Ania

**Ania** is a member of the Regni tribe who was arranged to be married to the nephew of the Cantii tribe's King Pellanor. When Queen Antedia used the arranged marriage as a chance to strike at the Cantii, Ania was captured by Cantii and taken back to their citadel.

## Biography

Ania is kept in a cell where she summons Phelan where she and reveals to him that Ania is her earthly name, but that she is actually Brenna, the goddess of war, of dreams and of wealth. That she is the earthy aspect of the goddess. After her revelation she speaks of a prophesy. She asks that he lay with her, that Brenna is foretold being rescued by a golden-haired mortal, and that together they will spawn a pantheon to rule the heavens for a thousand years. And so they do.

## Living with the Druids

Thriving with the Druids, Ania impresses them with her fast learning and her ability to look after her child, Phelan who is named after his father. Veran, however, asks her to sacrifice her child and return to being a warrior. She agrees to do this, despite the pain, and - at request of Veran - she goes undercover to find rogue druids. Pretending to be on the side of Harka, she starts a relationship with Brearn, revealing herself as bisexual.

She encounters Phelan and cannot believe the mental state he is in, and discovers the influence Harka has on him and that he is enslaved by him. She reads the ruins on Kerra's head to show that Harka lied to him. Veran requests she take the Challenge Sword to Harka and this shows up her allegiances. Her demise is prevented by the death of Harka, and she is able to see her son again.

She remains with the Druids until she is sent by Quane to meet with Rome. Expecting to find General Aulus Plautius, she is surprised to instead find his wife, Hemple. Hemple tells her to tell Veran to meet with her himself, and hexes Ania with a butterfly before parting. She returns to the Druids and is selected to be a part of Cait's band to rescue the Roman deserter Lucius. A short time after leaving the Druids on their quest, they find the bounty hunter Hella again. They compare their previous experiences with Hella, how she kidnapped Phelan, buried Cait alive, and nearly killed Divis. Hella informs the band that the Romans take their deserters to the Blue Hills in the west, five days' travel from where they were, and that is where Lucius should be. She tells the band that the west is too dangerous for her, so her sister Drella will take them instead. Before leaving, Hella tells Drella to keep an eye on Ania, because although she doesn't know why, she feels that something is off with Ania, the reason for this being Hemple's hex.

Riding at the head of the train, Ania and the band are stopped when they come across a fork in the road, and a tree decorated with red ribbon by the Sun Folk. Antedia says how it's a tree of the Sun Folk despite these not being the Sun Folk's lands, but they at least respect Veran, or at least they used to. Ania offers to travel along one path to the Sun Folk, and if she doesn't return, the band should go the other way. Drella is wary of Ania as she leaves.

The Sun Folk surround Ania and fire a warning shot at her. She goes with them and they tell her that the lowlands are cursed as the Roman devils roam there, and that the highlands will carry the chosen one. The Sun Folk suspect a heavy weight on Ania and retell her to follow the highlands. Ania thanks them and leaves.

After returning from her trip to the Sun Folk, Ania lies and says the highroads are too dangerous so they should take the lowland way. Divis disagrees as his gut says it is the wrong path. Being the leader, Cait decides that they shall do as Ania says and take the lowlands. As the journey continues, Cait senses something is wrong and tells the band to stop, and Antedia can hear the trees talking. Members of the Belgae Tribe emerge and surround the band. Cait tells them they were sent by Veran, but they reply that Veran abandoned them so now they'll repay Veran with the band's blood. They threaten Antedia but recognise her as queen of the Regni, and they all bow before her.

The Belgae Tribe toast to Antedia, who they will always view as their queen. Years before the Romans invaded, Antedia and the Regni once helped out the Belgae in a war with another tribe, but the Belgae had since been slaughtered by the Romans. They know of Veran's prophecy and who Cait is, and they believe in Cait. Antedia deliberately antagonises Cwunt by mocking the Cantii, who by proxy were the enemy of the Belgae as they were allied with Antedia and the Regni. Cwunt begins to confess to being Cantii, but stutters and instead sings a song deprecating the Cantii and his former family. Ania leaves after the song, watched by Drella.

