Rhaelyn

Prologue

Oh, rebellious youth. Or, maybe it just runs in Rhaelyn's blood. Her great-grandmother and great-grandfather were openly against Highreaches Hold and all they stood for. White Bluff stood fearlessly along with the rebels and showed no shame in their discontent. Young and idealistic, when Weldon took up the Hold, he felt entitled to fight against the tyrant leach of Highreaches Hold. For their efforts, the conclave dished out a hash punishment. Holder Weldon and his Lady Brittany, their siblings and the children of those siblings were swept up and disposed of. Cursed dragonriders with their vapid morals and greedy spinelessness must have been the root of things. Weldon swore the rest of his life that the truth would come out. No little island could keep it forever.

With his dying breath he cursed the dragonriders who brought them to the exile. Who had delivered them? Not the Holders. Oh no. He'd been flung off the dragon and left to die in the wasteland with a dear, sweet wife and beloved children and brethren. So much for the 'protecting' dragonriders. He was the only one who could protect his kinfolk. They should never have trusted dragon-folk. He took his children in hand and reminded them daily those vile deeds that had been done to them by their hands.

White Bluff had always been a rich farming hold. He knew his way in the fields and so he was among the first to plant in the rocky dirt of the island. It didn't come easy. He wasn't a farmcrafter but he would water the ground with his own blood if it would grow plants to feed his family and the families of those who stood against the tyrant.

He lived to a ripe old age of seventy-five turns, fourty-five of them spent in exile and not a moment wasted. The well worn tale of what happened was not kept quiet, or a secret. For every traditional Harper ballad, he had a new and 'improved' one. At least his kin would remember, even if some of the more traditional exiles attempted to smooth it over. Weldon's line would not.

Rhaelyn is very much the offspring of her great-grandsire. Although she was born long after he'd passed on, she has his cruel eyes and his rebellious nature. Good quality in a leader perhaps, but not good in a community that needs unity. Thank goodness she's an only child but a shame she's a girl. Her mother died in childbirth and she's been raised by her father Anthon, eldest son of the eldest son of Holder Weldon.

Anthon is in failing health these days and the sixteen turn-old has been adjusting her usual antics to take care of him and to write down all the stories and histories of her ancestors. Rebellion has been tucked to the back burner for now. Not that she is doing what she's told over half of the time, but at least she has a focus to her energy for a time.

Background

Rhae is a third generation exile offspring. Her great grandparents were rebels who felt they were right to stand up against Beradin. Holder and Lady of minor hold White Bluff, a remote but high producing farmhold (holding back such a high percentage of their tithe was painful and as such, the punishment was to remove most of their family to the island). She is an only child, her mother having passed on after her birth. Her father never remarried, choosing to be a comfortable bachelor despite efforts to match him up to help the bloodline. Rhae spent most of her younger turns in the care of aunt, Gwennie but is much loved and spoiled by her delinquent father.

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