Kia and Anna
By NightFoxx

      My biography? Ah me. How do I tell that briefly, in words enough to tell the story and yet not bore you?

     I was born Her Royal Highness Princess Kia Keldasa Glenstil of Torbindon. My parents ruled the realm. My father, His Royal Highness King Krynn Eryndil ruled the lands of Torbindon with his elven bride, Lady Queen Kia Lindeleawen. I was a royal disappointment to them as their firstborn, since my father looked for a male heir, and my mother, a child that at least looked somewhat more elven than I did. Ah well. My siblings made up for it, as she then proceeded to make up for my failings by producing six more children over the years, three of each sex and each more elven looking than the other. No one ever could figure out how she overcame the fabled elven infertility. That she did, is legend. I think I take after her that way.

      I grew up in the courts, trained to take my place at the side of a nobleman, or perhaps the ruler of another land, despite my own childish wishes to be a healer like my Great Aunt Keldasa. She did take me under her wing, and teach me many things, and I am grateful to her for the love she gave me in a busy and formal household.

     I won't go into the details of the incident that led to my marriage to Leander Glenstil, a distant cousin. The long and short of it is that I spend thirteen years very happily married to the Captain of the the Border Guard. While there, I moved into position as the company healer. I worked closely with Leander and the Guard. We faced many engagements together, and I never regretted a moment of it. Leander was killed preventing assassination of my parents when they were coming to inspect the border stations.

      It was more than I could bear to stay there, and so for the next two years I traveled. I made my way as an itenerate healer. Once, I traveled with a smuggler after I mended his head. It was he who taught me to love sailing and the ocean. I would have spent many more years traveling if family had not come to the fore once more. My youngest brother Dashel had run off. He had found a love for the Art and wished to become a mage, much to my parent's dismay. Thinking to nip this in the bud with responsibility, they arranged an early marriage for him. His response was to come to the land of Rhy-Din. They had agents that had tried to follow him but he had eluded them each time, so I was asked to go to Rhy-Din and see if I could persuade him to return home. I'd heard of that fabled city and had often thought to go there, and this seemed a fine reason to go. Besides, I was fond of my youngest brother, and wanted to see that he was alright. He was after all young in the world.

      Rhy-Din was everything the legends said it was and more: Full of excitement, danger and adventure. Asking around, I found he'd fallen in with a guild called the Brotherhood of the Rose. Odd name that, so I went to the guild hall to investigate it. I can still remember standing within the entrance hall, and opening my senses to the ambiance of the place and being filled with a sense of goodness and purpose. It was nearly overwhelming, and I was satisfied that this was a good place for Dashel.

      The next thing I knew I was approached.by Lady Trina Delpha to consider membership within their fold. I'd already spoken with Dashel about the Brotherhood and liked what I heard. And so, I first joined the Brotherhood of the Rose.

      I was placed in the intelligence legion, Foxfire under the command of Faldir Cuthalion and sent into the world to see what I could discover. What I discovered was a dragon that had a penchant for falling through roofs at the Red Dragon Inn, and a dark elf who intrigued me more than I ought to have allowed. One became my best friend and eventually Grand Commander of the Brotherhood of the Rose, the other, my companion for several years.

      While in intelligence I married Faldir, moved up the ranks, and we had a son, Edrahil. But, we found differences and parted. From the parting, I grew closer to the Dark Elf, finding good where it might have been lost. We have twin sons, but that relationship too fell to the wayside when we each found ourselves drawn more clearly to who we were: Light and Dark.

      Within the guild, I found myself growing in rank and responsibility. I held the positions of Trainer, Morale Officer, Recruiter, Legion General, Deputy Chief of Staff and finally Chief of Staff.

     When I was Chief of Staff, a series of events occurred that I found myself married to Matrim Ravnblade. It was a brief and tempestuous marriage. I left on a journey that went badly, and when I returned, he had vanished, and was dead.

     It was when I was returning from that disastrous trip that I was met by Commander Niertish Dash. The guild commander, Sameron had been missing intermittently for the past many years, and had been gone again. Commander Galen Ku'tellent was next in line, but he was also either absent or involved in the nurturing of his own guilds under his immediate command. The Brotherhood was faltering on the brink of oblivion, and I was asked to take up the reins.

     The first years of my command were difficult, painful. Were it not for the mentoring of Commander Dash, I could not have done it. His advise and guidance was invaluable to someone as inexperienced as I was to the leadership of the Guild. Gradually I gained confidence and moved from his guidance to my own independence and slowly the guild recovered and grew.

      In my personal life, things were never dull. I found Shangbier entering my life in unexpected ways. I dreamed of a Selenier goddess who entered my life and then my body to care for me at a time when I desperately needed caring for. Those who were within the guild then will remember my hair and eyes turned silver, my skin a pale blue. She was a comforting presence within me, not a 'possession' so much as an internal companion.

