Catriona

Cat is strikingly beautiful, with glossy black hair, fair skin, and a simple braid. She resembles Syrena closely enough that Violet initially thinks they could be close kin.

Cat is sharp, confrontational, and willing to use intimate knowledge as a weapon. Around Violet, she repeatedly invokes Xaden’s past with her, Violet’s family, Mira’s actions against Poromish forces, Luella’s death, and the crown she believes should have been hers.

Her hostility does not keep her from cooperating when survival or the mission requires it. During the cave mission, she counters the rune on the chest, helps the group under attack, and later thanks Violet for saving her life even though the words come with difficulty.

Cat speaks bluntly for flier survival when Navarrian riders threaten a captured flier. She demands his release, offers to take the challenge herself, and admits she does not believe the Navarrian riders will accept the fliers.

Cat argues for Poromish civilians and Cordyn during troop-deployment planning. She is openly angry that Navarre is still refusing refugees entry, urges that Zehyllna’s troops be sent south to hold the line, and reminds the room that a flier paid the cost of gaining that army.

Cat challenges the officers’ willingness to abandon Draithus and its refugees. She asks whether they would act differently if the threatened civilians were their own citizens and accuses them of thinking like safe Navarrians behind wards.

Cat and Xaden were formerly bound by a political betrothal clause in the alliance between their families, not by love on Xaden’s side. Xaden says the arrangement ended before he met Violet because he and Cat were incompatible and because Tecarus would not release the luminary from Cordyn.

Cat begins as Violet’s rival and keeps threatening to make her life miserable after her drift is absorbed into Violet’s squad. At Basgiath, that hostility softens into limited battlefield trust when Cat gives Violet one of her own alloy-hilted daggers as a peace offering.

Cat develops an open attachment to Trager during the isle-kingdom mission. She is seen watching him, walking with him hand in hand, and later says in front of Hedotic rulers that she is with someone else now.

Trager’s death devastates Cat. She has to be restrained from screaming during Zihnal’s demanded acceptance, asks that Trager be burned with Silaraine away from Zehyllna and Loysam, and grieves beside Maren at the funeral pyre.

Cat’s separation from Syrena weighs on her after months apart. She tells Violet that being away from Syrena is not all right, especially with Cordyn nearly blockaded.

Cat’s mindwork heightens emotions already present in the people around her rather than creating new ones. Xaden describes her as exceptionally powerful, and Violet’s challenge with Cat shows how quickly that amplification can turn irritation, jealousy, or anger into dangerous rage.

Cat can fight in a style Violet recognizes as Xaden’s training. During the challenge session, she ignores Maren’s attempt to stop her, challenges Violet by full name, and attacks with that familiar style.

Cat is one of the strongest rune workers in Violet’s year. She masters classroom runes quickly, carves maorsite arrowheads for war preparations, and is the only student in the year noted as having mastered a tracking rune that can follow someone else’s rune.

Cat uses arrows effectively during the cave escape. She stays near the cave mouth and fires repeated shots into Solas’s wounded shoulder to keep him occupied while Violet and Andarna escape.

Cat remains battle-capable during Aretia’s defense. After the windstorm, she and Kiralair are already on one of the wyvern that get through the dragons’ interception, with Kira tearing into weak spaces between its scales.

Cat can apply her magic tactically in mixed-squad operations. She combines mindwork with Quinn’s projections during a team bout and later uses a sound-shield disk so Violet can speak privately about disobeying orders.

Cat gives Violet one of her own alloy-hilted daggers after the battle at Basgiath. Cat calls Violet’s rescue gutsy and treats the dagger as a peace offering.

Cat receives a gold necklace with a dangling ruby among Zihnal’s gifts on Zehyllna. The gift is present when Trager is killed by an arrow through the heart.

Syrena’s unnamed sister is reported alive after Resson while many other fliers are implied to have died. The report reaches Aretia while Violet is recovering.

Cat challenges Violet over Luella and the crown she believes was promised to her. During the fight, she uses mindwork to inflame Violet’s emotions until Violet nearly kills her.

Cat and the rest of her drift are formally absorbed into Violet’s squad and receive Iron Squad patches. Cat resents the assignment, but it places her and the other fliers inside the squad structure rather than outside it.

During the cave escape, Cat helps protect Sloane and Kiralair, distracts Solas with repeated arrows, and survives after Violet puts herself between Cat and Solas. Afterward, Cat makes sure Violet is treated by a healer and thanks her for saving her life.

At Tecarus’s Deverelli manor, Cat is visibly shaken when her bond with Kiralair is severed. She kneels beside Kira and holds the gryphon’s face while Drake stays beside her, making her one of the clearest human examples of the bond loss afflicting the party.

After Trager is killed on Zehyllna, Cat insists that he and Silaraine be burned together on an uninhabited minor isle. She blames herself because she asked Trager to come on the mission.