Surela Silin Asaniefa

Surela at the time of Rose Point.

Poor angry Surela.

Appearance and Personality

Has starsight eyes, a warm clear green; she doesn't call them that, though, because she doesn't like the association. Apparently her hair used to be floor-length, but she cuts it during her exile; has the Asaniefa's widow's peak, a full mouth, and a straight nose. And she has small feet.

She's meticulous and good with details (and is a deft accountant, and good with numbers).

As a child she had to be trained out of walking too quickly (this not being decorous) and gritting her teeth.

Possessions

• Has a liege-gift from Reese: one of the White Swords' daggers ("this one was plainer than the blade Hirianthial had given [Reese] in Ontine, but felt older than the one from the Alliance she'd lost on Kerayle; someone had used this one, and taken care of it."). Has white leather wrapping the hilt.

History/Bio

Surela is a third generation Eldritch, which makes her a contemporary (more or less) with Hirianthial and Liolesa, though she is a little younger than either. Her mother was the third daughter of the (very fertile) union of Melandra Silin and her husband, Alassan--because of this, she had six aunts and two uncles, and while she had no siblings she had plenty of cousins. Their reunions were proving grounds for the cutthroat politics they'd encounter at courts. Surela does not have a high opinion of family, since what she knows about it involves all her cousins trying to get ahead at one another's expense. Asaniefa was well off, but positions of power and import were not numerous enough to satisfy the ambitions of the Silin children.

She had one cousin who served as a sort of mentor/big sister, Edorinassa, daughter of Gilinatha Silin Asaniefa, who went early into the convent life, and a cousin she was close to, Aelanora (milk name Lara), daughter of Halueth Silin Asaniefa. Her foremost irritant was Naethanian, son of Lirenith Silin Asaniefa.

When she became head of the family from her grandmother, she chose for her personal mark a shield.

Prior to the Coup

Liolesa says of her: "As great a grievance as I have with Surela Silin Asaniefa, she was no less a child of Goddess and God, and she was a good mistress to her people. Clannish, close- minded, and ambitious to her destruction... but a superla- tive manager. The individual heads of the Asaniefa families might have been useless or vicious, but she curtailed their excesses and did more than what was expected for her tenants. That is not to say I have or ever will forgive her, niece. But one must evaluate one’s opponents and one’s enemies with clear eyes."

(Speaking to motivations: "Tradition would serve them, as it always had. There was nothing out there for the Eldritch save cruelty and danger and jealousy and the avarice of people who had not their talents, their beauty, or the wisdom brought to them by their lifespans. No… better to remain withdrawn, where they could live their lives in peace. Surela regretted deposing Liolesa in the fashion she had, but the former queen had brought it on herself; by Surela's way of thinking, it was fated that weapons of the very cultures Liolesa had been unwisely courting should end her reign."

The Coup

Wanted to push the alien influence out. Never wanted to kill anyone, wanted only to rule: "She could not rule dead people. She could not win the hearts of corpses. She'd wanted Athanesin to intimidate them! It was what he had promised! And to abuse the common folk… that was past bearing. One caretook the commoners! It was their duty! To do otherwise… that was sacrilege, a stain against one's immortal soul!"

Thaniet's death (and Athanesin setting Jisiensire to the torch) were the final straws that made her no longer want to be queen, and to decide to do whatever she could in her power to reverse the damage she'd done in effecting the coup.

She was set into a prison with Reese, tortured, raped by humans, Then by a Chataava.

The end of the coup, with the Chatcaavan taking an interest in Surela, and nearly killing her until she stabbed him. "Surela had long since ceased to care about the distinctions between Eldritch Houses. The politics that had once dominated her life had fallen away in significance beside the far greater menace that she had invited into their world in all her hubris. The only thing that mattered, seeing Araelis's bloodless lips and wide eyes, was that the Chatcaavan intended to inflict himself on another Eldritch woman, and the only thing stopping him was the completion of his entertainment with her. So she fought him."

Saving her people: "Surela's voice stopped her. "Captain Eddings." When Reese turned, the woman drew in a breath. "There, in the remains of my gown. There should be a centicore amulet. Take it and use it in my name; tell the people who still owe their allegiance to me to surrender. Show them the shield on the back and they will know it for mine." She lifted her chin. "Save their lives. Please."

Known subsequently as the Ten-Day Traitor, or the One-Week Usurper.

Timeline

• Was born (probably) in 2431, 40 years before the birth of the Alliance (and for context, 142 years after Liolesa and 118 years before Jeasa).
• She made her debut to society during Maraesa's reign around 2521, when she was 90, and would have been a young debutante at 118 years old when the Vetch Agreement was signed between Maraesa and the Pelted, in 2549.
• At 122 years old, she was selected by her grandmother as heir to Asaniefa House.
• The problem of "vanishing Eldritch" would have developed during her youngest years at court, which contributed to her attitudes about the outworld being bad for the Eldritch.
• She was 223 years old in 2654, when Maraesa stepped down and Liolesa took the throne.
• Eight years later, when she was 231 years old, Liolesa welcomed Sellelvi to Escutcheon, and Surela was forced to sit through what probably looked like the culmination of all her worst predictions about Liolesa wanting greater intercourse with the aliens with the Fasianyl/Sellelvi adventure.
• She probably remembers Lisinthir's debut at court, which would have happened around 270ish BA.
• She was 460 years old when Hirianthial left Escutcheon after the mess with Baniel and his wife's death.
• In 481 BA, she would be 521 years old, when the events of the war crop up.
• The culmination of the coup (the fight between Hirianthial and Baniel), and thus Surela's fight with the Chatcaavan, took place in early 481, probably around February of 481.
• Surela gets Reese her answer (about whether to stay alive and go into exile) in winter after the coup, which means probably in late February of 481 BA.
• Reese most probably interviews Saul for the position of her bodyguard/confident a month or two later, though the events of "The Call" don't offer any details.
• During the first holiday season, Reese notes that the Earthrise isn't crewed yet, and therefore not available to bring food for her first New Year's Feast.
• Surela goes with the Earthrise in mid-481 BA which means she is on the Earthrise (and pregnant) for the events of Only the Open, In Extremis, and From Ruins (including the attack on Tam-ley).
• Lunet was born in October of 481 BA, roughly three months after the conclusion of the war and the aftermath covered at the end of From Ruins.
• During this initial period, when Surela is on the Earthrise, Bethsaida is still alive, and has access to Baniel's communication codes.

