Willow Averille

Friend of Blossom Averye (page 113) and a co- founding member of the famed Coalition for Magical Cooperation, she’s also the foster mother to Carlyn Donovani (page 9). Although she appears strong and confident externally, Willow often reflects on how she might have become an entirely different person. Clearly, she had the ingredients to become the success she is, but there was much about her as a younger woman that might have steered her wrong—especially during her teens. She was always good at thinking about things in the long term. Perhaps that’s what saved her? No—definitely not—at least not alone. She was always a disciplined and organized person, a tireless worker, and very focused on having a successful career someday. But her intense drive and early success turned her past the point of confidence and assertiveness and into arrogance and self- aggrandizement. She became insular and completely self-centred and for a time refused to have any involvement with others unless she was granted control. In the process, she drove away every friend she’d ever made. All except Blossom. Blossom persisted through the rage, until the anger fractured into tears, and eventually into realization, regret and reform. It wasn’t the magical transformation from children’s fairy tales. It took years, and she’s still not convinced that she isn’t still broken inside. She also understands that her behaviour didn’t come from nowhere, but that there’s no point in blaming. Regardless of what’s been done to you, who you become is a choice you make for yourself. Thank the Creator for Blossom. It was Blossom that convinced her that there were wrongs to be righted everywhere, and that it could be their mission to use magic to do it. She’d never felt so small in a long time, until she realized that it was her inflated sense of urgency to protect herself constantly that was gone. In being given a purpose, she’d been returned to her place.