Creation

Freyal was created by Kelly Thompson and Meredith McClaren in Black Cloak 1.

Major Story Arcs

Freyal is the heir to the throne of Kiros, the last city in the world. His mother, Taline, is the queen and has been since the last wars against a great evil, which caused vast destruction hundreds of years ago.

Freyal’s father is unknown.

As a child, his best friend is Phaedra Essex, whose mother is a royal. They play around the grounds with her Taka (a small, magic, furry animal) Mister Starlight, and at one point Phaedra uses a Dracona Dagger to carve their initials into a powerful old tree.

They get matching tattoos on their forearms to signify their love and become engaged. They are wildly in love. He is more sensitive and she is smarter; they complement each other and he thinks he will only be able to be a good king with her help.

However, Phaedra discovers that she is half-Dracona, and is growing Dracona wings, which she will not be able to hide. Mixed-race beings are not acceptable in Kiros, so she cannot marry Freyal; it would destroy any chance for his future kingship. She makes the hard decision and breaks up with him without telling him why and then accepts exile out of the caste because of it. They never see each other again.

After the breakup with Phaedra, he starts slumming it with non-royals in the literal slums of Kiros. He starts seeing an Elf, Dace, who is lowborn. They often stay at her place in the Narrows, in a building known for prostitution. One of their mutual friends is Renna, a stripper and renegade.

Even with all this, he is a beloved figure in Kiros society.

Freyal finds out that his mother and one of the royal magicians, Lysanthir, have been breeding Taka, like their Mister Starlight, and have been absorbing their magic in order to keep Kiros’ magical standard of living afloat.

He wants to tell Phaedra, now a Black Cloak detective, about the Taka, but worries that the information would result in her death. He considers killing himself with an unusual Dracona poison which he thinks would bring her attention to the matter in a way that might not result in too much attention on her. He is extremely depressed and scratches out the part of his tattoo that stands for honor. He leaves a video telling all this to Phaedra in a secret lockbox in The Trees that they used as children.

Taline discovers that he knows about the Taka and visits him in his Narrows apartment and, after a tearful discussion, lethally stabs him with a Dracona Dagger. She leaves before he dies.

Dace arrives. He insists that she run and hide with Renna and the resistance. He takes the poison to get Phaedra’s attention in death, then dies. Dace, heartbroken, breaks her promise and takes the poison as well.

Lysanthir, who had followed the queen, comes in. He takes Dace’s body to the Lagoon, hoping to hide it from attention. However, a Maid (mermaid) named Yanha takes a bite of it and dies from the poison herself. The Black Cloaks find the two bodies in the Lagoon and Freyal’s in the Narrows and Phaedra starts investigating. She and her partner Pax eventually figure it all out. They destroy the Taka-absorption machine and put Taline and Lysanthir in jail. Phaedra’s father (whose identity was long a secret) becomes the new Prime Minister.