The next morning, Cait awakens to Ania cooking her breakfast. Ania tells her that Cait snores, kicks like a mule, and talks in her sleep. She bonds with Cait by saying she once believed she was part of a prophecy before, how she thought she was the Goddesss Brenna. She says that will always give help to Cait if she needs it. The band then set off from the Belgae. It isn't long before they come across some Romans attacking a village. Rayne tries to convince Cait to leave, saying they are already lost, but she hears a woman call for help so rides back after her, followed by Rayne and Ania. The woman says her boy has been stolen by the Romans, and Cait wants to go find him. Rayne discourages it, but Ania says she will help Cait. As Cait runs ahead, Rayne and Ania follow until because of Hemple's hex, Ania knocks Rayne unconscious with a rock. As Ania regains control, she realises what she's done and waits with Rayne.

After the journey continues, Ania attends to Rayne's wound, but lies and tells him Roman's charged him down and knocked him out, without seeing her. When Cwunt is giving Divis an archery lesson, on Divis' first shot, the string snaps and the arrow fires at Ania and ricochets onto Rayne, wounding them both. Rayne gets angry and confronts Divis, but Divis calms him down through Big Pebble. Later that night, Divis begins his task of finding out which ally will betray Cait. He first questions Drella, asking if she can't speak or if she just simply won't. He tries to use Big Pebble on her, but she proves resistant and throws it into a fire. She tells him that it's Ania he should be suspecting, and insults Divis. After Divis tries Big Pebble on Antedia next, she convinces him to try it on Ania. He interrupts Ania attending to the wound she received when he shot her with the arrow, which he didn't realise he did, thinking he only shot Rayne. Divis tries to use Big Pebble on Ania, but she snatches it from him. Hemple channels herself through Ania and resists the hex. She then uses Big Pebble to hex Divis and force him under Lokka's control. After Big Pebble burns her hand, she throws it in a nearby lake and walks off, leaving Divis frozen in place until sunrise.

The next day, Ania scouts the Roman deserter holding camp, but when she returns to the band she says she couldn't see Lucius as she was too far away. She tells them that if they do have Lucius, they do not know who he is, and she also says how the place is barely even guarded and it shouldn't be difficult to sneak in there. Just then, they see Aulus arriving at the holding camp, complicating things. They watch Aulus leave with Lucius before making their move. While walking, Ania splits from the band to walk alone in the woods, and is stopped when a conker is dropped from a tree above. Ania sees Cyrus sitting on a tree branch. He drops down and asks if she wants to play conkers. She agrees and Cyrus attaches red string to the conkers. Ania wins the game, and Cyrus gives her his red string before disappearing. She then returns to the band.

On the road again, the band come across a large Roman viaduct bridge, and are perplexed as to what it is. Divis calls it a monster, and Antedia says how she has seen one before in Gaul. She calls it a road, and the rest of the band are in disbelief as to how a road can be in the sky. Rayne then points out that to cross it, the Romans will have to break formation, making it the prime location to try and rescue Lucius.

While Cait and Rayne scout the base of the viaduct, Divis speaks to Ania. He tells her how the river belongs to Sulis, and it sprang from her womb as a child. He knows that Sulis would be angry about the Romans are doing with the viaduct. Hemple channels herself through Ania again and tells Divis that he should count his lucky stars that he at least still has Big Pebble, before she makes Ania leave.

Later that night, Cwunt asks Ania what happens to their son if they both died. Ania is surprised to learn Phelan cares for his son.

After the band realise that Cait has climbed the viaduct without them, they start climbing themselves, but Ania stays behind on the ground. After the chaos atop the bridge, Cait jumps off and lands on the ground. Ania helps to pick her up, but Cait hallucinates her as Hemple. The next morning, Ania is picking berries and is shocked to say a Roman corpse in a nearby river. She takes his breastplate and uses it to cook the berries over a fire with Cait. While the berries are cooking, Cait says she saw Lokka the night before. Ania uses the excuse of Cait having blood in her hair to walk behind her and weave red string into her hair, hexing her.

Ania and Cait wander in to a field, where they breakdown laughing. They then travel to a cliffside beach, where they mockingly impersonate Veran and break down laughing yet again. As Cait hallucinates Lokka pinning her to the wall by the throat, she jams her thumbs into Lokka's eye-sockets, and as he disappears, black butterflies are expunged from both Cait and Ania. Cait and Ania then make their way to the Roman stronghold, and Cait commands Ania to stay where she is, saying it is the Gods' will, and Cait goes on ahead.