Edith James

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Edith James, or the Girl by Candlelight, is a character appearing in Pale. She is Matthew's wife, and classified as a complex spirit.<ref name=":1" />

The Girl by Candlelight is a conglomeration of various spirits and echoes related to fire and loss,<ref name="gbc">"Matthew followed a trail of small fires and sightings to me. The ghost of a girl who suffocated on smoke in a house fire. The emotions and spirits shed in a roadside, candlelit vigil for a teenage girl who died in a car accident. A child’s pyromania, manifested in anxiety and confusion, cast away as the child grew up. These things and other, smaller things found each other and were bound together.” - excerpt from Lost for Words 1.3</ref> bound together and currently residing in the body of Edith James, who suffered severe brain damage after a suicide attempt.<ref name="ej">“Seven years ago, a girl named Edith James tried and failed to end her life,” Edith said. “She suffered severe brain damage and necrosis of the intestinal lining. It wasn’t pretty, especially with the grief the family suffered in the wake of the attempt and the hospitalization. There was next to nothing of her left, so… I moved in. The two years I was learning to operate a brain and a body were excused as Edith James’ recovery. Her family was overjoyed, and that fragment of her that remains inside this body is content that they aren’t grieving.” - excerpt from Lost for Words 1.3</ref>

Personality

Relationships

She is Matthew's wife.

Appearance

Edith has bleached blonde hair and wears a toque.<ref name=":0">“Who can teach us the basics?” Lucy asked.  “Both for practice and how this world works?  Matthew?”
“Edith can,” Matthew said.  “And Charles?” Edith, with the toque, nodded.  She’d been so quiet, throughout. - excerpt from Lost For Words 1.2</ref><ref>“The people who will look into this will be in need of those clues, and we’ll be desperate and in need of them,” Matthew said.  “If my life partner is willing to oblige me, I’d like to offer you a deal.  Edith?”
The woman with bleached blond hair and a toque took a few steps forward.  “She’s in a lot of pain, Matthew.  You’re too much a part of this to get involved, and you’re fragile.” - Blood Run Cold 0.0 </ref><ref name=":2">“What a mess, what do we do?” the other woman asked.  Louise was pretty sure she’d seen her in town.  Short, wide hips, maybe thirty.  She had bleached blond hair underneath a toque, and the lights caught her eyes, making them seem too bright.  Her expression was very serious.  Worried. - Blood Run Cold 0.0</ref> She is roughly 30 years old, and short,<ref name=":2" /> with wide hips.<ref name=":4">There were others down the path too.  Faces that she did feel like she had seen around town.  A woman with wide hips and bleached-blond hair.  Maybe twenty-five to thirty five?  Verona wasn’t so good with that age range. - Lost for Words 1.1</ref><ref name=":2" />

She appears to be a normal human, but to the Sight her eyes glow like fire.<ref name=":1">Edith James / Girl by Candlelight
Type according to Matthew: Complex Spirit
Appearance: Human?  Bleached blond hair.
Appearance with Sight:  Eyes glow like fire
Awakening: Skull → Gave red gem, took ash → coin Quiet so far Married to Matthew (didn’t take his name?) Knows fundamentals.  Sorta human? - excerpt from Notes on Others </ref> Even to the unawakened, the light can seem to catch her eyes a little more than it should.<ref name=":2" />

When the Girl by Candlelight emerges from the body of Edith James, the body's back and ribs can open up to form a circle, tipped with candles.<ref name=":3">By the cabin, Edith knelt. No toque like the first time they’d seen her, but the same bleached blond hair, recently done so there were no roots. She wore a white dress, and leaned far enough forward her face almost met her knees, her back arched. At the spine, it had parted, ribs splaying and pointing upward to form a circle. Half the ribs had candles of varying lengths perched at the points.
Inside that circle of ribs sat a woman, her skin faintly patterned like she’d been burned, but not distorted or misshapen by that burn. Her eyes were orange lights, her hair ash white, and she wore clothes that burned at the edges, like the papers did. A white candle that might have been five or six feet tall and thick as a tree trunk was set across her shoulders, burning at both ends. Whichever way she leaned, wax dribbled down its length. At varying times, it ran down her arms, onto her shoulders, back, and down her front, with enough of it pooling in that circle of ribs that her legs were mostly hidden. Sometimes it solidified, other times it congealed, and other times it broke away.
The woman bent down, wax dripping and breaking away in segments as she lowered her face to his, kissing him. - excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.2</ref> Alternatively she can bend over backwards and her chest can open.<ref name=":5">Edith bent over backwards, her ribs opening up, and the Girl by Candlelight emerged, unfolding and stretching out.  She hauled the candle out of the space where her heart should be, as long as she was tall, and rested it against one shoulder, the flames at both ends flaring.  She shot a look back at the four, who were tense. - excerpt from Back Away 5.d</ref>

