⚠️ This article contains spoilers for Wingless in the Sky (Book 1), up to and including Act 2.
"You have kind eyes. My son could use more kindness around him."
— Faedris, to Lia
Full name: Queen Faedris of House Solanthis, Queen of Aeloria
Wings: Four, pale silver
Position: Wife of King Solarian; mother of Kyrian; lives separately within the palace
Beautiful in the eerie, perfect way of Highfolk women. Four pale silver wings. Hair like spun moonlight. A face that could have been carved from ice — and is usually held that way: blank, distant, perfectly apathetic. She drifts through the palace gardens like a ghost, seldom appears at court, lives in her own wing of the palace largely apart from Solarian and the business of governance.
First impression, for anyone who encounters her: terrible, complete emptiness.
Lost all three of her brothers in the Zelos war. Her husband and her son both fought — she watched them leave for battle each time, terrified they would not come back. Both survived. Her brothers did not.
Since then she has not let herself feel things too deeply, or care too much. This is not coldness by nature. It is the shape that survival has taken in her after too much loss.
She chose to marry Solarian despite his wing taint — a decision that cost her half her family: her mother, her sisters, cousins, people she had grown up with and loved. She did not waver. She loved him. She was young and certain love would be enough. The marriage was not happy — the war, the fear, the pressure of ruling, the slow erosion of what they had hoped for together. It is part of why she keeps to her own wing now.
Lia stumbles on Faedris and Kyrian in the palace gardens — a private exchange she was not meant to hear.
Kyrian is trying. He has news — a trade breakthrough, a court success, something his father was pleased with. He wants her to want to hear it.
"Your father is always pleased with you." Faedris's voice is flat. Not angry, not disappointed. Just empty. "I'm sure it was very successful. You're very capable. Well done."
The words should be praise. They sound like she is reading from a script.
Kyrian's wings droop. He waits a moment longer. She looks away and tells him, gently, that she is tired. Another time.
He turns and walks directly into Lia. Their eyes meet. She watches the hurt slam behind walls so fast it is like watching shutters close — then: embarrassment, anger.
Faedris emerges from the clearing, drawn by raised voices. She looks at Lia. Studies her the way someone might study a moth pinned to a board. Then, unexpectedly:
"Welcome to Aeloria, child. I hope you find your stay... educational."
A pause. Something flickers in her eyes — not warmth, but a brief, genuine acknowledgment. As if she has actually seen Lia for a moment.
"You have kind eyes. My son could use more kindness around him."
Then she walks past both of them without another glance and disappears down the spiral path.
Kyrian stares after her. When he turns back to Lia his voice is quiet, off-balance.
"She... seemed to like you. She usually doesn't talk to outsiders at all."
He explains, briefly — the brothers lost in the war, his mother's face each time they left for battle. "Since then she's distant. Doesn't let herself feel things anymore. Doesn't let herself care too much."
He closes again almost immediately. But the moment was real.
This article is about a Character — Supporting Character · Royalty
| All Characters | Character Index |
| Aeloria | Kyrian (son) · Solarian (husband) |
| Race | Highfolk · The Three Races |
| Home | Aeloria · House Solanthis |