Lady Eleanor Rayne

Daughter to Hudson and Aisling Rayne, Eleanor is an old friend of Lemuel. Under dark circumstances, the sharp young lady was betrothed to Sir Elric Thrussell, heir to the Duchy of Agrawel and a brash knight of the royal guard - something it seemed she intended to keep secret from the newly sworn Knight-Commander of the Dawn's Herald. Caught between her affections, her overbearing father, her betrothed and her own yearning for life beyond the king's court, Eleanor ever seems melancholy. Haunted by visions of her lost child, Eleanor revealed that a bastard was born of Lemuel's infraction; that she sought peace that could not be earned from civilization in her circumstances but may be found in a faerie grove. Instead she found that the Half-Moon Heresy had given the wilds over to darkest evils; her child was stolen by ancient and dark crones. Sir Elric, her guide, forced to bear witness, and held by the wraiths of the Blade in the Dark, felt his first taste of submission to the demons. When they returned, eyes hollow, their parents believed their journey together a lucrative sign of a love that became an arranged marriage. With the Duke sick, the wedding was moved ahead, and Lemuel intervened to save the forlorn Lady, only to the anger of Sir Elric, the Duke, House Rayne, and surprisingly, the Archbishop. Although Eleanor pleaded that Lemuel not sacrifice everything for her, the conflict sprouted into a brutal battle at Carmarthen that left the Order with only one choice: flee Agrawel and the Locust-corrupted Archbishop of Carmarthen. Eleanor's only choice was to leave with them. When the party took up at Lagarde, she moved with the Princess to Alennia's tower and began growing close with the elven chivalry.