A witch, Practitioner, and Molly’s girlfriend. She first appeared in Good Intentions.
Biography[]
Onyx was born 21 years before the Sacred Heart cemetery fire, probably in April or May.[1] She grew up in or near Seattle—probably Everett. Throughout her childhood and youth she had a sense of both looking for someone and that someone was hunting for her.[2] She started to explore magic during high school, and a ritual led her to Elizabeth’s bookstore, where she met Molly.[3] She was seventeen at the time.[4]
Moving to Seattle[]
Sometime after Onyx’s graduation from high school, Onyx and Molly moved together into a small Shoreline apartment and started studying at North Seattle Community College. Together with Molly she was bequeathed Elizabeth’s Book of Shadows after Elizabeth’s death. The inheritance turned out to be a mixed blessing, because it put interest from other Practitioners in Seattle on them.[5][6]
“I didn’t plan to jump into bed with you when we first hung out,” she said. “Not even close. I had a crush, sure. It wasn’t until we got talking and… and the longer we both talked, the more we clicked. It wasn’t all about the sex appeal, either. It was the friendship. The rest was…” Onyx shrugged. “Awesome. A bonus. Everything escalated. The thing that floored me right out of the gate was feeling like I’d found a best friend. Like I was safe.”
— Onyx, Past Due, chapter 9
She was curious about her bisexuality, and she and Molly had discussed sex and relationships with men.[1] They met Alex during photography class at North Seattle and Onyx developed a crush on him.[2] Onyx had a date with him the Friday after the Sacred Heart cemetery fire, in which they connected deeply and that developed into a tryst. While at his home she discovered that Lorelei was a demon.[7]
Meeting the Crew[]
Onyx and Molly set out to free Alex from Lorelei, causing them to study demonology and summoning. During this they had to fight off an attempt from the Brotherhood of Apollo to abduct them.[6] With little more than a day of research and Molly’s help, Onyx crafted a ritual to summon a demon.[8] The attempt backfired because they saw Rachel interact with Alex at North Seattle and they mistook her for Lorelei, causing them to use some of Rachel’s hairs for the summoning ritual, thus summoning and capturing her rather than Lorelei.[9] This complicated Alex’s situation before and under the Battle of Blackthorne manor, but they were instrumental in rescuing Alex and Lorelei from Baal and Hell.[10]
She attempted to deepen her relation with Alex, but he kept some distance from her.[11] In the end, Lorelei sought out Molly and Onyx herself to help protect Suite 1705, to get help handling Alex’s Post Traumatic Reincarnation Disorder, and to help make Alex connect with them.[12] She and Molly were present at the Emerald City Halloween Ball where they got to know the Crew better as well as negotiated with and had a tryst with Lorelei.[13]
Relation with Alex[]
Onyx and Molly crafted and performed a ritual to settle Alex’s past memories, during which Onyx appeared as Elena. This also opened the way for the three to develop a relationship.[14][4] After Alex had been detained by the Special Task Force of the FBI, she and Molly were instrumental in locating him and also throughout the Battle of Magnuson Park. After the battle she and Molly started to consult on magical topics with the Task Force.[15] This together with being on retainer for Lorelei gave them greater economic freedom.[12][13]
As a result they went house-hunting with assistance from Alex in early December. They found, leased, and cleansed House 12573, and moved into it between Christmas and New Year.[16][17]
The destruction of the Brotherhood of Apollo at the Battle of Blackthorne manor led to a meeting among Seattle’s Practitioners, which turned into Battle of the Casino and then to the Battle of Suite 1705. Onyx played a pivotal role in both battles. She was grievously wounded by the demon Evelyn during the latter, but was saved by the combined efforts by Drew Jones and Rachel.
