbled through the air, and then contorted her body. Tail was a guide, legs pulled in close while they faced the sky, splaying out while she faced the ground. She repeated the process for two flips, fixating on her landing point and controlling the movement of the rest of her body as she landed, making contact with all four paws at once. Her body absorbed the landing, and the glamour fell away with the impact.
[...]
She still had a few bird bodies, and another cat body.
[...]
She hated to do it, but she touched the cat’s fur in her back pocket, which she’d laced with glamour, she didn’t touch her cape, and instead, she brought her hand up to her eyes, two fingertips touching each eye.
“Let me see bright,” she whispered. “Improve my Sight.” - Excerpt from Back Away 5.2 - ↑ Verona hesitated, then lunged forward, running.
She hadn’t spent the last few weeks doing nothing.
A bit of glamour, a photograph-
Creating an image. Of herself.
She closed in, ducking low while her image went high. - Excerpt from Back Away 5.2 - ↑ - [9.z Spoilers] Magic Item Identification
- ↑ He took her hand and he held up the glass. Letting it catch the light. By twisting it and moving it, the light focused and split apart.
She found an angle. Emerald green light magnified in the glass, bright enough the rest of the glass darkened. There. That specific direction.
“Her glamour, at its most concentrated. Mine is a bold gleam, as warm as summer. Hers is this emerald that darkens the surroundings rather than gleam. You have three uses. On the third, the glass will break and cut you deeply enough you have to stop whatever you’re doing for long enough you’ll miss an important event.”- Excerpt from Summer Break 13.9 - ↑ Verona grabbed her bag, opened the front pouch, and pulled out the stick arrangement with a cluster of doll’s legs dangling from it. “Legs! For Kennet, in accordance with oaths sworn!”- Excerpt from Summer Break 13.12
- ↑ Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.3
- ↑ “Why?” Verona asked, not taking her eyes off her dad. “Are you? He tries hard, and he does the basics of what a dad’s supposed to do, according to those guys from the government. Feeds me, shelters me, makes sure I go to school. Just… he’s broken and he won’t put himself back together. I don’t think he’s where he’s supposed to be.”
“Then-” Lucy started.
Verona wasn’t done. “But I don’t want him to hurt. I don’t want to see him hurt. He makes me more miserable than anyone and I feel exhausted and even a bit of dread when he comes in the door, but I love him. I want to not live in his house, at least after I’m eighteen, and I’m not even sure I’ll come back to visit him when I’m gone, but… I love him.” - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.5