Editing Mara Angnakak (section)

== Abilities ==
Mara is a [[Blood Hag]], a [[practitioner]] who has been around for an extended period of time with both [[magic]] and [[Other]] abilities at her disposal.<ref name=":1">Crone Mara remained where she was.  She reached out and touched a branch.<br>
A crack and the branch she’d been tending before our conversation now broke.<br>
The crack seemed to echo through the woods, in the same moment the wind died.<br>
Like a gunshot, almost, reaching across her territory, the sound 
bouncing off trees that happened to be in the right place, against 
stones, skipping over the surface of water like flat, balanced stones.<br>
The sound reached its intended audience.  The birds returned. [...] the <em>sky</em> was swallowed by a mass of birds, even that light disappeared.<br>
[...]<br>
“Practice,” Tiff said.  “Simple actions, made into powerful ones with
 tens of thousands of years of repetition.  Train a bird, tune a sound…”<br>
“<em>This</em> is how she operates?” Evan asked.<br>
“No,” Tiff said.  Her voice came from another space, as if she were 
moving.  I hadn’t heard the footsteps.  “She’s a blood hag.  She’ll have
 Other powers, and practitioner powers.  <em>This</em> is just what someone can pull off if they just happen to be immortal and very patient.” 
- [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/12/16/sine-die-14-6/ excerpt] from [[Sine Die 14.6]]
</ref> Her knowledge is vast due to her age, and while not clearly defined so far she had demonstrated:
* '''Avian Taming:''' Mara has tamed most of the turkey vultures and crows in the woods surrounding her. This isn't a magical ability, but the result of taming them over a long period of time.<ref name=":1" />
* '''Basic Workings:''' Like many of the local practitioners, she could sense and disrupt [[Blake Thorburn|Blake]] seeing her in his dream.<ref>A weathered aboriginal woman, brushing a young girl’s hair with a 
broad-toothed comb.  It might have been an ordinary scene, except it was
 the dead of night.
She picked up a chain, then shackled the girl at the wrist.  She 
noted the observer, then scattered the image with a wave of one hand. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2013/12/17/bonds-1-1/ excerpt ]from [[Bonds 1.1]]
</ref> On one occasion Mara created a powerful [[circle]] from blood and feathers that protected her from magic and [[Others]].<ref name=":2">I took in Mara’s hostage.  Alexis knelt in the snow.  A circle of blood 
and black feathers surrounded them.  Only five or so feet across.<br>
[...]<br>
“They can’t help you,” Mara said.  “The circle will protect me from 
workings.  If a gun is pointed at me, I’ll know.  I’ll hear the gunshot 
and move before the bullet hits me.” <br>
[...]<br>
I lunged for her.  My hand hit the barrier, a wall of air.  I stabbed it, and achieved nothing. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/12/20 excerpt] from [[Sine Die 14.7]]
</ref> She was also able to use [[glamour]].<ref name=":3">Corvidae stood before me.  Hand extended, an inch or two from Evan.  His arm went limp, and he dropped to his knees.  He broke up into feathers.  I saw only a glimpse of a lock of hair in one hand before the hand disappeared.  Letita’s hair.  Glamour.<br><br>I checked.  Alexis was no longer in the circle.<br><br>The second time I’d nearly been fooled, tonight.<br><br>A second breach of trust.<br><br>To make use of him like that, she’d killed him.  That much was true.<br><br>But she was a practitioner.<br><br>She’d called him right back.<br><br>Disguised him. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/12/20 Excerpt] from [[Sine Die 14.7]]</ref> 
* '''[[Soul]] Manipulation: '''Crone Mara switches bodies with her own children to extend her life, placing the souls into dolls after her previous body dies.{{Cite}} She can also ward away the spirits that carry the dead off, leaving people's souls to rot in their bodies.<ref>“No compromise.  I intend to kill each of you in turn,” Mara spoke.  “One by one.  I can ward off the spirits and powers that would carry your companion’s souls to their eternal rest.  Bind soul to dying body, so that their ''[[self]]'' can endure the moment of death for centuries.  The act of rotting and being ripped apart by carrion birds, a dim, broken awareness.” - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/12/20 Excerpt] from [[Sine Die 14.7]]</ref> 
* '''Mortality Infliction:''' Given an item they own, Mara can grant an immortal being such as a [[Bogeyman]] a "heart" so that she can kill them.<ref>She held out the Hyena, balancing it on one hand, so it teetered slightly.  “Enact your judgement.  I am life, birth, death.   By this token, give the monster a heart, and return his weapon to him, impaling-” - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/12/16 Excerpt] from [[Sine Die 14.6]]</ref> She can cause a heart attack simply by ordering people to "Die", at least under the right circumstances.<ref>“''Die'',” Mara said.<br><br>The heavyset man reacted to the word like he’d been slapped.  A step backward, gun pulled back and pointed away, as if he were afraid he’d reflexively pull the trigger.<br><br>He dropped to his knees.  I could, now that his face was no longer in such utter shadow, make him out as one of the individuals that had been in the room when I’d first met the Knights.  Was he the one with the artificial leg?<br><br>Teddy?<br><br>The ''import'' of the word had become clear.  Shots rang off.  Mara dropped, and she did it fast enough that I suspected the first bullet and most of the others had flown over her. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/12/20 Excerpt] from [[Sine Die 14.7]]</ref><ref name=":4">“She didn’t touch Teddy!” another voice shouted.  “And he’s having a heart attack!”
“Slowing him down, but we’re not equipped for this,” the female Behaim called out.
“I don’t know!” Rose said, raising her voice as the bird cries 
intensified.  She grunted as one bird attacked her.  “But she’s not 
doing it again, she might need something more concrete to off the rest 
of us, some possession of ours, some point of reference!  Touch is the 
most obvious.  Each kill should be easier than the last!  Don’t-”
- [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/12/20 excerpt] from [[Sine Die 14.7]]
</ref><ref>If Rose was right, Mara would try to achieve a sequence.  Kill someone 
who was close to death already with a word.  Use a touch to kill a 
second person.  By the rule of three, would she be able to kill someone 
who <em>wasn’t</em> close to death with a mere word?  Rose? - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/12/20 excerpt] from [[Sine Die 14.7]]</ref> She can also kill someone with a touch, possibly even a [[Bogeyman]].<ref>“Don’t let her touch you!” Rose called out.<br><br>Green Eyes hesitated, stopping at a ridge.<br><br>“She only needs to touch you to kill you!”  Rose elaborated. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/12/20 excerpt] from [[Sine Die 14.7]]</ref><ref>I wasn’t as afraid of being touched as the others had reason to be.  No heart with which to suffer a heart attack. [...] She could kill with a word or a touch, but I had to hope she couldn’t kill me without giving me life first. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/12/20 excerpt] from [[Sine Die 14.7]]</ref> Each kill she inflicts is easier than the last.<ref name=":4" />
* '''Resurrection: '''Mara was able to quietly raise an Other she had slain mid-fight as her servant.<ref name=":3" />