      During this time, we worked hard to develop and nurture alliances. One of them was with the guild led by Caeledon Elessidel, who wooed me and we wed just before he left to defend his homelands from invading forces. One night wed and I was with child. Did I mention I took after my mother? But the child goddess, Aquandrial was still with me, and my pregnancy was a shock to her. She was bound to my body until the child was born, and her presence extended the pregnancy to last five years. When Annalia was born, so was Aquandrial. In the predawn, her true mother Icle came to collect her born again child and left us her blessings. I should mention here, that Sorone was present to deliver the two children. Just before Annalia's birth, I learned that Caeledon had found the women he'd been betrothed to long before we had met. They had resumed their relationship, and our own marriage was null, void. I was devastated, but I had Annalia. But instead of being born looking nearly fully elven, she was born looking 'human', with no trace of her elven heritage. Aquandrial's influence had altered the child into a Selenier, the two bound to each other as near twin sisters. That devastated Caeledon, to discover the child he had sired showed none of his blood. To his credit, he never denied he was the father of Anna, though he never forgave Aquandrial for altering his daughter.

      When Anna was a year old I received a visitor as I was bringing her back from exploring the tide pools at the bay where we lived. Sorone came to visit. He was curious about Annalia, a child influenced by the Selenier goddess he was particularly taken by. There was an instant rapport between us. He asked if he could help with the raising of Annalia. I readily agreed. I liked Sorone. I liked him very much, and he was a healer, a surgeon. He was skilled in psionic healing, something that highly interested me, and he adored Anna.

      Sorone never left our family and I now cannot imagine life without him. We have a daughter between us, Kelandra. We left Safe Harbor to live in Morwood in Napalia which is in the Shangbierian realms. We are very happy there, surrounded by the woods and nature. It has given Anna and Kelli a wonderful place to grow up. Sorone is Dash's brother, and as such we also have a home on the Dash Estates where their parents live. They dote on their grandchildren, and I have found in them, the parents I have wished for all my life.

     But my career in the Brotherhood. What changes there were! I went through a series of crisis, the most difficult was the Knight of Correllon's near dismemberment. Despite my best efforts to negotiate a fair solution, I was thwarted and accused of trying to tear apart further the Knights and take away their membership and their wealth. It was shortly after I turned over command of the guild to Lady Trina Delphea. Despite other commitments, she was the only one willing and able at the time who was able to accept the command. She held control of the guild until Jean Sutton took over, some few years later.

     Then came the dark time in my life. People I had trusted and had never cared for Trina nor Dash took advantage of the changes in command to attack them. Charges were raised, and a trial ensued. No matter what I said or did, things were pushed forward, and they tried to shut me out of it all. In protest, I first retired, then resigned. When the verdict was read I was floored. And yet, not totally surprised. Trina was found guilty on all counts. She was stripped of duties and rank, and put back in the legions; the woman who had loved and nurtured the Brotherhood since the days of Dredd, who was responsible for the existence of Dunbouri Hall and still holds title to it by Shangbierian law. In an attempt to show her side of the trial to those outside the Brotherhood, she made the mistake of releasing the transcripts to those she felt needed to understand her side. She was banned from the Brotherhood and Solacia for life for this and to seal the insult, Commander Dash was included in the banishment.

     I felt deeply about the wrongness of this banishment, and so joined them in exile, retiring to my home with Sorone in Morwood to raise our daughters.

     It was a long twilight for me. I missed the Brotherhood. I missed the Hall. I missed the strength of being among those who believed in the Light, and its fight against the greater darkness, and yet, I also knew that if I set aside my self-imposed exile, it would be giving into those who had won against Dash and Trina, and tacitly admitting they might be right. And I would never do that.

      I tired several times to approach the Brotherhood to ask for a reduction in sentence and was rebuffed, the last time with such venom and rancor that I did not leave my room for a week. Finally when I did leave, I tried to put aside the Brotherhood, with membership in the Legion of Light. Despite their being a good group of people, strong in the Light, my heart was not there, and finally I withdrew.

      And then things changed. Jean Sutton stepped back from command and Kayin Starblade took command of the Brotherhood. The circumstances of the trial were reexamined and Chief Justicar Lurielle Rochetura completely exonerated Commander Dash and reduced the ban on Lady Trina to barment from membership within the Brotherhood. I was finally able to set aside my exile and return to the lands I had moved the Brotherhood to, to escape the ills of Rhydin, and associate with the people I knew and loved.

      I suppose it was just a matter of time before I would ask to be readmitted to the Brotherhood, so that I could once more assist her as best I might. Do I mind starting over as a private? Well, I do admit that it's a bit odd, and they haven't asked me to pretend I never once commanded the Brotherhood, but overall, no. I am home and if this is how that road begins once again, then here is where I will place my foot to start the journey once more.

      Looking back, I've left such gaping holes in my story. I left out how I met Night Foxx, and Airelle, and so many others. You haven't heard of how my 'clone twin' sister Kel came to life, nor how I was adopted into the Erreene family, only to find I didn't belong there. To those left out of this tale, forgive the oversight. It was not that you were not important and dear to the telling, but that my shabby attempts to be brief left for another day to tell that story.

      To my readers, I hope that this gives you a better insight into my life, and who I am, and why I am where I am. The Lord and Lady shed their Light on you. Be well.

Kia