Yrene Westfall

Yrene Towers
Biographical information
Titles:	Healer
Age:	19 (in the Assassin and the Healer)
Species:	Human
Known relatives
Family:	Mother †
Status
Status:	Alive
Physical description
Gender:	Female
Hair color:	Brown
Eye color:	Gold-brown

Yrene Towers is a gifted healer from southern Fenharrow. For one miserable year, she works as a barmaid in Innish, a small port town in Melisande, before traveling to The Southern Continent in order to further train as a healer.

Appearance

With golden-tan skin and brown-gold hair, Yrene is considered a pretty woman, especially accented by her golden brown eyes. Celaena Sardothien remarks that the girl has swift feet, good balance, and is quite intelligent.

History

Yrene grew up in a small village in southern Fenharrow, learning the healing arts alongside her prodigiously, gifted mother. Blessed by the goddess of healing, Silba, her mother never charged for healing as she simply thought it was her duty, a value that her daughter, Yrene, inherited. Following the Fall of Magic and the subsequent purge by the Kingdom of Adarlan, soldiers came to seize both Yrene and her mother, despite the non-violent nature of their magic. Her mother killed one of the soldiers and distracted the others so that Yrene could escape, fleeing into Oakwald Forest. She watched from the shadows of the forest as her mother was burned alive; Yrene was only eleven years old.

Following her mother's death, Yrene went to live with her mother's cousin in another Fenharrow village, posing as a non-gifted, distant relative. Although without her magic, she still dreamed of being a healer, like her mother and grandmother before her. Shortly before her eighteenth birthday, Yrene left her cousin's house with a plan to sail to The Southern Continent, where she could enroll at Torre Cesme, the Academy of Healers and Physicians. However, by the time she reached the port-town of Innish in Melisande, she had ran out of money and began working at the White Pig Inn in order to save for her travels. However, her increasing worry about money gave her the excuse to continue working at the inn, regardless of its squalor and less than desirable clientele.

The Assassin and the Healer

Working at the White Pig Inn for a year, Yrene encounters the mysteriously hooded, Celaena Sardothien, whom she worries will be attacked by the thieves present. While she is taking out the trash, Yrene is attacked instead by four mercenaries, hoping to rob her of the night's earnings; Celaena witnesses the attack and kills three of the four men. Hoping to return the favor, Yrene tends to her injuries while sharing the story of her life. Worried about the young woman in such a dangerous town, Celaena decides to teach Yrene basic self-defense so that she might be able to protect herself in the future. However, they are soon confronted by the fourth mercenary who brought comrades in his quest for revenge. When Celaena refuses to lower her weapons on threat of Yrene's life, Yrene uses her newly acquired skills to incapacitate her captor while Celaena dispatches the others; it is revealed that Celaena was merely using the men and their attack as training for Yrene. After Celaena's departure, Yrene returns to her room to find a coin purse, full of money and a golden brooch, from Celaena to aid her in reaching The Southern Continent. Elated, Yrene leaves Innish behind and boards a ship sailing south.

Trivia

• The owner of the White Pig Inn, Nolan, only gave her broom closet under the stairs to sleep in.
• She owned a ring that was passed down through her maternal line of healers, using it as a wedding band to discourage men.
• The note that accompanied the coin purse from Celaena simply said, "For where ever you need to go -- and then some. The world needs more healers."