PrepMo 2023 Day 27 Protagonist interview

Icerna
Were you always against Shadowbane’s regime?
I wasn’t. I started to hate the regime when my father was taken away. My mother had fallen ill the previous year. My father being taken away left me all alone at the age of 15. I was just learning about my powers, father was teaching me how to use them. He left and Thalric was already out of the house. He was in Alzeban, knowing nothing of me being left alone. I was destitute for months, stealing for what little food I had and using my magic to live.
Tell me about Aelar
Aelar… (Bows her head). He was my proverbial knight in shining armor. He came along when I was all alone, just becoming a woman. I had gone to work for a seamstress who was teaching me everything I would need to know to take over her shop. She was aged and her hands were gnarled, making it hard for her to complete her seamstress tasks. Aelar came to the shop once to have his robes mended. Our eyes locked and I felt the ice run through my body. I found he, too, was an ice mage. He came often after that, whether he needed things mended or not. I found it most interesting he wore the first robe I ever mended for him when I first saw him in the horrid dungeon.
But you didn’t trust him right away?
How could I, dear? In my mind he had left without so much as a word. I was sure there was some other mage, more powerful, more beautiful, that had taken him away from me. When I saw him, saw those icy blue eyes, my heart stopped. I was suddenly 19 years old again. I was not sure what to do. But I was in no position to go through a thing so difficult once again. I had more to think about. I was mounting a coup.
Did you know you would be successful, being that you and Ignatius were both imprisoned?
Is anyone ever sure of anything, dear? (she chuckles) No. We were never sure of the thing, not until we had taken the castle. Even then, with the hits our forces had taken, we were not sure we could hold it. But we did. And I was proud to stand with Ignatius and Aelar, even Seraphin.
Tell me more about that – Seraphin, I mean.
How could we trust him? He had been in Shadowbane’s service for decades. Water mages are rare across the land. As a whole we did not trust them. But we found we were wrong, of course. We were very wrong.
Was there anything to be learned from it all? Seraphin and Aelar and the lack of trust you had for them at the outset?
Oh, of course. There is much to be learned in everything, in every interaction, isn’t there? I think we all learned things. I learned to trust them both, but also not to be too trusting of others, as you know. Not everyone has altruistic motives.
But you did. You did not imprison Shadowbane. Why?
What would the point be? To have to care for him for the rest of his years? We would expend resources on him, keep him in good health, and for what? So he might infiltrate us again, from inside our own land?
That makes sense. But don’t you think he will come back?
The hope is that he will not, of course. But again, do we every really know?