Jahir Seni Galare

Jahir Galare, Prince-Consort

An Eldritch, mind-bonded partner to Vasiht'h, married to Sediryl Galare and cousin/lover to Lisinthir Nase Galare.

Appearance and Personality

Jahir is tall by most standards at 6'6". He has the classic pure white skin and hair of an Eldritch; his hair falls to his ribcage. His eyes are a honey shade of yellow-gold, and he has a square jaw. Jahir's speaking and singing voice is a tenor, and he smells like vetiver and bergamot.

Prior to his ascension, he preferred to dress in browns and caramels and creams and tawny colors; post-ascension he generally dresses in Galare blue. He is very fastidious and neat in his appearance.

Jahir has a Chatcaavan claw scars on left side of his face, and faint gray Chatcaavan claw scars along his ribs on left side; that skin doesn't flex when he breathes hard enough. He also has a burn scar on left hand, in the webbing between thumb and forefinger, acquired while cooking, and a nearly invisible scar at his shoulder where he was punctured in a duel.. Both his wrists are hypermobile, but the left is worse than the right.

His Eldritch 'zodiac' sign suggests he is 'purportedly emotional and intuitive and enigmatic.'

Biography

Jahir Seni Galare, an Eldritch lord, is the eldest son of Jeasa and Kolvin Seni Galare; he is about six or seven years older than his brother Sernataila (Amber). Kolvin was killed in a riding accident when Jahir was about ten years old and Amber about three. He was a loving brother who made every effort to ensure that Amber had as good or better possessions than himself. He was presented at court at the usual time, at about age eighteen, and attended both summer and winter courts for several years. By his own admission, he “did not seem to be accomplishing much,” and stopped attending. He was educated as was typical for a noble heir in the management of a great estate as well as the courtesies and skills. Among those was music, which became his great passion and at which he was skilled well beyond the norm.

Possessed of an acute mind, Jahir used his family’s Well feed to the Alliance’s u-banks to study through Seersana University’s open enrollment. When he found he had accumulated enough credits to qualify him to take an advanced degree in xenopsychology, he decided, with his mother’s support and encouragement, to go to the Alliance and pursue his degree. (Background from multiple books)

Family

• Mother: Jeasa Seni Galare
• Father: Kolvin Seni Galare
• Spouse: Sediryl Nuera Galare
• Children: twins Adaise and Raenor (coming soon!); honorary parent of Aevanauv (Evan), Efaeanoc (Anoc), and Ithauvni (Thauvi)
• Siblings: Sernataila (Amber) Seni Galare, Vasiht'h Seni Galare (adopted)

Jahir is the son of Jeasa Seni Galare and Kolvin Seni Galare, and the brother of Sernatailia Seni Galare, known as Amber. He is also the mindbonded partner of Vasiht'h, the lover of Lisinthir Nase Galare, and the husband of Sediryl Nuera Galare.

He was married to Sediryl at the Seni manse, outside, by Liolesa and Val as officiating priestess and priest, in a traditional Eldritch ceremony (though the bride wore white, like a tenant, rather than her House colors). The troth cloth was blue fading to white at the center; on one side, an embroidered cluster of grape vines and rose blossoms for Sediryl, who had come from the most fertile of the Eldritch’s lands, and on the other, stars and a caduceus, for Jahir, who had gone offworld to learn to heal. In the pale center, a fireburst for them both, flowered mind-mages.

His wife is supportive of all of his relationships, but Jahir is a private person who prefers to keep his physical relations strictly intimate, so Sediryl will have to make do with occasionally seeing him kiss Lisinthir. (The war trained him out of any lingering reluctance to display affection publicly, although Eldritch social mores still constrain them on that front.)

