[Dragaera] Brigitta's Background

[Alexx Kay]

As I've mentioned, I'm working on a top-to-bottom rewrite of the Dragaera
Timeline.  I recently did Brokedown Palace, and felt like sharing the
following section that I've added just after it:

Brigitta's Background

There are lots of hints and allusions about Brigitta's background. This
section will attempt to make sense of them.

Brigitta's mother seems to be conflated (albeit elliptically, 260) with
Margit, from The Tale of Margit and Jani (BP 135-136). However, that tale
was set about 150 years ago. I see three major possibilities:
1. Brigitta's mother lived through events similar to the Margit from the
tale.
2. Brigitta's mother is the Margit from the tale, but has lived unusually
long,
2a. ...due to some sort of suspended animation (suggested by "She sleeps
amid the roses, or she lies on a bier, but she will awake in time to see
pretty Margit wed the demon", BP 261),
2b. ...due to sorcery, like Sándor and some characters from other books.
3. Brigitta's mother is the Margit from the tale, but the source events of
the tale actually happened much more recently than claimed.

At any rate, 'Margit' ends up marrying someone who is alcoholic ("When ...
my father was too drunk to make liquor", BP 94), abusive ("It wasn't much
of a life, BP 77; "to torment her mother", BP 218) ... and, apparently, a
shapeshifter ("assuming his natural shape", BP 218). Moreover, he is
apparently non-human: "I'm not human. I'm not elf. My father was—" (BP
264). I see two possibilities:
1. He was a demon ("She married the demon," BP 74; "And demons, demons,
demons. / They are everywhere, and doubtless have their own tales to tell.
They gibber and they squeak; they chatter and they speak. They speak truth
and tell lies, reward and chastise. They are part of life in Fenario,
though not everyone knows this. / Pretty, pretty Margit, who lost her
lover in the inn where the dzur stand." BP 260).
2. He was a Dragaeran. (Why else would Brigitta say "I'm not elf" (BP
264)?) We don't actually know for certain such a cross-breeding is
possible -- but neither do we know it to be impossible.

Whoever fathered Brigitta was significant enough for Verra to take some
interest, to the extent of later recognizing Brigitta, and commenting (in
a positive manner) on her "lineage" (BP 210).

During Brigitta's youth, her father abuses her, as well as her mother (BP
217-218). I believe that this happens before she runs away to Faerie,
though I could be mistaken. If I am right, there is a fascinating
corollary: Brigitta had a connection to the Orb before going to Faerie.
(This is part of why I think her father was a Dragaeran.) Alternatively,
these memories could take place in the window between Brigitta's return
and her mother's death.

p.218: "Finally the escape to—to the city, at the last. Best not to think
of what had gone before, either." Presumably the dash is her avoidiing
thinking of traveling to Faerie, and of what happened because of her
return.

p.218: "But Miki. Dear, dear, Miki. He must not become one of them, as she
was. He must not." It is unclear what exactly "them" refers to here. Since
it seems unlikely that Miklós would be at any risk of losing his humanity,
perhaps she means "habitual user of sorcery". Why would she be so
concerned about this? Possibly because she can't face the idea of Miklós
discovering her secrets. Perhaps the green aura that Miklós saw on p.174
has a significance that she desires he never know.

p.263: "When I was fourteen, I—ran away from home." The pause is probably
significant of Brigitta hiding something, though what exactly, is a matter
for speculation. Here's some, with very weak foundations (p.215-216: "To
have been the King's, albeit for a while, would give her pleasant memories
when she was old and ugly and—no! Don't think of it. Never think of it!"):
I think that when she hit puberty, Brigitta began to manifest some
non-human features. If true, one of her major motivations for traveling to
Faerie would have been to find a way to mask these features. For that
matter, her fear of those features being exposed may be why she clung so
firmly to sorcery, and to the notion that she could not possibly remain
with Prince Miklós.

p.263: "I was there [Faerie] for more than a year. In that time, I learned
much of the ways of the power. Not enough to challenge Sándor, but enough
that it is now a part of me." if not enough to challenge Sándor, did she
learn enough to challenge and defeat her father? There is no mention at
all of what (if anything) became of him, but Brigitta speaks of him in the
past tense.

Brigitta returns home, after more than a year, so aged fifteen or sixteen.
By the events of Brokedown Palace, she is seventeen, and her mother died
nearly a year previously. Depending on how these vaguely-specified times
line up, Brigitta's mother may have lived for almost two years after
Brigitta's return from Faerie... or, as I think more likely, may have died
soon after Brigitta's return. Perhaps the (supposed) confrontation between
Brigitta and her father killed her mother as well. Perhaps her mother
still loved her husband, and died of a broken heart. Perhaps her husband's
magic had been keeping her alive. Perhaps the mother died before the
father, he left Fenario, and Brigitta, hearing of these events, decided to
return. Who can say? [Interestingly, if she had returned a bit earlier
than I think she did, she might well have crossed paths with Miklós on his
way *to* Faerie.]

The Spring following the death of her mother, Brigitta moves to Fenario
City (BP77). There she finds work as a "tavern wench" (BP 215, 247).
Eventually she catches Viktor's eye, and enters the story proper...

Alexx

"I'd rather go through trauma than discomfort, which may be my whole
problem."                               -- Vlad Taltos, in later life