Romhilda (Keeper of the Lost Cities)

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**Princess Romhilda,** most commonly known as **Ro**, is Keefe’s bodyguard and King Dimitar’s daughter. Her last name however, remains unknown. The name is taken from her grandmother and means battle. In *Nightfall*, Lady Gisela requested that King Dimitar provide Keefe with a personal bodyguard, and his response was to assign Ro to the task. The name "Romhilda" means a glorious battle maiden

## Physical Appearance

Ro is described as a lean, muscled ogre warrior. Her ash-coloured hair is chin-length and is generally described as almost stylish with her hair and thick black eyeliner. In Legacy, it's said she dyed her hair pink and purple when Sophie says "Huh, I figured Iggy would be pink and purple" as she pointed at Ro's colorful pigtails. She has a scar on her back from when she finished her army training.

When she was first introduced, she was wearing a metal breastplate and metal diaper, much like her father's, with spikes and a blue stone in one of her nostrils, and tattoos on her forehead. Her outfit is described as "a medieval corset paired with spiked metal bikini bottoms." As of *Flashback*, she has a tattoo on the underside of her right wrist in bold letters reading *Sparkles Rule!* She wears rows of daggers strapped to her thighs. She also has two or three scars given to her by her father.

In *Legacy*, after Sophie's third ability reset, she was wearing a silky pink dress under her armor, which Sophie noted looked "both right and wrong" with the armor strapped on top.

## Personality

Ro has a more laid-back personality than her father, despite being very competitive. She is frequently seen to be joking around or making fun of everyone in the Elvin world for being uptight and can be very sarcastic at times. She particularly enjoys making fun of the elves for being obsessed with sparkles. She also has a disdain for many of the Elvin rules, as they seem absurd to her. While at first, she did not get along with many of the goblin bodyguards, as the book *Nightfall* goes on, it is seen that she gains some respect for them, and vice-versa. She enjoys meddling, by her own admission. She is fiercely protective.

## Relationships

* **Botros (husband/enemy)**

**Ro** is married to Bo from an arranged marriage by her father to protect his two strongest warriors from tearing each other apart for power of the throne. Their relationship appears to be slightly strained with many glares exchanged. Keefe Sencen created a ballad (The Ballad of Bo and Ro) to tease them about their hatred for one another.

* **Cadfael (ex-boyfriend)**

Cadfael (whom **Ro** calls "Cad") is her ex-boyfriend. It is unclear how they broke up, but it is possible that occurred before or because Cad joined the Neverseen. Near the end of *Flashback*, Cad realized his mistake. They could also have broken up when Ro was forced to marry Bo. However, Ro does not express any lasting love for Cadfael, in fact, she laughs at him and assures Sophie that he is weak and that she can take him in a fight any day.

* **King Dimitar (father)**

King Dimitar is Ro's father. It is inferred that they have a good relationship because Ro told Keefe that "Just because you have Daddy problems doesn't mean we all do."

* **Keefe Sencen (charge/friend)**

Keefe Sencen is Ro's charge. They seem to be quite close due to all the time they spend together. Both like to play pranks on each other and with each other. Ro sometimes refers to Keefe as "my boy" or "our boy" as well as "Hunkyhair". They also create a lot of bets. Ro appears to like Team Foster-Keefe (Sophie + Keefe), often telling Keefe to "go talk to [his] girl". Ro also sometimes eavesdrops. Keefe frequently annoys Ro by referencing the "Ballad of Bo and Ro", a poem that he claims to be in the process of writing about her relationship with her husband, Bo.

* **Sophie Elizabeth Foster (friend)**

Sophie Foster is Ro's close friend. Ro often teases Sophie and nicknamed/calls her 'Blondie', likely because of her blond hair. The two of them are close and spend a lot of time together.

## History

### Book 6: *Nightfall*

In the book *Nightfall*, she was assigned to Keefe as his bodyguard at Lady Gisela's request. She is said to have been training since the age of one month. As the book progresses, she points out flaws in the Elvin security system that ogres can easily detect but goblins cannot. When the group attempts to capture Lady Gisela, Ruy, and Vespera, Gisela points a gun at Ro and it shoots a lethal dose of soporidine. She ends up being fine due to an antidote but still has to rest. It can be noted that throughout the book she refers to Sophie as "Keefe's little girlfriend" and other teases. It can be inferred that she is on board with Team Foster-Keefe.

