Kalyba

**SPOILER WARNINGS FOR BOTH BOOKS!**

Kalyba by stormravenart

**Kalyba**, also known as the **Lady of the Woods** or the **Witch of Inysca**, is a semi-mythical figure in Inys, where she is greatly feared. This stems from her seemingly horrible deeds in the isles of Inysca prior to the birth of Galian Berethnet. It is unknown if she continued these activities after the unification of Inysca under Galian Berethnet. She made the extremely powerful sword Ascalon, or *Hildistérron,* from star rot and shaped it with siden.

## Biography

At some point, she stole a baby from the village of Goldenbirch in order to sacrifice it, as she believed the blood of innocents would allow her to unlock some deeper magic. Though she could not bring herself to sacrifice this child, and gave way to sentimentality, and instead raised the child as her own in Nurtha. This was Galian Berethnet. When he was twenty five years of age, he left his mother to become a knight in the service of Edrig of Arondine. Nine years later he returned begging for help to his mother: He wanted to unite the isles of Inysca under one crown and to rule according to the six virtues of knighthood. To do this, he would need to slay the Nameless One in order to prove himself. He made a bargain with his mother: she would give him Ascalon to slay the beast, and when he returned he would marry her as she had begun to love him as companions do.

Galian though had no intention of wedding her and instead sought out another of royal blood: Cleolind Onjenyu. She knew this as she had followed him. When he was defeated and exiled by Cleolind, he didn't seek her out. Kalyba was furious and raged. She didn't know yet how to change her shape, only dreams and illusions. But when Galian saw her again, he called her Cleolind. Through sterren she gained a foothold in his mind. He forgot not only about her, but also about what Cleolind had done and said to him, nor could he remember her shape, and erroneously believed he had banished the Nameless One back into the abyss. He took her back, united the isles, and married her.

When she birthed their daughter Sabran, she used so much of her strength that her control over Galian faded, and he regained all of his memories. He had her thrown in the dungeons and later had every image of her destroyed. She escaped due to a loyal follower of hers. Because of the sterren involved in the inception of Sabran, she and all her descendants would strongly resemble Kalyba. After Galian hid Ascalon and killed himself, she searched but was never able to find the sword again.

During the Grief of Ages, she came to the Priory of the Orange Tree, where she took the name of Canthe and was for a while accepted as a fellow mage. After trying to to steal the Waning Jewel, she was killed, though she returned to life and left the Priory.

She would later (at some point in Eadaz's childhood) return to the Priory, where she again was accepted due to her connection to the Hawthorn Tree, formerly an equal source of siden as the Orange Tree. While there she interacted with Eadaz. She was later falsely accused by Mita Yedanya, of killing Zāla du Agriya uq-Nāra, Eadaz's mother. Because of this she fled the Priory.

During the last battle against the Nameless One, it is revealed that the white High Western, who was first seen in CE 1005, was her in shifted form.