Luther and Zirena - Sordid Details

Some folks have asked about the back-story on Luther and Zirena. If you don't want to read about it, you can still pick some of it up through the pictures alone. Also, there are some bits of the story that I won't reveal even here, but will wait until the art reveals them in good time.  

NO SPOILERS YET.
How do Zirena's visionary trances work? They are triggered when an important or familiar object stimulates all five of her senses in quick succession.  Zirena will slip into a trance and “see” a cryptic series of images. Zirena can't choose to have a vision—they only occur when there is something that needs to be “seen.” Usually, what she sees is accurate and pretty bad. She does not like these visionary trances because she thinks once she sees something that it must come to pass.

SPOILERS AHEAD!
A couple of years ago in "Demon's Due," the city of Dernhem saw a rise in criminal activities. High Lady Drea and her aides feared that a spy was involved. Rumors said that Madame Zirena the Seeress was making lots of money from the corrupt elements of town. The Magistrate sent her shrewd and trusted agent, Luther, to investigate Madame Zirena for a possible connection to the trouble.

Within a few days, Luther determined that Zirena was mostly a fake, using costuming, light shows, and theatrics to impress her customers into thinking that she was doing something mystical, when in reality she was only giving them good, insightful answers that were too general to be of any specific assistance. He came to admire her creativity, mystery, and beauty, and he convinced the Magistrate that even if her efforts were being sought out by the criminal element, the Seeress did, in fact, perform some service for the innocent people who came to her. Thus, he convinced the Magistrate not to hold Zirena responsible for violating the law against "bearing false witness."

The Magistrate then ordered Luther to get Zirena's help in tracking down criminals. He recognized that Zirena was very close to the criminal world, and he worried for her safety. While he made use of her insight and wisdom and occasional trances, he tried to protect her as well. Over the next few months, their combined efforts rooted out thieves, thugs, and corrupt merchants. The more dangerous criminals were forced deeper underground.

In that time, Luther and Zirena fell in love.  They both knew it would be complicated if they ever confessed their feelings and so kept silent. Their love grew during the year they collaborated until admitting their love aloud became a matter of fear and subtle dread.

I'M NOT KIDDING HERE: REAL SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

One year ago, their hidden passions erupted in a single, desperate night. During their intimacy, Zirena's senses were "activated" by her lover, and she slipped into a visionary trance. What she saw was disturbing, and the details that she mindlessly related while in the trance  provided an important breakthrough in tracking an elusive assassin. When Zirena came to, Luther pressed her for details, but fear of the things she had seen prompted her to keep much of it to herself.  Being a shrewd observer, Luther suspected her visions were triggered by proximity to an important object, but he mistakenly believed that the object in question this time was a perfume-laced letter he had recovered from a crime scene, instead of himself.

HOLY CRAP!! THE SPOILERS IN THIS NEXT SECTION WILL RUIN IT FOR EVERYONE!!!!

In her vision, Zirena saw Luther get stabbed and badly slashed by the shadowy assassin. The vision also included a clue to where the killer in question would be found, and Luther figured out that clue from Zirena's words--the courtesan named Annalae ("Anna" for short) was apparently going to be the next victim. Zirena begged Luther not to go, but his directive from the Magistrate sent him off anyway. Luther tracked the killer to the courtesan's "home" in the city, and inside the lair he found a handkerchief that he had seen in Zirena's possession shortly before. Luther took the handkerchief, while the assassin snuck up behind him in the dark. He turned and avoided being stabbed in the back, but the killer slashed him on the face, giving him the scar he wears on his left brow and cheek. He fought the black killer off, receiving several other wounds in the process.  When the city watch showed up the killer fled. By that time, Luther was almost unconscious from loss of blood. Annalae the Courtesan disappeared from city life, and the assassin's trail vanished.

In his delirious recovery, Luther mumbled things about Zirena working against the Magistrate, and the High Lady Drea had the Seeress brought in for trial. There was no evidence to convict her for the crime against Luther so the High Lady Drea decided to imprison her for fraud. Healing from his wounds, Luther interceded out of love for the Seeress, privately requesting that the Magistrate banish Zirena from the city instead. The Lady agreed, ruling that the Seeress be cast outside the city walls, but warning her that if she fled the area, it would be viewed as an admission of greater guilt, and she would be hunted down. Luther was given the charge of conducting Zirena out.

When the two parted company outside the city walls, Luther removed the manacles that Zirena had worn during her trial. Zirena wept at their misfortune, while Luther remained emotionless. When she tasted her own tears, she experienced another vision in which she realized that Luther had told the Magistrate to banish the Seeress from the city--she did NOT see that this was a lighter sentence than what the Lady Drea was inclined to dispense. Not realizing Luther had done this to keep her from being imprisoned, Zirena saw instead that he had betrayed her.  She grew to hate him.

Luther, on the other hand, left her outside the city feeling that she had betrayed him and almost gotten him killed by the very person they were supposed to be hunting down.

So, Luther shows up now for the first time since Zirena was banished, and he is wary of her (though he still has feelings for her). He knows that she can tell him what he needs to know about the assassin and the Fair Harvest Inn if she's forced. So, he brings that old handkerchief, and plans to expose her to it and ask her about the connection to the Fair Harvest Inn, where Annalae the Courtesan was supposedly seen in recent weeks, and where the assassin who scarred his face has been rumored to take room... [link]

END SPOILERS!!!  

Okay, so will I answer questions about this stuff? Maybe. But it's gotta' be via note. I've given lots of hints and clues about things that will give some stuff away, if I have any secrets left at this point (or if I EVER had any to begin with...  ). I'm going to take this journal entry down in a couple of days.