Velanna Geodegazer-Shadowbane

Velanna Geodegazer-Shadowbane

At two, Velanna has grown out of babyhood into a small, round-cheeked toddler with pale lavender-tinted skin and soft white-blonde curls that fall past her shoulders. Someone manages to fasten a little pearl-and-flower clip into her hair most mornings, and it usually survives until lunch. Her ears are delicately pointed, her eyes are a clear grey-blue with a hint of violet, and her smile arrives slowly and then takes over her whole face. Her family dresses her like the small princess she is, most often in soft lavender tulle embroidered with cream and gold flowers, trimmed with pearls, and finished with a tiny amethyst brooch at the neckline. She is almost never seen without Clover, a cream-colored plush bunny with long floppy ears and a lavender ribbon tied around its neck.

Velanna is only two, but she already keeps a remarkably busy social calendar. Every morning, and again at lunchtime, she arranges her dolls and stuffed animals in a careful circle around her bed and holds tea for all of them, pouring pretend tea into tiny cups and handing out whatever fruit she can get her hands on. Between tea times she gathers the same group back together and talks to them like a meeting, turning to each one in turn and waiting, very seriously, for an answer before moving on to the next. Clover always sits at her right hand. Anyone who wanders past her room is likely to be invited in, handed a cup, and told exactly where to sit.