The Family[]
When Onyx’s connections to the Family were uncovered by Zafirah, they became a major part in motivating the Crew in going to the Family party in Vancouver in March.[18] Her past life sister Kashvi managed to partially awaken Onyx’s memories from past lives, but with no apparent long-term effects.[19] She played an important role during the Battle of the Silver Delta, freeing the demon Leanne from Malike’s control and killing Teheret.[20]
Throughout this period her relation with Alex deepened considerably, going from friends with benefits to being “polyamorous sex trash”.[21] Alex also accompanied her and Molly to a faire for occult books in Olympia which didn’t turn into magical chaos and fighting. She found a copy of a very valuable book to her Practice there, but it was far too expensive to procure.[22]
Los Angeles events[]
In May she consulted with the Special Task Force in their investigation into Evan Murphy and the events of the hill house party, for which she and Molly traveled to Los Angeles.[23] Her abilities in magical observation and detection proved to be of great value to the investigation, though she and Molly became highly sceptical about the attitudes and actions of several members of the task force, especially Sanderson.[24][25]
While observing the stars with Amber, Molly and Jason, Onyx discovered traces of Evan’s magic. She led Amber and Molly towards it, and they confronted Evan, Sunday, and Barstow at the end of the battle of Westview Tower, but were confronted and captured by vampires, leading to the battle of Fifteen Percent. After Sanderson fired Amber Maddox over letting Evan go, Onyx and Molly both quit the task force.[26]
Personal[]
Onyx’s birth name is unknown; she began to go by Onyx in middle school.[5] She was bisexual and identified as a “queer pagan Seattle liberal woman”.[2] She was described as a delicate, classic beauty, with blue eyes, long and curly black hair, and a soft and pretty face.[7][27] Her skin was pale and she tried to avoid getting a tan as much as possible.[7][28] She was usually well-dressed in a goth fashion, mostly in black satin and lace combined with Doc Marten boots and a frock coat.[7][27] She appeared to treat clothes as a shield against the world.[2]
Onyx played theater in high school and had a high level of cultural awareness.[22] She was socially adept with a strong sense of decorum. Like Molly she was more open about magic than most Practitioners.[29]
She usually gave a friendly if introverted impression and was well aware of social conventions and the feelings of others, but had a hard, disciplined, and resolute core.[30] She had trouble handling nightly disturbances, intense light, and large crowds.[31][23]
Relationships[]
Onyx had good relations with her parents and no known siblings.[32] There is however a very slight hint that she had to work for her parents not viewing her as a kid.[7]
She had lived together with Molly in a committed relationship for several years when she first met Alex. She had a side relationship with Alex together with Molly evolved from a fling to friends with benefits to him becoming her boyfriend.[2][33] According to Molly, Onyx’s and Alex’s relationship was much more serious than the one between Molly and Alex.[29]
She had a tryst with Lorelei together with Molly.[34] Lorelei later said she would welcome further sexual relations with Onyx.[29]
After meeting Alex, Onyx gradually developed deep friendships with Drew, Wade Reinhardt, Taylor, Jason Cohen, and Amber Maddox.
Together with Molly she maintained a wide circle of mundane friends. It was known there that she was pagan, but not that she could work magic.[17] Following Molly’s lead she however kept a relative distance to the other Practitioners in and around Seattle.[32]
Abilities[]
She walked around the kitchen counter toward the living room with Drew close behind. “It turns out I’ve got good eyes,” said Onyx. “I notice stuff…”
Her friends carried on. Rain pattered gently against the balcony glass door. The office tower across the street lay dark and still… except for the dim light from the broad pane of glass directly across from Lorelei’s balcony.
— Onyx, Personal Demons, chapter 20
Onyx was highly perceptive and observant, both with and without magic, and her magical powers grew greatly with her experiences after the Battle of Blackthorne manor and afterwards.[5][2]
She was a capable and extremely talented Practitioner, and especially so in magics of the mind, auras, souls, and spirits. This included breaking spells, managing wards, and working with angels and demons.[20] Reading and understanding auras came naturally to her, and she turned a spell of pain and disorientation into a deadly weapon.[5][10] She used it very sparingly however, since it made her sense the last thoughts and emotions of the target.[20]
She was also highly skilled in all forms of perception and divination magic: hiding and discovering people, magic, and items, as well as seeing through illusions and having a sense of upcoming events.[10][13] When she learned about magical signatures from Zafirah, she took an immediate interest in them, but it took her a while to learn how to recognise one.[24] She also had a grounding in areas such as healing and various kinds of utility magic.[35]
The known classes she took in school were woodworking[5] and theater[22] in high school, and music theory[30] and photography[7] in college. She had a keen interest in World War II due to influences from her past life as Elena.[2]
Possessions[]
Onyx’s wand was made out of ebony. She made her first wand in woodworking class in her senior year of high school, but it was broken during the Battle of Suite 1705.[5][36] She soon either repaired it or crafted a replacement wand.
