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Arden Windermere is the current Queen of the Kingdom of the Mists in San Francisco. California. She is the daughter of the late King Gilad Windermere and heir-turned Queen in the Mists. She first appears in Chimes at Midnight.

About[]

As a Tuatha de Dannan, Arden has powerful teleportation magic. In her fae form she has hair "so black it was virtually purple" with glossy undertones/blackberry colored, eyes "polished pyrite and shifting mercury." Her human glamour cannot entirely hide those eyes, making them a brown/blue bicolor, and her glamoured hair is an ordinary chestnut color.[1]

Her magical signature of redwood sap and blackberry flowers reflects her ties to the redwood forests of Muir Woods and her physical appearance. It echoes Gilad's signature of juniper, another tree native to the Western United States; and quince, a pear-like fruit.

As Queen in the Mists, Arden is still growing into her own confidence. Her time in the human world heavily influences her mannerisms and policies; she is uncomfortable at formal balls but organizes conclaves with the ease of a salesperson.[2][3] She and Toby are respectful acquaintances, though she keeps enough distance to prevent them from being truly friends. Some part of her still resents Toby for pulling her from her peaceful mortal life. However, Arden trusts her enough to try getting Toby as a formal part of Arden's household. Arden notes that Shadowed Hills was fond of Toby, since Sylvester wouldn't release Toby's fealty.[4]

Biography[]

Arden was born at the turn of the 1900s, a child when the 1906 earthquake destroyed King Gilad's reign in the Kingdom of the Mists. Gilad loved her mother, Sebille, who worked as a servant in his knowe so that he would have an excuse to be around her and their children without compromising their anonymity. The family's identity was an open secret among the servants.[1]

After the earthquake and the false Queen's takeover of the throne, the nursemaid Marianne hid Arden and her brother Nolan in the human world using powerful secrecy charms obtained from the Luidaeg. In the 1930s, Nolan strongly considered rising against the false Queen to reclaim their throne, but the Queen had him elf-shot and terrified Arden too much to make a move for her rightful throne. As a result, the siblings remained in hiding for over a century.[1]

In the Series[]

Live in Brass[]

Dianda Lorden runs into Sebille, along with Arden and Nolan, as she looks for Patrick at her engagement party in 1841.

Shine in Pearl[]

Patrick notices two young children, Arden and Nolan, at King Gilad's party in 1901. He recognizes the open secret that they are Gilad's children, and the staff member with them is Sebille, their mother.

Chimes at Midnight[]

Toby discovers Arden working at the Borderlands bookstore in San Francisco during a mission to find the rightful heirs of Gilad Windermere and put them on the throne to replace the fraudulent Queen in the Mists. Arden is living in the basement of the store, in a warded secret room where her elf-shot brother also sleeps. Arden is frightened of standing up for her rights, but Toby takes her to Goldengreen to introduce allies such as Patrick and Dianda Lorden and Sylvester Torquill, all of whom would support her return to the throne. However, the false Queen's forces find them and kidnap the sleeping Nolan, so Arden panics and flees. Toby finds her at Borderlands. Toby and Quentin convince Arden that she must retake the Mists from the false Queen, if nothing else so that she can rescue Nolan.

Arden reopens the knowe at Muir Woods and sends a challenge to the false Queen. The false Queen arrives and uses her siren powers to mind-control all their gathered allies, but Toby pulls Arden away and together they manage to defeat the false Queen.

Full of Briars[]

The High King personally visits to confirm Arden's right to rule during her coronation.[5]

The Winter Long[]

Arden hosts her first Yule Ball, and both she and Toby are highly uncomfortable in the formal setting. They spend some time on a rooftop avoiding the festivities, then bolster each other to return to the party. Arden publicly names Toby a Hero of the Realm.

A Red-Rose Chain[]

When the Kingdom of Silences declares war against the Mists, claiming that Arden usurped the false Queen's rightful throne and shooting Madden with elf-shot, Arden panics and flees to Borderlands, where she considers giving up her throne. Toby talks sense into her, but so disrespectfully that Arden "punishes" Toby by sending her as ambassador to try to prevent war.

