Queen Ransomed

The Queen

Formerly know as the Slave Queen, the most exalted and most debased female in the Empire. The granddaughter of the Chatcaavan Emperor prior to Kauvauc.

Physical

The Queen has slender, graceful limbs, with skin a deep pewter that shades to pearly gray over her stomach and throat. Her mane is dark. Unlike four-armed females, she lacks breasts. Prior to her ability to modify her own body, her wings were cut into patterns: scalloped edges and decorative cuts and incisions that rendered her incapable of flying. Her collar is silver set with amber cabochons. Orange eyes, "all fire-reds and outrageous yellows." She is thirty-seven revolutions (years of the Throneworld) old at the time of Lisinthir Nase Galare's tenure as Ambassador.

Known Shapes

• Karaka'An (gray striped with long claws) - obtained from one of her grandsire's slaves
• Human (orange-eyed with dark hair) - obtained from one of her grandsire's slaves
• Eldritch (orange-eyed) - obtained from Lisinthir Nase Galare
  • In her Eldritch form, the Queen bears a strong resemblance to Liolesa Galare's relatives

The Queen and her first shapes, at the time of Even the Wingless

Biography

Prior to the Ambassador's Arrival

As a child, she practiced the Touch and the Change on her grandsire's slaves, obtaining both a human and Karaka'An shape, though at the time she didn't know their names. She told no one about this, but her dam saw her Change once and beat her for it. When her grandsire was defeated by the Emperor, she was captured and brought to the Throneworld Court as a prize, to become his Slave Queen, the most exalted and most debased of all females. She served as Queen for twenty-five years before the arrival of Lisinthir Nase Galare as Alliance Ambassador ad'Chatcaava.

The Queen was aware of Chatcaavan history and customs dating back before the Empire was one of despotism and slavery.

During the Chatcaavan War

After the Surgeon amputated her wing vanes, she bled so much that they were forced to put her in a gel tank, and then allow her to convalesce on a bed in the clinic.

Trivia

• Swears by the Living Air.
• As the Slave Queen, was made available by the Emperor to Second and Lisinthir. Second came to her primarily to be bathed and to have his wings oiled, and was normally kind to her. Third did not have general access to her.
• Kept a piece of jewelry from every female who died in the harem, obtained for her by the Mother.
• Named Laniis Baker "Khaska," a term referring to bellringers in ancient Chatcaavan temples, because Laniis was so distressed by being addressed using the title "Slave."
• Found Laniis's formality tiresome, but tolerated it.
• Had a great deal of difficulty reading the facial expressions of alien slaves until she had spent a full year with Laniis and also gained an understanding of alien feelings by touching Lisinthir while using her Eldritch shape.
• The cuts in her wings were sealed with a liquid that sizzled, rendering them tough rather than supple and less prone to tears.
• Preferred to dress herself, except when her presentation jewels were too ungainly to don by herself.
• Two heads shorter than Lisinthir.
• Has never had a name. Before the current Emperor took power, she was titled as her father's daughter, and after, she was the Slave Queen.
• Restored her equanimity by soaking in the hottest of her baths.

Quotes

"Tell her I...I am the Slave Queen, the most exalted of all females in the Empire, and the most debased."

"Some things must be known before they can be missed," the Slave Queen said. "I have never known freedom, so how can I miss it?"

"As long as you are willing to bow your head to spare the pain of the worthless, you are no Chatcaavan. No matter what you feel when you are defending your life and honor. It is what moves you that makes you who you are."

"Perhaps what you have done here so far, the Alliance could do for the Empire. Perhaps if the Empire finds itself fighting a war it cannot easily win, it will remember its heart and become something greater than it is." -- to the Ambassador

"I, too, am Outside, in a way. Females cannot partake of the world of power and agency of males, Surgeon. Some would say the Chatcaava have been lessened by that division. You, the other males who are Outside... how much more could you do if you did not have to live outside the world of males on the Inside? What could you accomplish freed from the necessity to maintain your neutrality? If you could choose sides, Surgeon... what an ally you would be! What amazing things you might do for the world you would choose to bring forth!"

"I'm afraid the revolution has already begun. I am just trying to keep it from killing everyone I care about."

"You are the Gentle Guide, and I was the Slave Queen, and people think we are patient and passive and kind, and perhaps we are. If we were not, our angers and our griefs would turn us into far more terrible people than those who were born to power, and who are comfortable wielding it. To have a master is safer. For everyone else."

“Not every question needs an immediate answer. Not if you want the right one.”

Quotes and Observations by Others

"Do not play the fool, Mistress. Not all power is shaped by talon and fang."

—Moon

"You never were an object," he said into her hair. "Even when you thought yourself powerless, you were changing the universe for the better. They tricked you into believing yourself no better than them."