She had a set of brass knuckles, a gift from Molly.[20] She usually wore several earrings that she used as disposable casting tools, e.g. for eavesdropping.[10] She used to drive a used Chevrolet.[5]
Together with Molly she owned Elizabeth’s Book of Shadows.
Theories[]
It is possible that Onyx’s natural talent for magic was accelerated by the dual spells laid on her soul by herself and by Malike. The first was of freedom and escape, the second of other people not protecting her.[37][38] While the second spell had been broken by Simon, there might still have been residual effects remaining from it.
“Watching the aisles like she was searching for someone. Looking over her shoulder like she was about to get busted. It was all over her aura.”
— Molly, Personal Demons, chapter 9
Onyx usually appeared introverted, and she only met Elizabeth a few times during the years that she dated Molly. She also didn’t go to know any other—or at least very few—of Seattle’s Practitioners during that time.[3][5] This might be connected with the sense she had that she was hunted, which could have caused her to develop habits to keep private and being loath to apprach strangers.[39]
It is possible that her role in the destruction of the Brotherhood of Apollo led to her being able to claim much more of the available magical power in Seattle.
Onyx was less psychologically and emotionally impacted than Alex when her memories of past incarnations were awakened.[40][41] Molly speculates that this was because Onyx had her wards up, blunting the impact of the spell, and that the spell worked in a different manner than the potion used on Alex. Another possibility is that Onyx had spent more time between reincarnations, thus blunting the emotional trauma from each life, and that her lives were less traumatic in general. There have been no signs of long-term effects or trauma from the awakening of the past lives.
Sources[]
Onyx plays a key role in the following stories:
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 “Naked Justice”
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Past Due, chapter 9
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Personal Demons, Prologue
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Natural Consequences, chapter 11
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 “Authenticity”
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Good Intentions, chapter 14
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 Good Intentions, chapter 11
- ↑ Good Intentions: The AMA (Elliott Kay’s Patreon, April 17, 2020)
- ↑ Good Intentions, chapter 15
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Good Intentions, chapter 17
- ↑ “Minor Errands”
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Natural Consequences, chapter 4
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Natural Consequences, chapter 5
- ↑ Natural Consequences, chapter 10
- ↑ Natural Consequences, chapter 18
- ↑ “More Than Friends”
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Personal Demons, chapter 3
- ↑ Past Due, chapter 8
- ↑ Past Due, chapter 19
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 Past Due, chapter 26
- ↑ Past Due, chapter 28
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 “Legitimacy”
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 Grand Theft Sorcery, chapter 17
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 Grand Theft Sorcery, chapter 18
- ↑ Grand Theft Sorcery, chapter 22
- ↑ Grand Theft Sorcery, chapter 26
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 Personal Demons, chapter 4
- ↑ Grand Theft Sorcery, Epilogue
- ↑ 29.0 29.1 29.2 Past Due, chapter 12
- ↑ 30.0 30.1 Natural Consequences, chapter 12
- ↑ Grand Theft Sorcery, chapter 3
- ↑ 32.0 32.1 Past Due, chapter 2
- ↑ Devil in the Details, chapter 4
- ↑ Natural Consequences, chapter 6
- ↑ Personal Demons, chapter 20
- ↑ Personal Demons, chapter 22
- ↑ Past Due, chapter 4
- ↑ Past Due, chapter 10
- ↑ Personal Demons, chapter 9
- ↑ Past Due, chapter 20
- ↑ Past Due, chapter 22