The spirit herself has ash-white hair and burning orange eyes, her clothes smoulder at the edges, and she bears a giant candle across her shoulders burning at both ends. Wax constantly runs down her body, and her skin has faint patterns on it that resemble burns but do not disfigure her.<ref name=":3">By the cabin, Edith knelt. No toque like the first time they’d seen her, but the same bleached blond hair, recently done so there were no roots. She wore a white dress, and leaned far enough forward her face almost met her knees, her back arched. At the spine, it had parted, ribs splaying and pointing upward to form a circle. Half the ribs had candles of varying lengths perched at the points.
Inside that circle of ribs sat a woman, her skin faintly patterned like she’d been burned, but not distorted or misshapen by that burn. Her eyes were orange lights, her hair ash white, and she wore clothes that burned at the edges, like the papers did. A white candle that might have been five or six feet tall and thick as a tree trunk was set across her shoulders, burning at both ends. Whichever way she leaned, wax dribbled down its length. At varying times, it ran down her arms, onto her shoulders, back, and down her front, with enough of it pooling in that circle of ribs that her legs were mostly hidden. Sometimes it solidified, other times it congealed, and other times it broke away.
The woman bent down, wax dripping and breaking away in segments as she lowered her face to his, kissing him.</ref><ref name=":5" />

Abilities and Art

She has some knowledge of basic Practitice,<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> to the point where she is arguably a Practitioner.<ref>There have been some arguable cases like Edith and Matthew here, but Charles was the sole practitioner of Kennet for a good decade. - excerpt from Lost for Words 1.1</ref>

Like many Others, she has some enhanced perceptions, comparable to a Practitioner's Sight.<ref>Zed turned around, his eyes flashing as he did.

Four figures stood at the clearing’s edge.  At first glance, they could be mistaken for human.  One was a man, smoking, with his partner hugging him from the side- a woman with greasy hair and tired eyes who wore a mask that was connected to an oxygen tank. There was a woman with

damp hair, coughing, and a woman with a heavy coat that hid something 

she was wearing or carrying, her hair shorn short and dyed red.

“Vessels?” Zed asked.

“Three elemental vessels, and one man with something elemental-related in him,” Edith said.  Matthew nodded his agreement, his expression serious.

[...]

These three were vessels.  Like Edith was, but these ones were too neat, when he looked at them with the Doom’s eyes.  Closer to the space he’d carved out for his Doom, but… a much, much bigger hole. [...] To his Doomsight, there was someone nestled inside her, dark, chafed around the edges and shadowy, like she’d had pale skin before being rinsed in thin black ink that had settled into the creases.  It was a woman, long-haired, human sized and human shaped, curled up and contorted into a space as small as this woman’s upper body.  Her eyes and teeth were too white and bright.

- excerpt from Back Away 5.d </ref>

She has a power to extend her power and a portion of the Spirit World across an area around her, making it more hospitable to spirits and similar things such as Snowdrop,<ref>Snowdrop was running along the expanse of black wax like it was solid, practically skipping as she ran ahead.  Cherrypop perched on her head, holding her hair, while Bluntmunch and Gashwad fought to wade through.

“I didn’t think Edith was that powerful,” Lucy admitted, looking at all of this.