Mindtouch

Jahir's spring schedule, from the author's notes

When Jahir arrives at Seersana University, having lived more than 150 of his likely 1500-year lifespan, ("...a bit older than out usual freshman") and with nerves jangled by the close proximity of other people whose touch forces him to experience their thoughts and emotions, he learns that his request for single accommodations is denied because of space limitations. While waiting for the problem to be addressed, he takes a walk on the hospital grounds and encounters a Glaseah entangled in the jumprope being wielded by six little girls who have slipped away from their nurse. He offers to help, and eventually joins in the play. He and the Glaseah, Vasiht'h, agree to visit the children again. Vasitht’h offers to share his apartment with Jahir and smooths out the administrative details. Jahir moves in, and immediately Vasiht’h, a year ahead of him, begins his informal education in the ways of the Alliance, from mundane activities like working a shower and cooking to university practices, from working with his advisor, a Seersa named Khallis Mekora, and navigating the campus. Back in their apartment, Jahir faints, and Vasiht’h calls the emergency channel for help. Their touch exacerbates his discombobulation, but once he rouses, they recommend he go to the clinic because the greater gravity on Seersana is causing Jahir problems. Jahir follows through and is attended by Healer Lafayette KindlesFlame, a Tam-illee, who prescribes a drug regimen to compensate for the gravity, judicious rest and increased food. Because of the Veil, Jahir is unwilling to commit to coming to the clinic, so KindlesFlame suggests they meet weekly for lunch to check Jahir’s health and talk medicine.

As the year progresses, Jahir becomes more integrated into university life. His classes interest him, and he enjoys regular get-togethers with their quadmates, Brett (Seersa) and his flatmate Lucrezia, (Luci, a Harat-shar), Merashiinal (Circaana) and his flatmate Leina (Seersa). Vasiht’h introduces him to new foods, and he is enthralled by ice cream. The two also begin regular visits to the six little girls they met jumping rope: Kayla and Meekie (Tam-illee), Amaranth and Persy (human), Kuriel (a Seersa), and the fragile Nieve (also Seersa).

As the year passes, Vasiht’h begins to notice flashes of a connection between what Jahir is thinking in his own mind, beginning with music after an outdoor choral concert. Jahir, who has decided to stay in the Alliance after his schooling, is deciding between the medical and the clinical tracks, while Vasiht’h is floundering and starting down the research track, a poor fit. Jahir enrolls in Clinical Management, a medical track course, and Patient Assessment. Both courses challenge him, the former when an accidental collision involving several fellow students causes him to lose consciousness, and the latter when the professor humiliates him in front of the class for being unreadable. Interestingly, he has no trouble touching and even holding the little girls at the hospital. While he is still deciding, during a visit to the children, fragile Nieve dies in Jahir’s arms. He turns to Vasiht’h for comfort, and finally asks about the mental connection he’s experiencing. Vasiht’h explains mindtouch and how it has the potential to develop into a permanent mindline – a very rare and intimate connection. He and Vasiht’h are invited to attend Nieve’s funeral, a great honor, and there her grandmother gives Jahir wise counsel. Jahir decides to commit to the medical track. Vasiht’h is concerned because of the toll on Jahir’s stamina. He, too, has been struggling with his research, using his esper talent to reduce people’s stress level while they sleep. He struggles with not contaminating the study, because the subjects want to talk with him about their problems.

Jahir, in order to finish the medical track coursework within two years, embraces a grueling course load starting the summer after his first year. Before that, he gives Vasiht’h two weeks of vacation fun, and the mindtouches grow in frequency. The summer workload is intense, and Jahir is successful, leading KindlesFlame to suggest he apply for the coveted residency at Mercy Hospital on Selnor. At summer’s end, Vasiht’h begins to withdraw from Jahir, protecting himself because he knows Jahir will leave for his residency. Both continue their weekly visits to the children, which Jahir will not give up, even with his demanding schedule. Jahir begins to dream of a garden whose flowers rot before they can bloom. He weeps in his sleep, and Vasiht’h comforts him using the esper technique underlying his research. The dreams continue, and Jahir wakes to find Vasiht’h asleep in his room on more than one occasion. Over the winter holidays, their quadmate Lucrezia, who has previously confided her romantic troubles to them, tells them that she has broken the relationship off. They offer to have her stay overnight, and when she falls asleep on the sofa, together Vasiht’h and Jahir calm her dreams. While doing so, a nascent mindline forms, and for the first time, they can hear each other mentally. Both are unnerved, and Vasiht’h fears he has offended Jahir. In his last semester, Jahir, doing shadow practicums with real patients, comes home drained and begins to rely on Vasiht’h to buoy him back up. Vasiht’h realizes that the mindline is growing stronger, and since they will necessarily be separated, decides he has to be replaceable to Jahir. Jahir wins both the residency at Mercy Hospital in Heliocentrus on Selnor and the one on Seersana at General. Vasiht’h tells Jahir he should go to Selnor, believing it important that Jahir find out if he can handle the demands of a medical psychology career. On the last night, Jahir asks Vasiht’h if he can hug him. Jahir leaves, and Vasiht’h is heartbroken. He dreams Jahir’s dream of the gardens with dying flowers, and, realizing that Jahir needs him, determines to follow Jahir to Selnor.

