Breelia Wilder

*You are right here in your story. Don't skip ahead.*
Massie Burnson, *The Wreck and Rise of Whitson Mariner*, p. 32
**WARNING: SPOILERS FOR *THE ARCHER'S CUP* ARE AHEAD; CAUTION IS ADVISED.**

**B****reelia Wilder** is the former Matron of Blackstone Hospital and a former Keymaster of Blackstone Citadel.

## Biography

### Early life

A member of one of the older families of rabbits in the Black Lake region, Wilder gained her positions in the ten years preceding the Battle for First Warren.

### *The Archer's Cup*

When Emma Joveson and her escort arrived at Blackstone, Wilder was the leader of one of three factions within Blackstone. She took advantage of Lord Ronan's illness to seize power, but was checked in her efforts to assume control of the citadel by the arrival of Lokson and his army. Wilder had Emma brought to the hospital with a false summons from Ronan.

After demonstrating that she had armed rabbits under her command and her own intelligence network, Wilder left Emma's party locked in a room while she left for a meeting of the Lord's Council. The room was set on fire, but Emma and the others escaped. Wilder was visibly surprised when they arrived at the council meeting, though she quickly concealed her feelings. When Lead Captain Truff accused her of interfering with citadel operations, she coolly dismissed his anger.

Like Truff, Wilder at least claimed to suspect Lokson of arranging for the death of his predecessor as Keymaster, Stovall Ganes. As the council discussed the threat of Bane Graveheart, she noted that Lokson was a likely suspect due to his desires for lordship. Despite this, she actually expressed some support when he proposed an archery tournament. She also displayed knowledge of events and rabbits, including Maggie Weaver, at Cloud Mountain, and demonstrated knowledge of the death of Lord Rake.

When another note arrived from Bane Graveheart, Wilder was the only one not to move from her chair at the council table. She watched with contempt or amusement when Truff accused Lokson, and then questioned why any of the Keymasters would endanger themselves with the rest of Blackstone. She dismissed Cole Blackstar's listing of Graveheart's motivations as mere emotions, only for Heyna Blackstar to challenge her own efforts to appear without feeling. Wilder was amused by Heyna's suggestion that she started the fire, pointing out that a fire in the hospital would have been easy to associate with her.

Wilder later admitted to advising Lady Elisabeth to visit her children's room, where the note was found. Based on her own suggestion that Bane Graveheart would have made sure it was found, and her inability to remember Jane's name, she was arrested by Truff with Lokson's approval. Enraged, she warned that her supporters would rise and repay her enemies for this treachery. Despite this, Jo Shanks was uncertain that she was in fact Bane Graveheart.

Wilder later escaped the citadel and fled to Black Lake, where she had a boat prepared to take her to a base in the Red Lake Hills. Grare, familiar with her secrets, led one of the search parties sent out after her, accompanied by Jo and Cole. They arrived too late to recapture her, and Grare gave up on the chase. Upon returning to the citadel, the group learned from Amber Hewson of a letter left by Wilder.

In it, she denied being Graveheart, but expressed the intent never to return to Blackstone. Gallipot Grenda was appointed matron and Keymaster in her place, much to the relief of Blackstone's inhabitants. Jo eventually came to suspect that Grare once loved Wilder. However, this proves to be false, and he was proven to truly be Bane Graveheart.

## Physical appearance

Matron Wilder is a gray-furred doe with “cold, sunken eyes”. As hospital matron, she wore a medical uniform but also sported a black cape.

## Personality and traits

**Emma Joveson**: I'm not sure.

**Coleden Blackstar**: Spite. Fury. Desperation. There are lots of reasons.

**Breelia Wilder**: Those aren't reasons. Those are emotions.

—*The Archer's Cup*, pgs. 104-105 |  | ”

Matron Wilder’s voice was raspy, and she spoke in an apathetic tone. She affected an air of emotionless control, and seemed contemptuous of those who were more open with their feelings. She operated her hospital like a dictator, with trained soldiers acting as orderlies to seize or intimidate her opponents as she saw fit. Perhaps influenced by her own experiences, she was the most skeptical that Bane Graveheart was a male, as her colleagues seemed to believe. Wilder also maintained her own intelligence network, and received information that she did not share with her fellow councilors.

Wilder's expressions were often subtle or unnatural in appearance, demonstrating her efforts to appear in control or to intimidate. She considered lack of willingness to kill a weakness, though otherwise considered Bane Graveheart a cunning and dangerous adversary. She seems to have regarded her abuse of power and cruelty as being justified, and was outraged to be arrested even on suspicion of being Bane Graveheart. She escaped rather than submitting to justice, vowing never to return.

## Trivia

* The surname "Wilder" is of English, German, Danish, and Yiddish origin and is a variant of "Wild," which was "a nickname for a man of violent and undisciplined character, or a topographic name for someone who lived on a patch of overgrown uncultivated land."

## References

1. ↑ *The Archer's Cup*, p. 62
2. ↑ [1]