Cliona Goldbranch

The daughter of King Ithel Goldbranch and his Queen, Rhiannon, Cliona was born in secret for her own protection. She was raised by a handmaid alongside the handmaid’s own daughter, Rhosyn, with whom she became close friends. Though the official story was that she was Rhosyn's twin, and they were raised as such, Cliona began to know and understand who she was, the first royal child to survive infancy, when she was ten.

Favored by her mother and constantly slipped sweets and extra toys, Cliona knew and understood the importance of keeping her identity secret, and so she acted like a handmaid, learning the duties of her foster mother. She spent nearly all of her free time with Rhosyn, and the two made up stories with each other, as well as special codes to share their secrets with each other.

Cliona was sixteen when she first saw Ryder Greenblade. He was amazingly handsome, and from the moment she first saw him, she desired him. Every time she saw him in the market, she attempted to make known her feelings, but he seemed to never notice.

When Cliona and Rhosyn were a hundred-sixty-four years of age, Ruslar, the young, newly crowned king of Seos, came to visit Ithel and Rhiannon. Ruslar and Rhosyn saw each other, and when Ruslar left, Cliona was forced to say goodbye to her friend, who was leaving to become Ruslar’s wife. The two continued to exchange letters, however, and two years later, Cliona received a letter from her dear friend informing her that Rhosyn had given birth to twins. They had given the older twin, a girl, a Seosan name, Nisha. The younger twin was a boy, and they had given him an Elven name, Rowan.

Cliona felt joy for her friend, but still she longed for Ryder’s touch, for his kiss. Rhosyn had not been the only one of her fellow handmaids to find love, after all. There was a six-year-old girl named Fiona living with her mother who was also a handmaid. She believed that love would never be hers, until about a year after Rhosyn’s twins were born. Ryder’s father, Didymus, was dead from a mysterious illness.

Ryder had taken to drinking, and finally, he noticed Cliona. She got him to stop drinking and the two began an affair late that winter, an affair that ended early the next spring. Shortly after their affair ended, Cliona found herself pregnant. She was overjoyed. She had a part of Ryder that could not be taken away from her, despite his obvious love for another Ranger named Arya.

Rhiannon asked her daughter who the father of her child was, but Cliona refused to speak. She would not force Ryder into marriage. Instead, she told her mother only that it was a man who was out of her reach. Eventually, Rhiannon gave up, focusing instead on the child she carried.

Rhiannon and Cliona went into labor at the same time. With the royal midwife and the other handmaids helping Rhiannon, Cliona had to rely on Agrona. She labored for several hours, and grew frightened when the baby did not cry immediately. Agrona simply unwrapped the cord from around the girl’s neck and restored her breath, presenting her to Cliona. It was the first day of spring, and Cliona named her daughter Tesni.

Cliona’s infant sibling was stillborn, and though Rhiannon continued to try to have another child, she doted on her young granddaughter. Cliona loved Tesni and spoiled her, delighting with each new thing Tesni did.

Dark times were coming, however, and when Tesni was four, there was a raid on Linwood City. Hiding with her daughter, Cliona saw her parents murdered. She also witnessed the leader of the bandits threaten Agrona, who was rescued by Lucas, the head of the royal guard. Frightened, Cliona placed around Tesni’s neck the pendant she’d had made for her and ran through secret passages out to the street.

In the chaos, however, Cliona lost her grip on her daughter’s hand and, unable to find her, sadly made her way to the tavern, where she took a position as a barmaid. She went back into the palace through the secret passages that night only to get some of her dresses and jewels, as well as some of her mother’s jewels and dresses, and she carried them to her room at the tavern, putting them into her trunk. She also sat down and wrote a letter to her daughter, hoping beyond hope that Tesni would one day be found.

Cliona worked in the tavern for six years, spending her days making beds and drawing baths for guests, and her evenings in the kitchens and passing out beer and ale. Then, slowly, she began to sicken. Realizing that she was dying, she begged for the owner of the tavern to call for Ryder. When he arrived, she confessed to him that he had a daughter and begged him to find her. Then she closed her eyes and slipped into a sleep like death.

She woke up alone in the grave, frightened. Then she heard someone digging her up, and she thought that perhaps someone, perhaps even Ryder, had realized that she was alive. Instead, she recognized the man who had led the assaults upon Linwood and killed her parents. He beat her and took her away against her will. He regularly beat her and raped her until she agreed to pass to him her right to the throne. She recited the incantation in Elvish, however, taking the opportunity to replace Bhimar’s name with the word for daughter, aneyla. She covered it up by telling him that it was the Elvish form of his name, her own small revenge even as, satisfied, he forced her to drink a potion that stole her voice and changed her appearance.

It was when she arrived in Bhimar's camp that she realized why. There, she was given the name Pari, and she recognized her old friend, Rhosyn. For twenty-eight years she remained a silent slave, shocked when first Rhosyn, Tanith, and Nisha were rescued thanks to Nia, whom Cliona knew to be her granddaughter, and then when Agrona and Arya were brought to the camp as prisoners. It was when they were rescued that Cliona was, and she was finally able to reveal herself.

Cliona immediately began bonding with her daughter and remained friends with Ryder. When Arya died, she was there for him, and the night Ryder and Arya’s son Finn earned his blade, Cliona found herself in his bed once more. The next year, she and Ryder wed, and Cliona chose to stay in the Ranger camp with Ryder rather than forcing him to move into the palace. While the others were training and planning, Cliona took a student of her own, training her son-in-law's youngest sister, Nasrin, to master the art of Dream Walking.

Cliona followed her husband and the others to Yewsel, where she revealed that she was pregnant. She had been afraid of a bad reaction on Ryder’s part, but he was overjoyed, even if the timing was wrong, and Tesni and Finn were both more than happy, ready to welcome their new sibling into the world.

A year after the Battle of Hearts, Cliona gave birth to a little girl that she and Ryder named Rhiannon, after Cliona's mother. She also aided in the cleanup and rebuilding of what Bhimar had destroyed in Linwood, including teaching Tesni how to use the Heart of Linwood.