Vesuvia

Vesuvia is a counsellor for the Diabase Demesne dragons. She is kind, quiet, and patient, always willing to lend an attentive ear to anyone with something they need to get off of their chest. She does her best to help them find good ways to address and cope with their problems, encourages them as much as she can, and perhaps most importantly, others know that she will always, always keep what they tell her a secret. Trust and compassion are the lodestone of Vesuvia's moral compass. Her den is in an out-of-the-way part of the Demesne lair, and its entrance is unobtrusive and unassuming. If anyone needs her guidance, or just someone to vent to, they can go there unnoticed.

Some of her clanmates are regular patients of hers; the Demesne welcomes anyone who comes in peace, and many of its permanent residents came to quiet Dragonhome and sought sanctuary in Pele's clan to escape from something in their past. While they are now miles away from whatever they fled from, sometimes the past is all too close in their minds, and they go to Vesuvia to help them cope. Melehan, Malware, Florian, Miledy, Asphodel, Satevis, and Tyche are her most frequent guests, but many others visit her on occasion when the little things in life build and build and build, or just to vent after an especially trying day. Vesuvia knows there are some dragons who do need help, but have not asked her out of pride or fear or shame; she does not approach them until they are ready, just tries to be friendly and hope that eventually they will find someone who can help them. She is fiercely loyal to all of her clanmates, and especially to those she considers close friends.

She herself once had to leave behind everything she had known, and ultimately found a new home at the Demesne. Vesuvia hatched in a small coastal kingdom in the Ashfall Waste, known as Vitrophyre. While not in the nobility, her family was rather well-off, and in her adolescence Vesuvia happened to be sent to the same academy as some members of the royal Cantera family, including the princess Ankara.

Young Vesuvia soon found herself smitten with the polite and graceful princess, and somehow, in spite of her shyness and quickness to fluster, managed to strike up a friendship with Ankara that lasted into their young adulthood. Beneath Ankara's careful poise, Vesuvia discovered that her friend was constantly anxious about the state of Vitrophyre and her future subjects, for the kingdom was often in conflict with its aggressive neighbors. Vesuvia bent a concerned ear and Ankara let some of her stoic pretense drop. In time, Vesuvia became Ankara's close confidante.

But one day, tragedy struck Vitrophyre; in a skirmish at the border with their fierce neighbor Basanite, the crown prince of Basanite was struck down and died from his wounds. The rulers of Basanite were threatening to invade Vitrophyre, and the terrible specter of war loomed over their heads. Desperate to prevent this devastation, the Canteras begged the rulers of Basanite for some way to preserve peace. The price their enemies demanded for peace was that the Canteras should experience equal suffering: An heir for an heir.

And the Vitrophyre heir was Ankara Cantera.

The Canteras found a loophole that would spare Ankara's life, but it meant disowning and banishing their former crown princess. Vesuvia could not bear to see her dear friend leave her home, never to return, with no link to everything she had known and loved. While Vesuvia had never planned on leaving Vitrophyre, she had no objection to forging a life elsewhere in Sornieth, and she decided that she would accompany Ankara in her exile. It was hard, leaving her old life behind, and Ankara tried to dissuade her from joining in a punishment not meant for her, but the relief and gratitude in Ankara's eyes when Vesuvia swore not to leave her made her decision well worth it in the Spiral's opinion.

For a few years they wandered together, and learned to adjust to their new, harder lives, leaning on each other for support. Ankara adopted a stage name, Arietta, in an attempt to sever her connection to her past life; but even as they went from princess and student to troubadour and counsellor, to Vesuvia, she will always be Ankara.

From a purely professional standpoint, it would be improper for Vesuvia to offer Ankara the same sort of service she gives to her patients- after all, they're not just friends anymore, but spouses. For after settling at the Demesne together, they swore vows of devotion to each other before their new friends and before the Eleven, that they will always be at each other's side, and no matter what they go through, they will never be alone.

Lyrics from "Things We Lost In The Fire" by Bastille