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>

References