Mindline

Almost immediately upon his arrival at Selnor, Jahir realizes that the gravity of the planet, much heavier than Seersana, is going to pose a problem. His first stop is Mercy Hospital’s walk-in clinic, where he learns from Healer Gillespie, a Hinichi, that the acclimatization regimen he underwent on Seersana means there is risk if he opts for additional courses of the treatment. His other choice is a medically supervised diet and exercise regimen to mitigate his Mediger’s Syndrome, not the way he had anticipated launching his Mercy residency. He reports the next morning and meets a human named Griffin Jiron, the Nurse who will supervise Jahir’s residency. Also present is a second resident, Valani, an Asanii who is assigned to Healer Parkenfields in physiological support of psychological health. (Note: Medical personnel who trained on Terra are Doctor and Nurse; those who trained in the Alliance are Healer and Healer-Assist or Hea.) Jiron immediately realizes that Jahir’s case of Mediger’s Syndrome is severe and may be an issue, though Jahir assures him that he will cope. Jahir is assigned to Dr. Grace Levine in crisis care because of his chemistry specialty. Dr. Levine appears stunned by his appearance but quickly gathers her composure. When Keren, a Seersa, accidentally plows into Jahir, sending Jahir into a touch-induced faint, Levine is even more concerned, but Jahir makes light of the situation.

Jahir attends his first physical therapy session at the gymnasium pool the next morning, where he meets Shellie Aralyn, an Asanii, and Paga, a Naysha, who comprise his therapy team. Though Jahir has never swum, he is entranced by the relief the water provides. Arriving at the hospital, Jahir meets Radimir, train Yulij, a Harat-Shariin senior healer-assist, and Hea Paige Nettlesdown, a Karaka’An. Also on shift are volunteers Baird Ghardhoff, a Hinichi priest, Shelvi, a pantheistic sect Harat-Shariin, and Jared Weldt, a human social worker. Radimir explains that Jahir will rotate between the emergency room (triage) and crisis care extended stay. His first shift passes swiftly, and Jahir manages his work well, though he is physically taxed. He is also puzzled by an unresponsive patient whose aura appears dense and flat. On his way out, Jahir pushes the elevator button for the roof on impulse and discovers a place where he can look across the city and into the night sky and feel connected. (It is, perhaps, Jahir’s earliest sense of the Pattern.) The next day, the unresponsive patient is still in the crisis care unit. Jahir works with Hea Maya FirstOnSite, a Tam-illee who becomes distressed when they receive a pregnant Tam-illee whose waters have broken early, because her own sister has lost two babies. Jahir is understanding of her distress, and she is encouraging of his work. Still, Jahir finds himself asleep against a wall at one point, a sign of the toll the gravity and the work are taking on him.

Jahir’s third day finds the unresponsive patient still there; he touches the human man and notices that beneath the stillness is a sludge. Healer Jonsen asks Jahir to let him know if he senses anything, but the patient dies soon after. At the end of his shift, an exhausted Jahir is waylaid by Dr. Levine, who offers her help if Jahir has any issues about the death. Jahir notices that she is offering her help specifically, but is reassured when she claims that she does this with all the new residents. At the end of his first week, Jiron and Radimir call Jahir in for a how-goes-it; both appear to be tense and chagrined by Levine’s offer to help Jahir following the patient death. When Jahir asks, Radimir brushes it off as Levine being driven.

