Justin Pasteur

Justin Pasteur is a human adventurer associated with La Camaraderie, the later Gerta Moon circle, and Lime Schulze. He first appears in surviving accounts as a shipboard servant of the Raibon circle and later became known as a monk of the Way of the Astral Self, a crewman of the Rozenmaiden, and one of Lime’s closest companions during the events that followed Gerta Moon’s attempted relocation to Sentimental Island.

Raibon and the Rozenmaiden

Justin first served La Camaraderie as a laundry boy aboard La Carnalis. After Hedwig Rosenkrantz acquired the Rozenmaiden, she persuaded Somme Privatea to become her first mate and brought several favored La Carnalis staff into the new crew, including figures such as Dominguez Tailleur. Justin was one of the people Hedwig wanted to take from Jean-Paul’s ship, and he belonged to that wider shipboard circle before he became involved with Gerta Moon’s students.¹

Justin’s earliest preserved family history centers on his mother and the curse that shaped his life. A recovered vision describes her as a worn Mehicanian refugee woman living in the Freehold of Turin. She bought a carved rattle from the street, returned to a poor house in the slums, and gave it to her malnourished infant son. She later left the child in a basket before the Temple of Minerva and died after coughing blood in the streets. The Rozenmaiden circle later searched for her body while preparing magic against the curse that had passed into Justin’s line.²

By the time Justin entered the better-preserved shipboard records, he was blind, though never helpless. He adapted through a severe training regimen shaped by Minfilia Diaz and Bartholomew IV Strandiz, whose military habits taught him to move, fight, and serve without depending on ordinary sight. Earlier Raibon-era accounts preserve the beginning of this turn in dramatic form: Minfilia first promised her left eye if Justin learned to fight in a week. After she learned Greater RestorationGreater RestorationLevel 5 · Abjuration1 action · Touch · InstantaneousV, S, MYou imbue a creature you touch with positive energy to undo a debilitating effect. You can reduce the target's exhaustion level by one, or end one of the following effects on the target: One effect that charmed or petrified the target One curse, including the target's attunement to a cursed magic item Any reduction to one of the target's ability scores One effect reducing the target's hit point maximum, the wager shifted toward a longer period of training and the possibility of replacing the eye by magic. The spell did not cure Justin, however, because his blindness came from a powerful curse placed on his mother rather than from an ordinary injury or disease.³

Justin’s connection to the revived Hags of Hama came primarily through Hedwig Rosenkrantz, who had revived the Hags in their current incarnation. He therefore stood near the Hags through service to Hedwig and the Rozenmaiden before he became personally tied to Lime and the Gerta Moon students.⁴

Gerta Moon and the Feydark

Justin became involved with Gerta Moon’s students after the Rozenmaiden rescued them from the storm that interrupted their attempted move to Sentimental Island. Lime first became close to him then, when she felt a responsibility to help him despite his own competence. That protective concern became friendship and soon developed into romance.

During the rites after the Sentimental Island crisis, Lime accepted the office or burden connected to the Spirit of the Moon and chose Justin as her protector or token-holder. This choice deepened Justin’s place in the circle around the Hags of Hama, but he was not himself one of the girls marked by a spirit.⁴

Justin then traveled with the group displaced into the Feydark after the Parade of the Spirits. Surviving route and crew records place him among the party in Flyukishilla and later aboard the Scarlet, where one roster names him as a deckhand. His role in these accounts is practical rather than ceremonial: he appears as one of the people who keeps moving, carries what must be carried, and does the unglamorous work needed for the group to survive.⁵

Lime Schulze

Justin’s relationship with Lime was later complicated by separation, magical obligation, and Lime’s duties as the holder of the Spirit of the Moon. Lime’s anxiety over being trapped in the Feywild was central to the separation. Her connection to the Spirit of the Moon, a power tied to Thera rather than the Feywild, made her feel increasingly displaced in comparison with the others, and she justified the split through Gerta Moon’s emphasis on duty before personal need. During the Vengeful affair, Lime privately told Justin that she was three months pregnant and that he was the father. The child had been conceived shortly before the group was pulled into the Feydark, though Lime and Justin only realized it after their return. Unlike the time-distorted pregnancy associated with Aika Miura and Hans Kohler, Lime’s pregnancy was not altered by planar time distortion. Justin did not pressure her into resuming a romantic relationship, but promised to support Lime and the child however she wished. Lime later said that they would face the pregnancy together without assuming that this restored their relationship to what it had been.⁶

