Shirley

## Background Information

A royal cousins of Queen Lauren she is taken by the Church of Light along with the rest of her family.

Unlike Claire, Shirley is much more shy, self-effacing, and one might say mousy. She has little interest in political power, and would happily live out her life in obscurity.

## Plot

Mistaken for a church messenger, Ryker shoots
her with a crossbow, but her obvious resemblance to Lauren prevents him from killing her.
At Lauren’s suggestion, Ryker offers her the opportunity to impersonate Claire rather than be held a prisoner.  After watching Ryker during a clash with the Church of Dark she asks to learn magic and uses her access to Dungeon avatars to train herself relentlessly.
She improves rapidly, and quickly proves herself a capable wizard in her own right. Eventually Ryker and Shirley start casting spells together and she becomes his mage-wife.  The closeness enforced by their joint casting pushes their flirtations into real feelings and she becomes his wife in truth as well as name.
Between her impersonation of Claire, and her developing power as a mage, Shirley's personality morphs rapidly from mousy, to quite assertive.
She is completely devoted to Ryker and would happily follow him anywhere

Shirley and Ryker fight and practice casting magic together which makes them incredibly deadly duo. During one battle they cast a joint soul powered spell after which Shirley kept part of Ryker's soul, which involves her fragment taking up residence in his soul, where it is described as moving to the center of his, and "holding court" over his soul. This gives Ryker a water affinity and Shirley a lightning affinity.
Shirley remains focused on recovering Ryker's daughter, who they name Bianca and she participates in the Dungeon grinder that the Army of Lambart faces to escape Ryker's magical dome. It is during these actions that she utters her famous quote.
Shirley assists Ryker with the testing and training of the first batch of students at the magical academy.
Shirley's defense of the Wall of Dungeon demonstrates her power by breaking through the ward on a siege tower, which was said to have killed the god powering the ward.
With her soul linked to Ryker, she feels the change in Ryker after he shatters and recreates the Dungeon core in his soul. The link becomes stronger and more clear, which allows them to speak over the link.
After Ryker wins the Challenge of the Accord, they travel to Trevail to recover Bianca. They exchange another piece of their souls so that Shirley would gain access to Ryker's faith pool. Ultimately they catch up to Claire, and in preparation for recovering Bianca, Ryker creates a necklace that would be an anti-Claire ward. Shirley adds some features to it, but it is not known what they are.
To give Ryker a chance to catch up to Claire and recover Bianca, Shirley intervenes when his undead father appears to challenge him and defeats him handily.
Claire's rantings cause Shirley to become Awakened, but Ryker is able to help her through it without any fatal consequences. When Claire jumps off the cliff with Bianca, Shirley jumps after her and even manages to grab the carrier, but Claire pulls Bianca out of the carrier.
After the disappearance and apparent death of Claire and Bianca, Shirley returns to the magical academy and becomes the headmistress.

## Quotable quotes

"Fool, only now at the end, do you understand" - Shirley, Dungeon Deposed 3

## Additional Artwork

Shirley was one of the characters used for an artwork audition held by the author. These are some of the submissions.