Family and Relationships

• Parents: Iriamiel Silin (f) and Onaeron Nila (m); no siblings
• Bosom bow: Thaniet
• Daughter: Lunet Silin Eddings

Surela's mother, Iriamiel, died in childbed as a young woman, attempting to increase Silin's numbers. (But Surela thinks of both her mother and her grandmother as fertile women.) She had already been an absent mother, finding childrearing too time-consuming and uninteresting compared to the importance of playing the court's games and increasing the wealth and power of Asaniefa. Onaeron witnessed the decrease in prestige of Nila with little interest, since Silin was powerful and he had married well. He was interested in his brother's venture creating the family of Osin, however, though never enough to create any gossip that he was more interested in his brother's power than his wife's.

After Iriamiel's death, Onaeron lost interest in Silin, however, and became more involved with Osin. He was rarely present while Surela was growing up. Once she was an adult, he did come with the family to the seasonal courts, and was in charge at the Silin townhouse, with his daughter's assistance in the background.

Reese

Talk here about how being trapped in the cell with Reese during the coup changed their relationship, until Reese could become her liegelady. "Well, then, Surela's a work in progress, she's just got further to go."

Reese goes to bat for her with Liolesa: "she was their pawn. They needed someone who hated you to help make this trouble, and she was convenient, and yes, she did the job. But when she realized she was wrong, she tried to fix things. She tried to stop Hirianthial's brother. And for that, she got thrown in a cell with me and beaten and raped, multiple times." Allacazam's muted support helped keep her spine straight. "She was willing to kill the Chatcaavan, my Lady... even knowing that the only way she could do it was to wait until he was lying on top of her and stab him. And you know what? She did it. She's probably never so much as killed a chicken to feed herself, but she put a nine-inch needle through a person's eye. A person who was still raping her. And when that didn't kill him dead enough, she ripped it through his throat. For an encore, she gave me her medallion so we could get her supporters to surrender, while she was still naked and crying."

Men

Was always interested in Hirianthial (since before he was married, and despite their disparate political leanings). "She'd not forgiven him for choosing Laiselin over her, but he suspected she'd marry him anyway if she could force him to the altar....her and every other eligible woman at court. He had forgotten that he was something worth chasing." But after Hirianthial rejected her to marry Laiselin, she stopped thinking of marriage, until by the time of the coup her feelings had shifted: "The thought of marrying him was absurd. That was one habit of Liolesa's Surela thought well worth keeping. Men were troublesome and vain and needed constant attention, and given swords they inevitably turned to rattling them at one another to have something useful to do. And babies! Not that she didn't find them pleasing, but to spend nearly a full year of her life burdened when she had so much to do already?"

Athanesin had been paying court to Surela since her come-out.

Before Lunet's birth, Surela didn't think much of having children (and considered it an imposition on her duty to rule as queen during the coup: "Of course. Because what she most wanted to do was waste her time raising a child when she should be running a kingdom.").

Women

Admired Fassiana, always: "Surela found her frankly intimidating in a way Araelis could never manage. Fassiana was beautiful, with a demeanor that would not have been out of place in a princess... graceful, self-disciplined, tranquil. Surela had heard she'd not always been so, but for as long as she'd known Fassiana, the other woman had been a model of regal behavior." And: "She did not want to crave this woman's approval quite as much as she felt she might."

Quotes

• "Though it is a bit mean, don't you think? There is such a thing as too much humility, particularly for a man of your estate, Lord Hirianthial."

• "I would have welcomed you at my side before I knew you preferred the company of mortals to that of people. I am almost grateful to Liolesa for exposing this facet of your character to me."

• "Those of us who disagree with the Queen's foreign policy, who have always disagreed with it, have never been allowed to speak our minds...or when we do, we are dismissed. But Liolesa Galare will see us ruined! Do we really want mortals overrunning our world? Do we want to mingle our blood with that of our lessers? And now this! A mind-mage? She brought a mind-mage into our midst? Knowingly? I think it's time for me to speak the thought in everyone's mind. It is time for the Galare dynasty to end!"

• Of Hiranthial: "He loved at all. It was his best quality."

• "You are asking me to live my life as the Traitor. The One Week Usurper. To be known forever for my treason the way Athanesin will surely be forever known as the Butcher of Jisiensire."

Trivia

• She knows the Eldritch were human once, and the details. "We can mate with humans. Both sexes. You lie with him, you will get yourself with an Eldritch child."
• could speak Universal (prior to Reese's arrival), clearly and well, though with an accent.
• fond of raspberries
• has the touch empathy, finely enough to distinguish complicated motivations (but only when touching).

Names

• Known to the Earthrise crew as 'Rel'.
• She called Reese Liolesa's 'loyal pet', once ("She'll only live a fraction of her years, but that's how it goes with pets") and told her that she had a "tongue like a whip."

Body Language

• clenches her teeth when angry , and hisses her spiteful comments when she's upset enough
• when she cries she wipes them with either the butt of her hand or her wrist, rarely with her fingers