Eiya

Eiya, Privine Giscard was a minor noble in La Vieille and the mother of Emeric and Ashe.

The third child of the once-powerful House Giscard, Eiya grew up as her house crumbled around her; by the time she was a teenager, her family had mismanaged the House's holdings and alliances so badly that they were effectively excluded from the nobility. Eiya was easily the smartest of her generation, and could perhaps have dug the Giscards out of their hole were she made the Lord Temporal - but she grew up angry and frustrated at her parents' mistakes, and decided from a young age to leave the family by any means possible.

At some point as a young woman at the fringes of the nobility, Eiya met Hessian, then Privine Argent, second in line to the Temporality after his brother, Emmon. Hessian fell quickly and deeply in love with her, and when he was made Lord Argent after the deaths of his mother and brother, he set aside a well-connected betrothal to marry Eiya for love.

There are some who believe that Eiya never felt for her husband the way he did for her, that what she truly loved was the chance to escape the destitution of her family. The truth of this has been lost to history; Eiya was a deeply private person with few friends. What was clear even to strangers, though, was her commitment to Hessian as a partner: she cared for him when his depression became too much to bear, took on the duties of the Lord Temporal without credit or recognition, and defended him from critics even when his actions were indefensible.

By her wits and with House Argent's resources, she almost managed to quell the growing unrest in the city and stabilize House Argent's position. Unfortunately, she died giving birth to her second child with Hessian. In the face of the Quiet Year Rebellion two years later, her efforts went largely forgotten, and she is now barely a footnote in the history of House Argent.

Emeric's only memories of her are fuzzy and incomplete: a smile in the greenhouse; pressing his hand against hers; the smell of pancakes one cool morning. He remembers his father more clearly, though he fears that may be worse.