### Book 7: *Flashback*

In Flashback, Keefe and Ro make three competitive bets, one causing Ro to get a tattoo that said, *Sparkles Rule!* on her wrist. She often teases Keefe and Sophie when they have a "moment".

*Flashback:* Page 425:

"'Thank you,' Sophie said... 'Tonight would've been . . . pretty rough if you hadn't stopped by.'

'I know,' Keefe told her. 'For me too.'

'Awwwwww, you guys are SO adorable,' Ro jumped in.

Ro also reveals her history and relationship with Sophie's ogre bodyguard, Bo, revealing that they had an arranged marriage, arranged by Ro's father, King Dimitar.

### Book 8: *Legacy*

In *Legacy*, Ro spends most of the time near Keefe, and it is revealed that Ro has been regulating Keefe as he tries to figure out his shattered memories in his journals, even taking fathomlethes.

She is first seen in Chapter 3, where she comments on the awkward encounter between Sophie and Keefe after Sophie walks in on Keefe shirtless. During this chapter, Ro repeatedly hints towards Keefe's feelings towards Sophie- however, Sophie is oblivious to them, much to Ro's entertainment. When the subject of Fitz and Sophie's dating status comes up, Ro states that Fitz would be jealous of Keefe and Sophie working together, and that Sophie should be more open towards him, and trust her instincts. She also notes that Keefe should be less afraid, referring to his crush on Sophie. Ro remarks that Fitz might not react well to Sophie's unmatchable status. When Fitz overhears Sophie's state in matchmaking, Ro interrupts Sophie and Fitz from kissing to Fitz's anger and Sophie's embarrassment. She comments that Fitz hadn't even said whether Sophie being unmatchable bothers him, to which he declares that it doesn't, as they would find Sophie's genetic parents and she would be able to register again. Ro appears disappointed and continues to bug Fitz as the conversation continues. Later, Ro asks Fitz if it would change anything if Sophie can't find out who her genetic parents are, but Fitz avoids the question. Ro hints for Keefe to say something, but he refuses. Ro asks Fitz another question- which she tells him to not answer immediately- which asks what Fitz would say if Sophie chooses to stop searching for her biological parents. Fitz quickly responds by asking why Sophie would do that. With that, she leaps away with Keefe, prompting a conversation between Sophie and Fitz. Later, she accompanies Sophie and her friends to Loamnore, although much to her dismay, Keefe breaks his dare with her by sneaking out of the Shores of Solace and heading to Loamnore. When Keefe is in a coma in the Healing Center, she waits at his bedside and tries to wake him up using threats, saying that he's only pretending in order to get out of punishment.

### Book 8.5: *Unlocked*

Ro is in the Healing Center when Keefe wakes up. Her feelings read mostly as annoyance, but a little bit did show that she cares about Keefe. She did push for Elwin to keep Keefe in the Healing Center after he woke up, and threatened him with a vial of microbes for his "punishment". When she tried to convince him to stay, he spoke back to her in Ogrish, which she found humor in and "who knew you could growl like that". Ro was frozen when Keefe first used his ability, but didn't appear to be afraid of it. She goes with him to Splendor Plains where upon seeing Elwin's prism room in the dark, compares it to her father's microbes and sounded "a little choked up". When Keefe punches himself so he wouldn't use his powers. Ro grabbed his arm and said "Whoa, boy. It's okay. You're okay." When Keefe collapsed onto her, she didn't pull away but instead twisted his face to be on her shoulder and away from the spikes on her armor. She said she wasn't much of a hugger, but Keefe felt, along with her surprise and awkwardness, he felt anger and concern "so tightly woven together it felt solid. Protective." This shows she does care for Keefe. She repeatedly antagonizes and makes comments about Keefe and Sophie. Near the end, Keefe uses his ability on her with the command "Sleep", and ties her up. When he commands her to wake up, he leaves before she can escape the bonds.

The original page credits go to the Keeper of the Lost Cities Wiki.