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Character guide · first on-page appearance: Iron Gold
Who is Aurae?
Aurae is a Pink serving House Raa at Sungrave on Io. She attends Lysander and sings at the family’s dinner. She lives close to the people who rule the Rim while remaining enslaved within their household.
Current status
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Alive
Alive
Alive
Appearance and personality
When Lysander declines sexual service, he notices Aurae look relieved before copying another attendant’s show of shame. She is used to performing the response her masters expect.
Aurae sings A Memory of Ash, about the destruction of Rhea. Diomedes watches her closely, though Lysander does not yet know what she means to him.[1]
Aurae is calm, but willing to confront her friends. She refuses Cassius’s attempt to keep her out of a mission, protects Lyria from humiliation and breaks Sevro’s finger to stop him torturing Diomedes. She comforts people without allowing them to make her decisions for her.[2]
Attributes and abilities
Aurae sings for House Raa and moves through its household as a servant. She brings Lysander the report that Cassius has died, but he is not allowed to see the body and check her account.[3]
Aurae treats Darrow’s broken arm, helps with engineering and pilots the Archimedes during the dockyard rescue. She gives Darrow The Path to the Vale and plays music for the crew while they recover.
Aurae is Athena’s herald and has worked undercover in House Raa. She uses codes and hidden communications to protect the Daughters. She does not know every refuge or the size of their fleet, and cannot promise Athena will forgive Darrow. She also says she was prepared to kill a tyrant within the household, but never judged that necessary.[4]
History
Book 4
Iron Gold
At Sungrave, Aurae introduces herself to Lysander while attending him. His refusal of sexual service gives him a brief glimpse of her response beneath the performance expected of a servant. At dinner, she sings of Rhea while Diomedes watches her.
After the duels, Aurae tells Lysander Cassius died of blood loss and that Bellerephon’s schoolmates took the body. Lysander accepts her report because he is prevented from seeing Cassius for himself.[3]
Book 6
Light Bringer
Cassius explains that Aurae helped him escape from Europa. She now travels with the survivors of Mercury, tending Darrow and giving him The Path to the Vale. Suspicion surrounds her unexplained capabilities and motives, but she insists on joining the Sevro mission and pilots the extraction when the dockyard plan collapses.
Aurae reveals that she is Athena’s herald and offers Sevro access to the Daughters’ fleet. Cassius feels she has used him. She explains her mission but will not pretend to return his romantic feelings. During the journey, she plays music for the grieving crew and encourages Darrow to face his guilt.
News of the Rim’s suffering turns the journey toward Athena. Aurae helps decode the evacuation signal and contact Diomedes. When Sevro tortures him, she breaks Sevro’s finger to stop it. At Sungrave she opens a concealed communications station and reaches Athena, but the crew’s later arrest proves that she does not control the network’s judgment. She resists Cheon’s beating of Darrow and urges him to show the humanity she has seen.
Aurae tells Diomedes about her years of intelligence work and insists he treat her as an equal. He begins rejecting the hierarchy that kept them apart. After the alliance, she remains in the Rim as his emissary to the Daughters. She later tells Darrow how much accepting Cassius as a brother helped him feel at home.[5]
Relationships
Diomedes au Raa
Diomedes watches Aurae sing at Sungrave. Lysander notices his interest but does not know whether they have a relationship.[6]
Aurae has known Diomedes for thirteen years. She loves him, but leaves because she will not accept a life in which he protects her while retaining authority over her. By the end of Light Bringer, Darrow recognizes their mutual love, and she stays as Diomedes’s emissary to the Daughters.[7]
Cassius au Bellona
Aurae tells Lysander Cassius is dead and that he cannot see the body.[8]
Aurae helps Cassius escape but does not share his romantic feelings. He eventually recognizes that he has imagined a future she never promised him. They continue caring for each other as friends.[9]
Darrow
Aurae gives Darrow The Path to the Vale and encourages him to face his failures. She can forgive him for herself, but cannot speak for Athena or the people harmed by his decisions. Darrow later credits her with helping him recover.[10]
Lyria
Aurae stands up for Lyria’s right to help. She sees courage and practical judgment in her and argues that her friendship with Volga could make a difference to the mission.[11]
References
- Iron Gold, chapters 32, 36. ↩
- Light Bringer, chapters 4, 35, 42, 48, 62. ↩
- Iron Gold, chapters 32, 36, 48. ↩1 ↩2
- Light Bringer, chapters 2–11, 35–42, 46, 53, 62. ↩
- Light Bringer, chapters 2–11, 35–42, 46–48, 51–53, 58–62, 78, 85, 89. ↩
- Iron Gold, chapters 36. ↩
- Light Bringer, chapters 48, 52, 60–62, 89. ↩
- Iron Gold, chapters 48. ↩
- Light Bringer, chapters 2–4, 11, 78–89. ↩
- Light Bringer, chapters 2, 6, 11, 37–39, 60, 73, 89. ↩
- Light Bringer, chapters 42. ↩