Garandilya Malovna Septim

The wife of Malhan Septim, Garandilya, or "Ilya", is a Rashemi native. She was born in the village of Brunthol, near Immilmar, Rashemen, in the year 1345. Daughter of a fisherman, she spent her youth preparing fish for sale in the markets of Immilmar in her coastal village. An attack by Nar raiders in 1358 saw most of her family slain, and herself captured. She was taken south to Two Stars and traded to a Tuigan for some dry goods. Thereafter, she was sold to a Thayan for 2.4 CGP and transported to Eltabbar for general slave auction. She was purchased at the auction by Malhan Septim.

Septim never actually made Garandilya his wife. Thayan law prohibits the elevation of a slave to the status of citizen. At best, she could hope for the status of "freed slave", if and only if the Service Bureau approved her freedom.

In the mean time, Malhan treated her not only as a wife, but as nobility, teaching her the Mulan tongue and the ways of Eltabbar's finest. She was given exquisite clothing and jewelry, and treated with dignity and respect within her home. He bade her never to leave, for the danger to her was too great if anyone discovered her nature.

Their relationship lasted from 1358 to 1368, during which time she bore him two children, Odessa and Gahlik Septim. To Ilya, Malhan was never more than a master. She served him faithful, but stoically, speaking only as he pleased, and doing only that which he wished. In matters of love, she was demure and distant.

In 1368, when Odessa neared the age of 10, she began to manifest magical affinity. Malhan concealed Odessa's existence from the law, knowing that the girl would be considered a slave, and instead conspired to find himself a "legitimate" wife in name only, to which he could legally attribute the child's parentage. A lack of diligence, stemming from a dearth of true desire, caused him to procrastinate this task indefinitely. When Ilya realized her child could not go unnoticed forever with magical talent, and her husband had yet done nothing to protect her, she knew she had only one choice.

Ilya fled under the cover of night, taking her daughter from Malhan. It is not known how she accomplished this, with little to no working knowledge of the city of Eltabbar and the geography and laws of Thay, and no legal identity. Malhan attempted to track her, making it as far as the shores of Lake Ashane where once her village stood, but it had long been abandoned.

It is likely Ilya gave her daughter to the Wychlaran, as is proper among her people. Of her own destiny, nobody knows.