Antonela

Antonela was born on a warm summer day, while her father was carting her mother between two cities for delivery. The sun kissed her as she entered the world in a field of wildflowers, and while her birth was not quite as planned her parents certainly looked at her as a blessing. Ronan Callaghan was an aspiring merchant, with the seemingly undying support of his young wife Maria at his side. Antonela was named there in the field, dubbed properly as the "first born" and carted off to the nearby city for a proper check. Nelly was deemed fit, healthy, ready for the world, and spent the next year traveling in her mothers arms as her father peddaled and sold to build something worthy of their little family.

When Nelly was three their family home was finally properly built. Ronan was doing well these days, affording them something luxurious and yet not overtly flashy so as to deter bandits and theives. While Ronan would have prefered a well guarded city, all Maria had to do was sweet talk him about how the fresh air and less commotion of a small village would suit their growing daughter all the more. They settled down in Luin, a village not terribly far from their capital but at a distance reasonable enough that Ronan would occasionally need to spend days away. Nelly grew accustomed to her father being gone, spoiled with gifts upon his return that seemed to vary with the amount of time he'd been away. Antonela was far from royalty, but she was certainly treated like a Princess by her parents.

There were ten happy years for Nelly before anything truly terrible could happen. Time spent apart led to distance between her parents; where Maria was happy when they traveled together, being at home to raise their child and seeing her husband less and less as his business ventures took off began to take its toll. Resentment of her own sweet daughter began to take hold, eating away at Maria coupled with the guilt brought on by such terrible feelings. Maria was pregnant with her second child when Nelly was nine, and the young girl was as excited as could be to meet her young sibling. They'd spend their days adventuring around the village and its surrounding forests, race horses to the river, learn and thrive alongside each other. These plans were well and good, but they never saw the light of day. Maria gave birth while Ronan was on one of his trips, and while Nelly was happy to dote on her new baby sibling in the following days, Maria was quiet. Withdrawn. Antonela was not old enough to realize the striking likeness to a traveling man who passed through the village on occassion. Unable to face Ronan, and with a desire to pursue a flame that was still burning, Maria drafted a letter explaining her infidelity and her reason for leaving and hitched a cart to her new beau's home. Nelly never saw her again, just waited days for her father to return and held him in deep, mournful confusion as he wept over the letter.

Ronan struggled for a while after that. Leaving Nelly with members of the village was costly, though he didn't mind the coin to make sure his daughter was well cared for. The answer to his problems appeared during his travels when his daughter was thirteen; a sixteen year old tigress named Sorwyn, who needed a place to stay and a purpose. Ronan offered her this and more, paying for the young girl to train with swords and act as Nelly's companion and bodyguard. Spending his time away from his daughter was done so with less concern for her well being, knowing she was in well trained hands.

Antonela was sixteen when her father promised her hand to Bellamy Dupont. He was four years her senior, and hardly interested in taking someone he still considered very much a child in camparison as a wife. Despite this, his parents and Ronan agreed that on her eighteenth birthday Nelly would marry him. In the meantime, Nelly would live with them as their ward and be sent to study Gunsmithing. Nelly begged and pleaded with her father to send Sorwyn along with her, but there was just no way to make it work. Her beloved friend and guardian was not welcome in Bellamy's lands because of her birhtright, and so Nelly gave a tearful goodbye and boarded a ship one gloomy day. It was off to a new land with no familiar faces, no friend at her side to keep her on her toes and promise to have her back. Off to a land where she would have to promise her heart- or at least her life- to a stranger in exchange for knowledge. With no other choice in the matter, Nelly made her voyage and immediately threw herself into studying for the next two years.


Nelly became Antonela Marie Dupont two years after her arrival at Bellamy's estate. It was a Spring day, crisp in a way that required her to toss a shawl over her shoulders in addition to her gown. It was by no means a simple affair; the Dupont's had money, as she had quickly learned upon her arrival. Just as in her youth, Nelly didn't find herself wanting for very much at all. Bellamy's initial annoyance at her presence softened. In the two years she had been there, they'd formed friendship, deep and cherished but certainly not a romantic love. Antonela was well on her way to becoming a highly praised Gunsmith, already making prototypes for house Dupont and making a name for herself. Her marriage benefited everyone it seemed; Lord and Lady Dupont had a valuable, well trained Gunsmith to make money for their estate. Bellamy had a beautiful bride who was still so full of adventure and joy, who was not demanding and who certainly wasn't pushing for children. And Nelly had an education, a best friend once again at her side, a bright future and her pick of where to go. It might not have been the life she had always wanted, but it was a good life.

Antonela and Bellamy agreed that children were not in the cards. They would not have children out of a sense of duty, not when he had siblings to continue the family name. That wasn't to say Lady Dupont did not try to push the subject- many a long meal was spent going over how wonderful children were, how they would change their lives, how Antonela could always return to her work in a few years when the babe was ready, or take a nursemaid if she really wanted to. Nelly and Bellamy would simply share smiles and carefully rolled eyes during these moments, and excuse themselves for their next bit of traveling.

