When Iya was a little girl she loved to make things out of paper. She practiced origami, and learned to make frogs, the kind that hop when you pinch their rears against a flat surface. One day, while she was playing with one, she noticed something odd. After she’d made it hop she reached out to retrieve it, only to watch it hop away, and then again. She chased it about her room the way she’d always imagined chasing a real one in the yard. Of course she was too afraid of bugs to risk ever doing such a thing. That’s why she liked frogs after all, she imagined if there were enough frogs her bug problem would be solved forever. Of course she realized that this would be bad for the frogs who would likely starve to death. When it happened that her paper frog came to life, she realized that she was far more than just another little girl. Either that or the world was much bigger than she had imagined it to be.

As Iya got older she learned to craft other creatures from paper. She even learned to like bugs, since she studied every origami figure she ever mastered or invented, learning to understand the creatures she once feared. As she became familiar and grew passionate about the subjects of her craft, she was able to call on her power to bring them to life. So long as she could imagine them moving and existing she could make it so. At this point in her life Iya could even bring paper cut outs of tiny butterflies to life, though her paper bag origami giant moth was among her favorite creations.

As an adult her interest in Japanese arts and culture developed, and she learned of the Onmyouji and their Shikigami. The idea of spirits bound into paper dolls seemed to be a representation of her own ability, and so she began to research and experiment with the possibility until she had at last awakened the true nature of her ability. She found that with an actual spirit bound to her dolls they could be and do so much more. Her paper effigies could transform into life like representations of the creatures she replicated or imagined. They could display traits and qualities which could only be mimicked by living creatures. They could even posses seemingly magical abilities like transformation of shape and size. These Shikigami were often much faster and stronger than the creatures they represented, and she imagined tougher as well. But they did have one significant weakness.

Iya lived in a modern apartment complex, the kind with concrete walls, so when she discovered her Shikigami’s vulnerability no one else was hurt. She’d somehow managed to cause a kitchen fire, and tried to summon a Shikigami to extinguish it. Unfortunately, as soon as the fire so much as made contact with the Shikigami it went up in flames. The Shikigami fueled the flames, consuming the kitchen and lashing out against the creature’s master. Iya immediately turned from the flames. However, her clothes caught fire, as her hair melted away from the flames. The burns on her scalp would be minor compared to those on her back, which would not. Her clothes nearly melted into her skin before she could tear them away. Iya escaped the burning apartment, slamming the door behind her just as the fire system kicked into action in the hallway. After the firemen and paramedics arrived she was treated and sedated to help manage the pain, and woke up in a hospital room.

During her time in the hospital she had but one visitor, as she’d moved far away from home and had little contact with her parents. This was because her father was a drunk, and she imagined that if she remained in proximity to them after having developed her powers it would not be long before she would turn them against him. He wasn’t bad all the time, but there were periods, periods when he would become consumed by the alcohol. For weeks and sometimes months he would become increasingly violent, lashing out against her mother. She couldn’t understand any of it, but her mother loved him. She knew there must be external factors contributing to his episodes, but she could hardly imagine how they could excuse his episodes. Iya moved out when she was sixteen, and decided not to look back. Her visitor on the other hand seemed a harmless enough older man, who may very well have been lost or senile. He wandered into her room, smiled and waved at her, and headed into the bathroom as if he belonged there. Not moments later he emerged, gave her a wink and a smile, and was on his way.

Iya laid in the bed for awhile contemplating the strange encounter, until she could no longer bear her curiosity. She rose from the bed and went into the bathroom to see what reason she could possibly find for his visit to her facilities. As she made it inside and looked around she saw only one thing that seemed out of order, one thing that had not been there before. The card… on the bold black print which read “WyldCards“. Iya picked the card up and examined it, something she decided she could continue from her bed. Her wounds were mostly healed by this time, but she was still receiving drugs for the pain, though the doctors seemed convinced it was at this point mostly imagined. Still, the little bit of drugs they were giving her still caused her to react poorly when she got up all of a sudden, or perhaps that was in her mind too. As she turned and left the bathroom, she found that she was no longer in her hospital room. She couldn’t imagine that she had somehow wandered into the hall, but here she was. No, it was far too dim to be a hospital hall, and the walls were an off color from what she would expect. She started down the hall to see where it led, what was happening. She heard voices, male and female, as she entered the octagonal study.