Once Broken Faith[]

Arden is elated that the newly created elf-shot cure means she can wake up Madden and Nolan. However, as the High King has declared a pause on using the cure, she recruits Toby as backup. She administers the cure to Madden and is immediately interrupted by the High King, who allows a loophole to prevent her from being punished for disobeying orders but explicitly forbids her from awakening Nolan. The High King instructs Arden to host a conclave of Westlands nobles to discuss the cure.

Arden rises to the occasion, putting together an effective meeting hall and coordinating all the guests. After King Antonio is murdered, Arden defends Toby's innocence against the other monarchs. She also defends Toby as king-breaker, saying that Toby has only toppled unjust monarchs under the orders of her own regents.

Dreams and Slumbers[]

Once the elf-shot cure is approved, Arden awakens her brother. However, they discover a secondary spell hidden in the elf-shot cure he received, and she bargains with the Luidaeg by agreeing to remain on her throne for at least a century or until she has an heir to the throne ready.

The Brightest Fell[]

Arden attends Toby's bachelorette party. Later, she provides Toby with a hope chest debt-free after August Torquill disrupts the balance of Toby's blood.

Night and Silence[]

Arden routinely sends Toby on missions to subdue the beasts that escaped from the deeper realms of Faerie during Chelsea's portaling fiasco. When Toby brings back a family of Arkan Sonney, Arden is delighted by them.

Arden provides background support as Toby searches for her missing daughter, lending her Madden and paying the parking fare at UC Berkeley. Toby worries that she is gearing up for some debt. Arden freaks out when Toby summons her to Janet's courtyard; both she and Shade know about it only insamuch that it is forbidden ground.

Later, when the false Queen kidnaps Nolan, Arden offers Toby her own blood as part of the search and then follows along with an army for backup. Afterward, Arden portals Toby to the Kingdom of Silences to confirm that the false Queen is no longer in their custody.

A Killing Frost[]

After Simon's way home is restored, Arden hosts his divorce proceedings with Amandine, who outs herself as Firstborn in order to try and force Arden into cancelling the divorce. The Luidaeg however overturns this and gives Arden the go-ahead, witnessing as Toby and August choose Simon as their legal parent. She admits to Toby that this is the first divorce she had ever seen, even when her father was still ruling the Kingdom before his assassinatio[[n.

When Sorrows Come[]

Arden opens the first portal for Tybalt and Toby's wedding party to Toronto. While she cannot leave the Mists, Arden appreciated the invitation to the wedding. She sends her chatelaine, Cassandra Brown, and her brother, Crown Prince Nolan Windermere, to represent the Mists.

Relationships[]

Nolan Windermere[]

Arden is incredibly protective of her younger brother, especially after he was elf-shot in order to dissuade her from reclaiming her rightful throne. She is very careful about reintegrating him into society after he is awakened, knowing that the disconnect of being asleep for eighty years will be difficult for him. She is willing to give almost anything to protect him from danger.

Madden[]

The loyal Cu Sidhe is Arden's seneschal and best friend, and one of her only protectors when she was hiding in the mortal world. Their relationship is rather similar to a dog and its master due to Madden's fae personality, but Arden also values him as a person.

October Daye[]

Arden's relationship with Toby is complicated. Some part of Arden will likely always resent Toby for pulling her out of the safety of hiding, but she is also grateful to Toby for helping her regain the throne. She allows Toby more informality than most, including the use of her first name, but draws the line at Toby touching her without permission or wildly overstepping her bounds. They both understand what it means to have their family torn away by Faerie. She also respects Toby, relying on her as one of her trusted heroes.

Discrepancies[]

  • Dreams and Slumbers says that Nolan was ten and Arden was under sixteen when their parents died in 1906, and they appear as children in Shine in Pearl in 1901. However, they are alive and appear with their mother in Live in Brass taking place in 1840. Since Patreon stories are not meant to be canon, it is likely that the information from Dreams and Slumber overrides the other.

References[]

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