This was perhaps Nelly's favorite part of her marriage; traveling. She would often times find herself thinking back to her mother and father, wondering if perhaps things would have been different for them if they had continued on the road rather than having a child. Nelly kept in contact with her father through letters, even sent him a shipment of Dupont Guns to sell back home. He never responded to her questions about Sorwyn; admittedly, Nelly didn't press, for fear of what the answer would be after his hesitance to give it. Nelly spent the next six years spreading her wares, until the Dupont name was so entwined with high quality custom guns that there was no need to travel. Suddenly customers came to her for her product, and Nelly set up shop at the estate.

It was the Summer after she and Bellamy settled down at home that they met Jermaine Le'Chere.

Jermaine was a thorn in Antonela's side from day one. He thought himself charming, but she saw him for what he truly was; arrogant, sadistic, aggressive and untrustworthy. Nelly was well known as a taken woman, though rumors spread from time to time about her loveless marriage. Nelly would laugh them off. Antonela might not love Bellamy as a wife typically did a husband, but she did love him. They were devoted to one another. Jermaine was happy to try and stick his nose between them, and Nelly would always give him a firm no and send him packing when he started to step out of line. He would always return. Antonela had never thought herself much of a Lady until she realized that she did wear the title, and she had to play the court games just like everyone else.

Something finally started to bloom between Nelly and Bellamy. Perhaps years in such close quarters or a carefully forged and fanned flame was beginning to burn into something brighter. Antonela found no reason to question it. Was it so wrong to fall in love with your best friend? Nelly was at a good place in her life. She was making good coin. She was a respected woman with finely crafted guns, with plans for her future. Bellamy was charming. He was kind, he was clever, he was hilarious. He was not hard to love. But things began to shift with the power of the land; revolutions, changes in leadership. Families were being divided. Houses were being forced to declare a side. The Dupont's stood with their King, as they always had. Jermaine Le'Chere stood with their King. Or at least, that was what he said.

Antonela was working in her forge the day that the family estate was attacked. By the time she realized the alarm bells were going off, it was too late. Dupont lands were prime for the revolution; they were in a good location, one that would benefit the revolutionary forces. And better yet, Antonela was there. Nelly's guns would greatly benefit the forces. Nelly fought her way through the halls, not quite understanding that there was a reason why she wasn't being shot down on sight.

When she arrived in the Great Hall, it was just in time to meet a beaten and bloodied Bellamy's eyes as Jermaine shot him from behind while the man was on his knees. The warmth and apology in his eyes will forever haunt her. The shock of the scene was enough for an unseen band of revolutionaries to overtake her, tearing her weaponry from her hands and forcing her onto her knees. Jermaine Le'Chere was a leader among the revolution. He'd been promised lands and titles, fortune. He explained this to her as her husband lay dead on the nearby, his blood warming her knees, his laughter ringing in her ears as she tried to hold onto that memory. Antonela was certain she would die next. Faces she'd come to know well were obscured around her; some with bullet holes marring them, others with simply wide, dead eyes. Jermaine would not kill her that day, though. Instead he would explain her greater purpose; she would live. She would manufacture guns for the revolution. She would do all of this as the bride he had longed for her to be, standing at his side and shaping the nation into something greater. These were the words of a madman, and while Nelly hated everything about it, she knew this was the only way to survive.

Nelly became Antonela Marie Le'Chere on a cold winter day after the remaining Dupont's- Bellamy's elder brother, who had helped Jermaine lead the attack on his own household among them- buried the dead. Nelly marked Bellamy's grave with her wedding bouquet, and promised him that she would never love the man who had put him there. This was a loveless marriage in an entirely different way. There was no hope that Nelly would ever be happy with Jermaine. There was no chance that he would win her heart in the way he boasted he could, after a long night of laying beneath him and hating him for every second she had to spend in his bed. It was by no means an ideal situation, but it was certainly one that Nelly knew she could survive.

It was Summer before Antonela made good on all of her plans. Carefully crafted over months of secrets, lies, false smiles and forced laughter, Nelly's escape came in the middle of the night. Working with merchants who she had long done business with and who she had no choice but to trust, Antonela stole away in a caravan and made for a small port city where she could board a ship and make it out of the country. Jermaine may have thought he knew all of her secrets, but Antonela had always kept a personal cache of gold from her sales which no one but Bellamy was aware of. He had wanted her to have something to herself, despite what the Dupont's had decided she owed them for putting her through schooling. It was enough to pay her way to port, onto the ship, and have enough stashed away for wherever she may land. As much as she wished to see Ronan, her father was not in the best of health and he would be the first person they assumed she went to for shelter. No, Antonela had to use that wit and stay ten steps ahead of them. There was only one person she could hope would be willing to help her in exchange for the coin she had left, the few guns she'd stolen away with. After some digging for information, Antonela set sail for The Golden Tether.