Kirsten

"I am the Masked One. Nothing can stand against me. Soon I will bend the whole of the north to my will."

- Kirsten

Kirsten was the guardian of the Sister of the North and a minion of the Shadow Lord. She lived in a castle and was the older sister of Mariette of Shadowgate.

History
Kirsten lived in the small town of Shadowgate in Emerald territory, the northernmost town in Deltora, with her younger sister, Mariette. At some point in the past, Kirsten lost her heart to Bede, a young musician in the travelling performer troupe known as the Masked Ones. When Bede left her, as he had done many times before with other young women, Kirsten was so overcome with heartache and grief that she fled into the surrounding mountains and was never seen by the townspeople again. This event caused the people of Shadowgate to hate the Masked Ones.

While in the mountains, Kirsten's jealousy and hatred over Bede attracted the attention of the Shadow Lord, and it eventually made her the guardian of the Sister of the North, gifting her with immense magical powers but robbing her of her humanity. Seven years before the events of Shadowgate, Kirsten guided Bede and Mariette through the mountains to her castle and offered Bede the chance to cast her sister aside for her. When Bede refused and remained loyal to Mariette, Kirsten imprisoned them both.

Shadowgate
After the destruction of the Sister of the East, Kirsten was tasked with killing Lief, Barda, and Jasmine as they made their way to Shadowgate. She used her powers to send a masked phantom to kill the companions, but the distance stretched her powers too thinly and it instead mistook Otto of the Masked Ones as its target. As a result of this, the group met and briefly joined the Masked Ones to travel.

Unbeknownst to the Masked Ones, Kirsten had a spy among them in Fern, a seamstress who joined the Masked Ones after having been a slave in the Shadowlands. Kirsten left a coded message to Fern on a noticeboard in the abandoned city of Happy Vale, telling her to steal the Belt of Deltora and deliver it to Laughing Jack for disposal. Kirsten herself was first mentioned by Bess, the leader of the Masked Ones and Bede's mother, who told Lief about her son's disappearance. She had brought up Kirsten to Bede in an unsuccessful attempt to convince her son that his love for Mariette was nothing special, and Lief was taken aback by how little concern Bess had over Kirsten's fate.

Once Bess had finished her story, Kirsten's phantom returned and attacked Fern, who was looking through the companion's belongings. Fern managed to tell Lief with her dying breaths that he must beware "the Masked One" and that she was afraid.

Lief eventually reached the conclusion that Bede was the guardian of the Sister of the North and the controller of the masked phantom that had been stalking them; "The Masked One". He thought briefly of Kirsten and Mariette again, as he, Barda, and Jasmine passed Shadowgate, and pitied their parents.

Kirsten first appeared in person when she answered the door of the castle near Shadowgate, dressed in simple clothing and masquerading as Bede's servant. Lief initially mistook her for Mariette, and was surprised when she introduced herself. Kirsten timidly led Lief, Barda, and Jasmine to where Bede was playing and writing his music, and habitually touched a locket around her neck whenever he stopped. When Bede began to sing his newest song, Kirsten began to cry; the song's lyrics were about her and Bede's love. Lief, Barda, and Jasmine quietly expressed their disgust for the poorly written and cruel lyrics before Kirsten lead them to a bedchamber.

However, at the last moment, Lief recognised the last word of each of Bede's lyrics as part of a secret message; "Kirsten is evil. I am her prisoner. Help me." Lief warned his friends of Kirsten's treachery and alerted Bede that he understood before pushing Kirsten aside, making sure to take her locket. Barda released Bede and Jasmine struck Kirsten with her knife, but only left a tiny scratch on Kirsten's magically protected body. Kirsten then took the form of the Masked One and pursued them through her castle.

As the four ran up a flight of stairs that lead to the Sister of the North, Kirsten used her magic to transform the floor into quicksand and capture Barda, Bede, and Jasmine. Lief himself fell into the snake pit that housed the Sister of the North, but was protected from the venomous snakes by the great Ruby.

