Myrla

Myrla was married to Bedek and lived in Darujhistan. Together, they adopted Harllo, the five-year-old son of Stonny Menackis, since Stonny could not bear to look after him.^[1] They also had three children of their own--Snell, three-year-old Mew, and the infant Hinty.^[1] Harllo knew her as his aunt.^[1] She was an old woman with a lined face and arthritic hands.^[2]

The indigent family lived in The Trench, a slum in the Gadrobi District.^[3] With the last baby, Myrla had "hurt something in her belly" leaving her frequently exhausted and unable to work regularly. Even cooking left her weak with headache. When able, she mended clothes for a living. Meanwhile, Bedek also could not work after losing both his legs in an accident, so Harllo supplemented their income by stealing food from the market and foraging on the western shores of Lake Azur.^[1]

Bedek often sunk into depressive episodes that absorbed Myrla's full attention and left their two daughters to be tended by Harllo. Snell contributed little, and his bullying of Harllo and his sisters intensified during these times.^[1]

In Toll the Hounds

Myrla and Bedek grew worried when Harllo did not come home one evening and Snell insisted he had last seen the boy near the city docks. They did not know that Snell had ambushed the boy outside the city and left him for dead. After two days, Myrla approached Stonny at her duelling school seeking Gruntle's help in locating him, but Gruntle was away. A shocked and furious Stonny blamed Harllo's disappearance on Snell, but Myrla refused to believe he would do such a thing. Murillio, a teacher at the school, stepped in to help with the search, quizzing the shaking Myrla on the boy's appearance and daily routine.^[1]

Desperate to find Harllo, Myrla and Bedek made their way to the newly consecrated Temple of Chains hoping Prophet Seech would help them find their missing boy. When the prophet's bearers carried him through the crowd, his hand reached out to bless Myrla's forehead. In answer to their questions about their adopted son, Prophet Seech instead talked of Snell, saying their blood was the poison of his birth and even the Crippled God rejected such a creature. Then he blessed the couple for their lifelong blindness, their insensitive touch, and the fugue of their malnourished minds, naming their two daughters no better than their parents. When the prophet was borne away, the mob of worshippers trampled the couple to death and spots of gangrene grew on Myrla's head where the prophet had blessed her.^[4]

After Harllo was rescued, he, Mew, and Hinty went to live with Stonny.^[5]

Notes and references