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Body type: Tall. Lithe.
Personality: Sarcastic and flippant.
Habits/Mannerisms/Strengths/Weaknesses: Randomly jumps from topic to topic in conversation. Has a weakness for sweet cake. Excels in idleness. Not good at shielding her emotions. Twists hair around her finger when anxious. Can be insistent when it comes to what she wants. Never believed in the Fates. Memory is notoriously subjective.
Background: One of the few allowed to speak with the Maiden and see her unveiled. Second daughter of a successful merchant. Given to the Court at age thirteen. Was assigned to the Maiden shortly after her Rite.
Family: Older brother and sister.
TAWNY’S JOURNEY TO DATE:
After Tawny helps Poppy sneak out to head to the Red Pearl where she eventually meets Hawke for the first time, Tawny discusses what happened and their upcoming Ascension with the Maiden.
When Poppy is almost abducted, Tawny helps to tend to her wounds and secure the necessary medicine. She also learns the Duchess’s theory about the intruder being an Atlantian.
The night Poppy’s guard Rylan Keal is murdered—by Jericho—Tawny sleeps in Poppy’s bed with her, comforting her friend and easing her worries, as well.
Despite the Rite preparation taking much of her time, she finds a few moments to spend with Poppy and learns that she and Hawke kissed. She eventually gets the full Red Pearl story out of her friend.
Like usual, Tawny accompanies Poppy to the atrium, even grabbing some of her favorite sandwiches beforehand. She watches, amused, as Poppy speaks up to the Ladies in Wait after they make fools of themselves with Hawke. But she feels bad after, when the Duke makes his displeasure known. Following Poppy’s punishment for speaking to the other Ladies in Wait, Tawny again helps her with her wounds.
The night of the Rite, she joins her friend until Poppy tells her to go and have fun. Later, when all hell breaks loose, her attempts to keep Poppy from entering the fray during the Rise attempt are futile. And after everything, she can only help Poppy bathe and change, unsure what else to do to help her friend.
Poppy’s ordered to go to the capital, and Tawny reveals she can’t go with her—it’s too dangerous, and she could become a liability. Before they part ways, the two share a touching goodbye in the Maiden’s quarters the morning Poppy sets out for the capital with Hawke and the other guards.
In the time that Poppy is gone, Queen Ileana keeps Tawny with her at the capital but doesn’t Ascend her. I wonder if she knew she could use Tawny as leverage. When Poppy comes to Castle Redrock, Tawny attempts to warn her by telling her friend that the Queen isn’t what she seems. She tries to tell her more, but Ian cuts her off.
The Queen gives her Revenant demonstration, and Tawny is horrified when the knight stabs and kills Millicent. She’s even more traumatized when another beheads Ian. When all hell breaks loose—again—Tawny is wounded in the shoulder in the melee. After Casteel surrenders, the Queen gives Tawny to the Atlantians as a sign of goodwill. Her gash is bad, the veins standing out, thick and black. Poppy heals her outward physical wound, but they discover it was delivered with shadowstone, and the poison starts to spread, inching up her throat like black vines.
Once they return to the keep, Delano takes her to a room to recover, and the Healers and Elders are summoned. The Healers and I are able to help her, but it changes her irrevocably. Her hair turns white, her eyes turn nearly colorless, and she doesn’t register as mortal any longer—nor can Poppy read her emotions. We’re not sure exactly what she is just yet.
Tawny doesn’t give a straight answer when asked if someone told her about Primal magic. She merely says: “Yes, and no.” She then reveals she knew she was dying until she saw Vikter, and thinks the Fates did something to save her. It changed everything she originally believed in—or rather the things she didn’t.
She says everything played out like a dream that wasn’t a dream. She remembers getting stabbed, then there was nothing for a long while, then a silver light. She thought she was entering the Vale, but then she saw Vikter. He told her that Poppy was a god. Isbeth had let it slip before, but Tawny didn’t believe her. Ian did, though. At the mention of Poppy’s brother, Tawny apologizes for what happened to him.
She goes on to say that all she knows is that Isbeth plans to remake the realms and believes Poppy can help her do it. She admits that she wasn’t around Isbeth all that much and had no idea why they summoned her to the capital. They told her they feared she’d be taken, too, after the threat on Poppy’s life. When she got to Wayfair, she saw the Handmaidens—the Revenants—and knew that nothing was right about that place. When the Queen revealed that Poppy was her daughter, Tawny just assumed she was addled.
In the dream that wasn’t a dream, Vikter told her things he nor she could have known, like Aios stopping Poppy from walking off the cliff in the Skotos Mountains, that Nyktos and the Consort approved of Poppy and Casteel’s marriage, that Cas had been taken, and that Poppy would eventually free him. He also told her about being a viktor, and she relays all of that to Poppy.
She and Kieran bicker over how unhelpful her information was, and Tawny says that Vikter didn’t think they knew the whole prophecy. She shares the complete version (see Prophecy section).
They ask if she ever saw or met anyone named Malik, and she tells them she doesn’t know anyone by that name.
She doesn’t, because he went by Elian.
When Poppy worries about her destiny, especially given the harbinger bits in the prophecy, Tawny tells her that she didn’t get the impression from Vikter that Poppy was destined for evil. She then relays to Poppy alone what Vikter told her about the Consort.
She also mentions how she didn’t want to believe what Ian said about what happens to third sons and daughters. Despite being a second daughter, she worries that she is like a Revenant now—dead but not—and Poppy promises to find out what happened to her.
After telling Poppy she has always known how much she is loved, she promises to see her friend again in Three Rivers.
They actually see each other next in Padonia, and Tawny tells Poppy how Netta and Gianna are teaching her how to fight.
When Casteel returns, she greets him, and he tells her that he’s happy to see her alive and well. She tells him that she’s glad he loves Poppy as fiercely as her friend loves him and that she doesn’t have to punch him for lying to her and kidnapping Poppy.
I’m sure this was another moment where Cas thinks she’s his favorite person. Anyone that fiercely loyal to his Queen deserves respect.
When Poppy leaves to confront the Queen and take Malec to the Bone Temple, Tawny sees her off.