=== Domain ===
The woodlands around Jacob's Bell are hers in a way few people can claim, having been there for thousands of years. The [[spirits]] within it are also within her power and will side with her under most circumstances.<ref name=":5">“Bullshit!” Roxanne joined the cry.  Evan was only a step behind her.
We managed to make Mara look annoyed.
“I have been here for a long time,” Mara said.  “My day is a ritual.  My <em>existence</em> is ritual.  The spirits that dwell here are mine.  They will side with me.”
Her face was cloaked in shadow, framed by her hair, shrouded by the 
canopy, and something told me it was intentional, as if she 
instinctively knew where the light fell, here.  The only light there, in
 her silhouetted form, was a gleam at one eye, like the edge of a knife.
- [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/12/16/sine-die-14-6/ excerpt] from [[Sine Die 14.6]]
</ref>

She has an instinctive awareness of her environment while within<ref>Mara was running, one eye on the gunmen, and she was moving faster than I
 did.  As light as I was, my feet still stabbed through the snow, five 
steps in six sinking me to mid-calf or knee level.  Mara’s footsteps 
didn’t.  She moved easily over the crust of snow, and when her feet did 
punch through it, she found something solid beneath. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/12/20 excerpt] from [[Sine Die 14.7]] </ref><ref name=":5">“Bullshit!” Roxanne joined the cry.  Evan was only a step behind her.
We managed to make Mara look annoyed.
“I have been here for a long time,” Mara said.  “My day is a ritual.  My <em>existence</em> is ritual.  The spirits that dwell here are mine.  They will side with me.”
Her face was cloaked in shadow, framed by her hair, shrouded by the 
canopy, and something told me it was intentional, as if she 
instinctively knew where the light fell, here.  The only light there, in
 her silhouetted form, was a gleam at one eye, like the edge of a knife.
- [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/12/16/sine-die-14-6/ excerpt] from [[Sine Die 14.6]]
</ref><ref>I moved, but every movement came with cues.  The crunch of snow.  With 
years of experience, she would know, she’d intuit exactly where I was in
 respect to her. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/12/16/sine-die-14-6/ excerpt] from [[Sine Die 14.6]]</ref> and could seemingly dodge bullets.<ref name=":2" /><ref>Rose fired.<br>
Mara moved in the same moment, away from the bullet, simultaneously 
turning to glance at me.  To see a small cloth doll with a weird 
leathery face being dashed to pieces.<br>
The bullet didn’t strike home, but I was <em>pretty</em> sure that she’d been grazed.  Clipped in an ear.  One hand went to the side of her head.<br>
“I thought you said this gun made me accurate.”<br>
“Benefits you,” the man I’d nicknamed ‘Shotgun’ spoke, holding his 
trademark weapon.  “Can’t help you if the target can dodge bullets.”<br>
- [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/12/16/sine-die-14-6/ excerpt] from [[Sine Die 14.6]]
</ref>

The easiest path through her woods was always a trap, and would lead you to her.<ref>“Take the harder path!  The obvious path is a trap, here!” another voice
 said.  It might have been the male Behaim.  He was grunting as the birds assaulted him.  “Paths will turn you around and send you back into her clutches!”
- [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/12/20 excerpt] from [[Sine Die 14.7]]</ref> [[Practitioner]] children were warned to always take the harder path there, and use the church bells from the town as a guide.
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==Trivia==
*Crone Mara's character has many traits with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Yaga Baba Yaga].
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