Alys, formerly known as Lyssa, read more about how her father had gone to the south, had a child with another Red-Bound just like him to minimize any additional variance in his experiments, and had a child. As he only cared for experimental subjects rather than a family, he cared little when his wife died.

Unfortunately, his patron was adamant at knowing the equation to guarantee a Red-Bound. While the king of this small island had a lineage that mostly produced Red-Bound, this particular king was finding child after child binding to the White Titan. His rivals were garnering support among the nobility and, should his few remaining children not bind quickly, he would be killed and replaced.

Berach fled to a small town and was given a year to come up with an answer, with his life forfeit if he could not. While all of his experiments thus far had come back inconclusive – or that multiple factors were working together to determine which Titan an individual bound to – the most promising experiment had been an extreme event. As he had a year, this is what he would focus on.

Berach used his aspect – the ability to copy someone else – to copy his daughter, which left her sick after they moved to the small town. He allowed one copy to go free and do as she wished, curious what would become of her, while keeping the other under strict lock and key, secluded from everyone in a cold just above survivability. As one daughter was fighting for her life against the Demon she had found, the other had bound to the White. The extreme neglect, freezing temperature, and lack of any other stimulus had forced her binding.

While this was not exactly as firm an experiment as he would have liked, and ideally he would have done the counter with another daughter, time was growing short. So, he reported on his findings and the Binding Ritual was made. The Enforcers were given the information and, never an organization to leave behind loose ends, brought the prince to the small town. The Enforcers would take Berach back with them, but otherwise destroy all witnesses in an inferno to Bind the prince to the correct Titan.

Berach’s journal ends here, but Alys’s memories pick up.

After a few days, she left the cave she found Patchy’s corpse and stumbled her way back to her village. It took longer than expected, but as she was in the process of binding to the Red – in large part due to her unacknowledged aspect – she did not feel the elements as much as she could have.

The flames of her new town burning drew her attention as she wandered the tundra, and she arrived just as the Enforcers had finished their mission – with the prince successfully bound to Red in tow. A handful of citizens were still alive, including her father, and were being led in chains to the caravan on its way back to the capital.

Alys, having only seen the destruction and the few survivors left, released the rage that she had been building from her several near-death experiences. Her aspect is to concentrate energy, but when she is in a stage of extreme stress it shifts to one that does not merely concentrate energy, but increases it. Increase is such a quaint term to describe what she does.

The crater Sparrow wrote of was the one instance she unleashed this shifted aspect. It destroyed half the town in an instant, disintegrated the citizens such that not even their bones or ash remained, and killed most of the Enforcers. The prince, having been far enough away as their primary goal had been achieved, and a relatively new grunt – one of the disposable Enforcers that come along on any mission should a sacrifice be needed – were the only survivors. Save Lyssa herself.

The Red-Bound Enforcer, who would eventually become Commander Rafael, was able to take the young girl as she fell unconscious at the exertion of her first knowing use of her aspect. He carried both her and the prince back to the king. He claimed more glory than he deserved, and the young prince was too intimidated by the series of events to contradict him.

He kept the young Alys alive and, more importantly, close. He had gotten a taste of power as he rose through the ranks of the Enforcers. With the now-king still somewhat intimidated of the leader of the Enforcers, he had hoped to use Alys’s strength to claim the throne for himself.

Unfortunately, Alys was intractable. While most joined the Enforcers out of a desire to cause pain or demonstrate their power, Alys joined as she had no other choice. She had a strange sense of duty or honor that was useful when given specific missions, but made her impossible to lead in others. She was brutal and never shied from punishing any in the Enforcers that deserved it, regardless of station, and she destroyed any who attempted to confront – or kill – her.

She may have been key at one point in time, but Rafael had learned to adapt without her and now she had become more bane than boon. He had sent her on numerous missions in an attempt she would fall, yet with every success her power within the organization grew.