Jahir’s swim therapy progresses, and his relationship with Paga expands as they communicate via computer and Paga says that he senses Jahir may love the water in a similar way as himself. Jahir is still experiencing problems, however, and losing weight. Healer Gillespie programs his medical bracelet to alert him to eat something from his calorie-dense diet. Reporting for his shift, Jahir learns they’ve received another unresponsive patient. He leaves his shift both mentally and physically exhausted. Back at his apartment, he is surprised by the door chime and opens the door to find Vasiht’h, who blurts out that he was wrong to let Jahir go alone and won’t ever leave him again unless Jahir tells him to go. Jahir tells him he would never tell him nor want him to go; the mindline fuses, and they fall into an embrace. Vasiht’h is appalled by how thin Jahir is and immediately sets about taking care of his friend. He suggests that Jahir give himself two months to see if he can adjust to the gravity and the workload. The apartment is tiny, yet Vasiht’h is surprised to find that Jahir would prefer that they share the bedroom, and that Jahir cares for him as much as Vasiht’h cares about Jahir. Vasiht’h settles in to decorate, cook and generally care for Jahir while simultaneously continuing his coursework remotely.

Jahir tells him about his work experiences and, through the mindline, shares some of the impressions he’s gotten from a dying unresponsive, in particular the scene of a street corner and something passed in an envelope. Vasiht’h, more streetwise, realizes that what it means is that the patient has taken a street drug. When Jahir shares their discovery with the medical team, they tell hm that drugs can only be verified through autopsy, which by law requires prior written consent by the patient. Dr. Levine is skeptical but tasks Jahir focus exclusively on the unresponsive patients to see if he can learn more. She pressures him to work overtime at another hospital with unresponsives; Jahir is unwilling, and his supervisors agree.

Meanwhile, Vasiht’h visits with Kayla and Meekie from the children’s hospital on Seersana. They are on Selnor in Heliocentrus to undergo specialized treatment and are responding extraordinarily well. He fills them in about Jahir, and they have a wonderful visit. When he gets home, Jahir tells him that the hospital was able to autopsy a human male unresponsive, whose brain had literally turned to sludge. The pressure on Jahir increases, and he becomes so stressed that Aralyn and Paga suspend his physical therapy in favor of rest in the water.

The senior medical team decide to try surgery on one of the unresponsives, done by Healer-surgeon Septima. Radimir tells Jahir that he and Griffin know Jahir is going above and beyond, and that they are looking out for him. Late in the shift, Jahir senses a response when he touches an unresponsive Hinichi. He tries to connect, and everything shatters. Vasiht’h, having coffee not far away, hears a shout in the mindline to come before it’s too late. He races to the hospital and barges through to where Jahir is crumpled on the floor at the foot of the bed where the now dead patient lies, his spark of consciousness disappearing into chaos. Vasiht’h pulls Jahir back at great personal risk and fiercely keeps everyone away from Jahir, holding him protectively. Jahir reveals where the drug injection site is. Vasiht’h gets Jahir home and in the morning expresses his anger and concern, insisting Jahir take the day off. They go on a sailing cruise, and after, Vasiht’h surprises Jahir with a visit with Meekie and Kayla. He returns to work to find that all unresponsives in Heliocentrus have been sent to Mercy. Three have died in surgery, and Septima speaks with Jahir about her frustration that she cannot fix the problem. Jahir then feels the sense of disintegration in the patient they are near and tries to fight the chaos by imposing order. Jiron calls Vasiht’h, and when Jahir regains consciousness, tells him that the patient didn’t die. Grief-stricken at the thought of losing Jahir, Vasiht’h informs him that he’d had a near-fatal arrythmia. Dr. Levine and Healer-surgeon Septima try to pressure Jahir into trying to save more unresponsives, and he stipulates that Vasiht’h be allowed to help. A Hinichi investigator, Celvef, questions Jahir to try to get more information. Jahir leaves with Vasiht’h, and they go to the pool, where Vasiht’h meets Paga. After Jahir rests in the private pool, he finds the two horsing around in the water.