“It’s a specific kind of power,” Maricica said.  “Candles are set within home, temple, or sanctuary, in times of darkness.  There are Others who can bring the spirit world with them, at least for a little while.  It makes spirits stronger, but that’s not what we need right now.  They may have more spirits than we do.” - excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.2 </ref> filling it with associated things - black molten wax, smoke, candles drifting around in bowls, burning papers, etc.<ref>The truck continued down the dirt road, until the tires weren’t traveling down dirt anymore.  Clouds of smoke rolled past them.

[...]

The dirt was black, and candles in bowls drifted slowly across the surface.  The smoke rolled past them in waves, and each time it did, the

scene was subtly different.  Darker, with brighter trees, more candles.

There were papers stuck to the trees, and the bottom edge of each paper burned but didn’t consume.

The tires sloshed through the ‘dirt’ like it was thick mud.  Globs flew and were absorbed by the rest.

The truck rounded the last corner, passing through the thickest of the smoke.

[...]

With the burning papers on every tree and two hundred little candles floating on what looked like a lake of black oil, the clearing around the cabin was illuminated with an orange-red light that only barely reached the building.

[...]

Smoke from multiple candles and burning papers seemed to braid and collect together, forming larger masses that moved over the area.  It reminded her of the ‘manna’ of the spirit world.

The liquid was hot wax.  It was just warm enough she could feel it through her sneakers.  She hoped it didn’t ruin them. - excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.2 </ref> These things aren't "real" and fade when she lifts the effect.<ref>“This is only preparation.”

Even as she said it, the smoke began to withdraw, reversing direction

to flow toward candles and papers.  The wax was a pool in the clearing,
but the edges began to recede, the pool shrinking.

Edith had blown one end of the candle out.  Candles along the ground began to go out.  She turned her double-ended candle around.  Already, the pool had shrunk to half of what it was.

Lucy looked with the Sight, and it was easier to see the spiritual, A

little sword holding every paper to the nearby trees.  Her normal 

vision seemed to ‘forget’ the aesthetic, seeing the pool as smaller, more of the candles unlit.

Edith blew out the other candle, then embraced it, ducking her head down and crawling into Edith James’s back.  Liquid wax sloshed and overflowed, heavy with soot and smoke, rolling over Edith’s hair, body, and clothes.  It dried and solidified into a thin layer that became nonexistent a second later.  Not truly there or solid.

. - excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.2 </ref> Afterwards, the area is filled with invisible (even to basic Sight) burning papers with diagrams on them, which can boost fire/smoke/light-related magic or manifest to destroy certain sendings. She can re-manifest them to tweak the diagrams at will with a look.<ref>Then there was no obvious sign that anything had been done.  A few more blades in the trees than there had been last night, maybe.

[...]

“Should we know what you did?” Lucy asked Edith.  “The spirit world stuff?”

“I’m so curious,” Verona added.

“I prepared the area, in case there was a fight.  Put myself into it.  Fire, light, and smoke are best, if you have to use any practice.”

“Funny thing,” Verona said, looking around.  The goblins had settled at the edges of the trees.  “You taught us a good bit about fire, light,

and smoke.  I’ve got spell cards.”

“It won’t work, Edith,” Maricica purred.  She was full-size, half-draped over the tin roof of the cabin.  “They see it already.  They’ve decided what to do about it.”

[...]

All around them, birds found perches on branches at the clearing’s edge.  Every single one of those birds proceeded to catch fire and tumble, flapping, to the dirt and grass below.  Papers appeared out of nowhere, igniting and burning.

“Hey, Edith?” Verona asked.  “Do you think you could tweak the papers? Is that asking too much?”

“What tweak?  It would have to be small.”

“Bright, more than hot?”

“A little bit brighter, perhaps,” Edith said.  She turned, her eyes roving over the trees, as birds continued to land and burn, tumbling as the fire got too bad.  Where her eyes traveled, the outlines of papers appeared, the diagrams on those papers emerging like they were scratched

into the bark.  The same lines and diagrams shifted, symbols 

translating from underlined triangles to circles with dots, lines moving

to become crowns of three rather than single lines.

Birds continued to land, and the fires were more like flashes, abrupt and bright. - excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.2 </ref>

References

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