As Kirsten prepared to kill Lief, he distracted her by reminding her of Bede. He brought up how she could not win his love and that she kept him alive because his music reminded her of her own humanity. Furious, Kirsten dropped the guise of the Masked One and leaned over the pit to taunt Lief and boast about her powers. Lief prepared to strike at Kirsten, but the snakes in the pit quickly latched onto Kirsten's hair and pulled her down, biting her repeatedly as she struggled. Though her magic protected her from most of the damage, each bite released a small amount of venom into her body, and she died a slow and painful death. Her body was soon after destroyed by Honora when she destroyed the Sister of the North.

After Kirsten's death, all of her magic was undone. Her castle faded into dust and Jasmine, Barda, Bede, and Mariette - whom Kirsten had trapped inside her locket - were all freed.

Physical appearance
Kirsten was described as beautiful by anyone who knew her. When the companions met her, she dressed in a long, white robe and wore Mariette's gold locket on a delicate chain around her neck. Her hair was thick, bright yellow, and tied into a braid with golden thread. Her hair was well beyond waist-length and hung over one shoulder. Her feet were small and she did not wear shoes.

Kirsten took on the guise of the Masked One several times. The Masked One was a nearly formless phantom that wore a massive, billowing black cloak and an expressionless, gleaming, emerald green mask. The eyes behind the mask were described as "burning" and gave off light. Its hands were thin, long, and completely featureless - sporting no fingernails or creases. They were an unnatural white colour. The Masked One's movements, specifically the way its hands moved, were frequently described as being snakelike and slow. On the cover of Shadowgate, the Masked One's cloak appears to be dark green on the outside and crimson on the inside with gold lining.

Personality
Kirsten was extremely proud and vain, traits that led to her allegiance with the Shadow Lord. She was unable to accept that Bede loved her sister over her, and believed herself to be superior to Mariette in every way. This immense jealousy eventually turned into a lust for power that Kirsten exercised by making Bede her slave and Mariette her captive. She later expressed a desire to rule the entire north of Deltora. Contrasting her obsessive and complex feelings for Bede, Kirsten barely showed anything more than scorn for her little sister, and was completely willing to kill innocent people and her own underlings.

Kirsten's interactions with the Masked Ones appear to have influenced her greatly. Her relationship with Bede is the most notable, and is her greatest flaw. Any mention of Bede rejecting her enraged Kirsten, which ultimately led to her death, while the mention or sound of his music was her last tie to her humanity. Kirsten shed tears at Bede's hastily written love song, though they may or may not have been sincere. A more direct reflection of the Masked Ones' influence was Kirsten's dark, masked phantom, which she named "the Masked One".

Abilities
Kirsten was given exceptional magical powers by the Shadow Lord. The most notable product of her magic was the phantom she called "The Masked One", which she was able to control at a distance or cloak herself in. The Masked One was able to move with almost complete silence, fade into the shadows, and was unnaturally strong, able to lift Otto above the ground. Its victims would die of its burning and searing touch, rather than from suffocation or a broken neck. Kirsten's control over the Masked One waned over long distances, which caused it to attack anyone near where she believed Lief, Barda, and Jasmine were.

Kirsten herself was protected by a magical shield that reduced all damage that was dealt to her body. Jasmine's knife barely left a scratch on her, and a single snake could only inject a few drops of venom into her body. However, she could not protect herself from hundreds of snake bites within rapid succession.

Kirsten was also able to summon a horde of small winged creatures from her mouth by screaming, which could bite and sting, and trap her sister within her own locket. Kirsten also exercised a degree of control and influence on people outside her castle, since she guided Bede and Mariette through the mountains to her castle. The castle itself was also created with her magic, and she could command the walls and floor to swallow anyone who touched them. Her spells only lasted so long as she was alive, however.

The Shadow Lord also gave Kirsten authority over some of its lesser minions, such as Fern and Laughing Jack. Considering this privilege is usually given to servants the Shadow Lord itself created, such as Fallow or Tira while a victim of the Conversion Project, it shows that the Shadow Lord put a large amount of trust into Kirsten, especially when compared to her fellow guardians of the Four Sisters.

Deltora Quest 3

 * Shadowgate