During the next shift, Jahir again tries to connect with a dying unresponsive; it’s so violent that Vasiht’h tackles him to break the connection. But Jahir has gleaned the name of the drug: wet. The investigators, Celvef and a Fleet investigator, Commander Parker, come to Jahir’s and Vasiht’h’s apartment to tell them about wet and how it kills in one to two doses – and to ask for Jahir to let them know if he learns anything more. Next shift, as Levine and Septima are pressuring Jahir to extend himself even further at the risk of his life, nine wet patients arrive. Jahir leaps into the mind of one who is dying and manages to keep him alive. Because of the sheer number, it becomes a break in the case. Jahir convinces Vasiht’h that it is the right thig to do to keep as many as possible alive, even though it’s only a temporary reprieve, because it allows families to come say farewell. With Vasiht’h’s help, Jahir brings seven victims back out of twenty-three. Near dawn, as an exhausted Jahir is getting coffee, Dr. Levine, equally exhausted and believing him to be receptive, kisses him. Jahir is repelled, and realizing this, Dr. Levine is humiliated. Jahir tries to pass it off as a misunderstanding. Later, he tells Vasiht’h, “She mistook her own interest in me for mine.” Days later, when the crisis was resolved and the wet criminals contained, Dr. Levine comes to the apartment. Jahir is asleep, and Vasiht’h is told that Mercy has ended Jahir’s residency. He and Jahir return to Seersana.

Quotes

• "We move from strength to weakness and come around again to strength, and that movement is a sign of life. Were we always strong, were we always weak, did we never trade roles, we would be souls impervious to the world around us. And then how would we change? How would we grow?"

• "Because I am the one who will willingly go to your cruel hand and kiss it for gratitude, and you will deny me nothing."

• "Do not doubt yourself, Ambassador, for your cousin still loves you."

• "We are all worthy of love, no matter what we've done lately to earn it."

• "I try not to make promises unless I know I will keep them."

• "Sometimes one needs the surgeon's touch, not the therapist's."

• "A skilled musician makes many promises with the fingers on the frets of a lute."

• "I think you measure your worth in your utility, Nase's Heir... and we know that we are disposable when we are no longer of use. But we don't need to be useful to be worthy."

• “We all feel pain, but we create our reasons for suffering, or for transcending it.”

• /We come, cousin. Your lover says to leave some of the enemy for him… and his Queen says that today the wingless will retake the sky./

• "No one can break me... No one but myself."

• "Where there is no union of unlike minds, there are no fresh ideas."

Trivia

• likes mornings
• likes walls
• prefers swimming as exercise
• loves ice cream
• wears House ring on second finger of right hand

Names

Himself

• Gentle Guide (the Queen Ransomed)
• Silence Between Stars (also sometimes Silence Among the Stars)
• Voice in the Silence
• My Delight (Lisinthir)

Other People

• calls Vasiht'h 'my dear' and 'my love' and 'ariihir' and 'beloved' and 'my brother'
• calls Sediryl 'my heart'
• calls Lisinthir 'Hunter' and 'my-better' and 'cousin' and 'Lin' and 'Imthereli' (it's complicated)
• calls Val 'Teacher'

Body Language

• Habitually compensates for the height difference between himself and Vasiht'h by sitting or kneeling.
• With Sediryl, has a habit of not just holding her hands, but subtly caressing them.

Musical Instruments

• A gifted musician, Jahir plays most stringed instruments, including lute, guitar, violin, cello, harp, and lyre. He also plays both woodwinds and brass; his weakest point is percussion. His favorite instrument is the piano, at which he is a virtuoso.

History

• First time he killed a man was accidental, during a duel;
• Second time was on the Chatcaavan vessel during the escape with Lisinthir, when he killed a Chatcaavan attacking them with a sword;
• Next time was on the passenger liner, when the pirates sent a landing party, and he used his abilities to make them kill one another.

Notable Property

• A wooden box of alien hardwood, resinous and deep, holding a scalpel-like knife (may be currently kept by Lisinthir)
• An asymetically stylized jeweled swan mask in platinum, mother-of-pearl and blue
• The sword belt for the Sword of State used to be Lisinthir's, and was a gift at the investiture. /It is not just any belt, but his, that he wore into the Empire. It is meant to hang two swords; he has promised me a knife for it./