The same conversation revealed the depth of a bond created when Lime had inadvertently given Justin a Hag Token. The token provided a deep telepathic link through sight, hearing, feelings, and sensations, letting Justin see through her eyes, feel the wind, and sense the baby’s life energy. Justin’s own bloodline curse became urgent because Minfilia warned that it might pass to the child. Ordinary healing, Remove CurseRemove CurseLevel 3 · Abjuration1 action · Touch · InstantaneousV, SAt your touch, all curses affecting one creature or object end. If the object is a cursed magic item, its curse remains, but the spell breaks its owner's attunement to the object so it can be removed or discarded., and Greater RestorationGreater RestorationLevel 5 · Abjuration1 action · Touch · InstantaneousV, S, MYou imbue a creature you touch with positive energy to undo a debilitating effect. You can reduce the target's exhaustion level by one, or end one of the following effects on the target: One effect that charmed or petrified the target One curse, including the target's attunement to a cursed magic item Any reduction to one of the target's ability scores One effect reducing the target's hit point maximum had not solved the matter, and the two agreed to seek a cure after the Seneran crisis.⁷

Malthrek Operation

Justin accompanied Lime and the allied investigators during the Malthrek phase of the Vengeful affair. On the mountain approach to Malthrek, he helped or carried Lime during difficult descents. At one point he lost his balance while carrying her, spent ki to recover, spun through the movement, and landed safely. He also offered ship rations and Seneran cheese bread when Lime became hungry along the route.⁸

Within the castle operation, Justin worked effectively under cover. He disguised himself as a laundry boy, remained with Lime near the kitchens when the party split, and later handled a captive through the cramped cellar and hidden-route passages below the castle. When Lime used Grasping VineGrasping VineLevel 4 · Conjuration1 bonus · 30 ft. · 1 minuteV, SYou conjure a vine that sprouts from the ground in an unoccupied space of your choice that you can see within range. When you cast this spell, you can direct the vine to lash out at a creature within 30 feet of it that you can see. That creature must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or be pulled 20 feet directly toward the vine. Until the spell ends, you can direct the vine to lash out at the same creature or another one as a bonus action on each of your turns. to help the climb, Justin managed the ascent while still controlling the captive. At the hideout, he was already with Lime when the others arrived, and he later dragged an unstable restrained man into Emily Hazeldine’s teleportation circle.

Justin also assisted during attempts to treat parasite victims. After celestial blood was poured into a man’s mouth, Justin massaged the man’s throat to make him swallow. The violent healing that followed helped eject a parasite, placing Justin among those present for one of the clearest demonstrations that the Reformist crisis had become an aberrant infestation as well as a political and religious conspiracy.⁹

Footnotes

1. Later recollections identify Justin as a former laundry boy, and ship histories place Hedwig’s Rozenmaiden crew in continuity with La Carnalis personnel. Raw Sea Hags notes also state that Hedwig wanted to take Justin from Jean-Paul’s ship. ↩

2. Raw Sea Hags transcription notes describe Justin’s rattle, his mother as a Mehicanian refugee in the Freehold of Turin, his abandonment at the Temple of Minerva, and later efforts to find his mother’s body. ↩

3. Later accounts identify Justin as blind, describe the condition as curse-related, and connect his competence to training under Minfilia and Strandiz. Raibon accounts preserve the initial left-eye wager, the later training arrangement after Minfilia learned greater restoration, and the discovery that the magic did not cure Justin because the curse was rooted in his mother. ↩

4. Lime’s own account identifies Justin as the protector or holder she chose when accepting the moon-linked office after the Parade of Spirits, while the current Hags of Hama trace their revival primarily through Hedwig Rosenkrantz. ↩ ↩²

5. Escape-from-the-Feydark notes place Justin in the displaced company and later list him among the Scarlet’s deckhands. ↩

6. Vengeful accounts record Lime’s pregnancy disclosure, Justin’s response, and their decision to face the pregnancy without treating it as a simple restoration of their relationship. ↩

7. The same discussion records the shared sensory bond, the Hag Token explanation, and concern that Justin’s bloodline curse might pass to the child. Minfilia jokingly called this kind of bond the “69 connection” because Somme and Hedwig had used an earlier version for intimate long-distance contact. ↩

8. The Malthrek approach notes repeatedly place Justin assisting Lime, carrying her through risky terrain, and providing food from ship rations. ↩

9. Later Malthrek notes place Justin with the captive, the teleportation party, and the celestial-blood parasite treatment. ↩