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The Storm’s Iron Will

As a child, Edmund struggled with his own frailty. His father spent almost all of their disposable income bringing medical experts into their home to help the young tigerkin treat his ailment, or at least his symptoms. Unbeknownst to Edmund, it wasn’t until the intervention of the Volpes, then a shady back-alley apothecary in the slums of Oplentis, that he started to see genuine improvement.

While the full history was, for a long time, a source of deep-seated emotional trauma, few could dispute the results of Volpes’s treatment. The same potion that cured his childhood illness gave him not just the strength to stand his once-bedridden body on its own two feet.

Indeed, the life-changing elixir bestowed upon the growing young cub an almost supernatural level of endurance and pain tolerance, capable of quickly recovering from blows that would leave others incapacitated.

It’s a trait he carries into his adult life, both as a martial artist and Enigma’s star pupil in the realms of magic and forensics. His days as a prize fighter are long behind him, but as a Magistrum student he spars often with his classmates.

Those who student at the College of Martial Arts are taught by some of the most skilled practitioners on the plane. Despite spending a long time fighting for enough money to escape Oplentis, there is always someone better. There’s always someone faster, or able to hit harder.

But very few people are able to match Edmund in raw endurance. Bruises and pain are temporary. He can heal through it, and he knows it.

His opponent doesn’t realize it yet, but the fight is far from over.

Thanks to backcat for their excellent work on this piece.

This is part of a bigger initiative I’m trying to take with Edmund and several of my other characters. Inspired by some of the art I’ve seen and stories I’ve read from other people about their fighting fursonas, I wanted to grow more comfortable with scenes and images depicting my cast in dangerous situations, or scenarios where they are injured and in pain.

It will help expand both their storytelling potential and my own skill as a writer if I stop allowing myself to create these flying brick characters that have very few weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Edmund is still a powerful fighter and mage, but I will be aiming to tone down his freakish physical strength in favor of something more well-rounded going forward. It’s more interesting if he is vulnerable in certain ways.

There will likely be similar adjustments to other characters like Volpes and Azurium as I continue along this path. I look forward to it, myself.