Leira Berens

TLC 01/1, 2, 7

Detective. Partner Fekix Hagan. Went to work for PDF as Magic liaison/consultant TLC 02/17

Impatient, doesn't like chit-chat. Mornings were the hardest time of day - nothing to distract her. Never hesitates to shoot (semi.40). Reasons things out without emotion. Dead-pan face. No one ever got her way of looking at the world. Suffers from curiosity. Making something up on the fly always ends badly for her.

Mother, Eireka, institutionalized since 32 years old, Leira 10. Talks about worlds no one else can see. Her grandmother had vanished without a trace. The unsolved case became Leira's motivation to become a cop and work so hard to make detective.

Curvy, flawless ivory skin (never wears make-up), thick short dark hair curls around face, dark green eyes, wears Merrell-Vapor blue and orange thin-soled running shoes. Bad headaches. Wonder Woman T-shirt her favorite. Likes Boone River lager. Lived in small guesthouse (rented 4 years ago while she was still in college) in back of Estelle's Bar on Rainey Street, free in exchange for stomping out bar fights. Red easy chair her grandmother's favorite (lots more of her stuff in storage).

Magical qualities: She can see elves and the Other World. The energy within her is strong. Stronger than it should be in a human being. Stronger than it’s been in this world thirteen millennia. Sees items change shape, glow.A hallucination appears when a hole opes up. The air around it shimmered and she could feel the pulses of energy it gave off as they moved through her body. And of course, there was the large rip in the world that kept appearing in front of her.

TLC 01/3

She has powerful inner strength. An energy that’s coming from within. She’s a natural…

TLC 02/8

Leira and her Magic

At Lavender Rock: Correk and Leira discussing meeting with, interacting with other elf magic users. Does she really need them? Leira began to feel the flow of magical energy from the rock.

“Okay, I get it. I have a tribe (The group at Estelle's - Craig, Scott, etc.). That’s what the Huffington Post calls it these days, right? They’re more of a team than a tribe. I take care of myself. It’s been that way, more or less, since I was ten years old. I’m an independent spirit who kicks ass, motherfuckers!” She spit the words out, feeling the anger growing inside of her. She felt it before she saw it. The magic was taking over her body. She looked down and saw the symbols blossoming under her skin, crawling up her arm. She clenched her fists but that only made the color deepen and the symbols spread to her neck. The tall grass around them bent away from her and a nearby tree rattled as a flock of starlings shook loose and rose to the sky, turning north and flying away. (Also, see Groups, Leira's Families miscellaneous people with whom she associates)

“I can take care of myself.” “No doubt of that at all. You are very independent. That doesn’t mean you have to be alone. It just means you get to choose to let people help you. It’s a choice.” “It takes courage to ask people for help, even when you can do it yourself.” He looked into her eyes, lit from within, and the angry set of her jaw, and he waited. Leira slowly opened her hands. It was taking all her willpower to harness the magic flowing through her. Part of her wanted to let it have its way and flow out from her, just to see what it could do. What she could do. “You have a choice right now,” Correk said gently. His hair was flowing out behind him from the blast of energy coming from Leira. The nearby pines were starting to bend in the direction of the flow of magic.

He was using his own magic to steady his heart rate and center the energy within himself. The harder she pushed, the calmer he became. A calm in the middle of a storm.

Leira felt like she could hold the pulse forever. It was like a runner’s high. Just there, and endless. She pulled her shoulders back, standing up straighter, lifting her chin. A familiar defiance came back to her. It’s easier to just do it alone, she thought. Thin streams of lightning within the energy flow crackled and popped and suddenly started to reverse themselves. The sharp blue tendrils of magic continued to find their way through Leira’s wide open surge, traveling back to the source. To Leira.

The opposing energy was now pulsing blue and white, climbing up the outside of Leira’s body until it reached her chest and disappeared into her body in tiny spirals.

An ache appeared inside of her as she felt the connection of the other energy meeting hers. Something familiar that she recognized, but it had been too long. She did her best to ignore it, wanting to hold on to the feeling of power, but it kept spiraling inside of her, tapping away at her consciousness. “Mom,” she whispered, shocked. Her mother was making contact, again. The energy surged forward, doubling its strength and weaving in on itself. Leira could hear the sounds within the energy. Like the singing speech of Light Elves on Oriceran. Her eyes widened as she realized their music were small pulses of magic energy. She opened her mouth and the same stream flowed out of her. She knew how to do it without anyone teaching her. It was a part of her. The energy from her mother wrapped itself around her, searching for answers.

Leira let go of the pulse she created and the energy abruptly reversed itself, flowing back into Leira with a whomp that made her stagger backward a few steps. Leira reached out for Correk’s hand, still open in front of her. He closed his fingers around hers and held tight, pulling until he could wrap his arms around her. Leira held on as a shudder moved through her. Her knees buckled and she felt her legs give way but Correk held her up until she could find her feet again. There were tears streaming down her face The air around them settled and the grass stopped moving. “What the hell was that?” she asked Correk. The world seemed to be spinning in front of her. “That was an amazing display of magic. You are a natural channel of energy. A rare being. I have never seen a display of magic like that. I’ve only heard about something like this from hundreds of years ago at the time of the defeat of Rhazdon.”

“My mother…” Leira gasped, trying to catch her breath. This time Correk steadied her, holding her arm. His eyes glowed dimly for just a minute and he sang in a low voice, letting the small pulses of magic vibrate around her, steadying the stream. Slowly, Leira began to feel normal again. She held her hands out in front of her to check, but they were rock steady. What the fuck was that?”“Basically, a pure stream of energy, of magic. You were able to channel the energy coming off of the nearby rock, straight through you. You were a part of the kemana for a little while.”

“But my mother. She was here! I could feel her!” “Yes, I saw what happened. Your magic is so strong it reached out to her. She felt your pulse of energy and responded to you. That doesn’t entirely surprise me. After all, you share the same DNA. “It’s good news. Her ability to control her emotions is still strong enough for her to send a pulse this far, and to basically check on you. Your mother was making sure you’re alright.” But I can clearly see from the varying strength of your energy flow not all of your powers came from your mother. Your father must have had some magic as well.” “Yes, well, he’s a big question mark. My mother would never talk about him.” Leira shook out her arms and blinked a few times. “I don’t feel tired or worn out from that,” she said, surprised. “I would have thought that would take something from you. You said you have to recharge when you perform magic.”“It can and I do. That’s what I mean. You are a very special being. A natural channel. You can use the magic flowing through you and pull in even more.

First they had to go and greet the others at the Rock. “Every magical being within ten miles felt the hum of that surge. It’s a lot like the bomb blast in Chicago but in the opposite, positive way.” “They’ll be coming off the rock to see who it was. Best we just go say hello. We’ll go to see your mother, just like we talked about. We’ll even get her out. Did you just see what you could do? What in this world or the next could stop you? But we do it right. For now, let’s go let everyone know that nothing other than the usual weirdness happened. Stop them from making up their own stories.”

Leira decided that "I can choose to be with others. And I can choose to do it my way. My mother came to check on me. She’s okay. I will bring her home. Goes to top of Rock, meets small group up there who had felt all of the energy work. Met Toni and others. Weekly family re-union that helps to center our energy and remind us of who we are as a whole being. Not just human. This is how we stay connected, and get/stay recharged.

TSONM 03/29 Finally acknowledged that Leira and Correk were a couple. Yumfuck in a picture with them, and Mara wondered what Yumfuck had done to get them to pose together.