Creation

Sashenka was created by Kelly Thompson and Meredith McClaren in Black Cloak 3.

Major Story Arcs

Sashenka, also known as Sash, is a friend of Black Cloaks Phaedra Essex and Theron II of Pax. He is an activist who often helps Phaedra with things that support the Black Cloaks and the social good of the community.

Sash is a Bukavac, and is comfortable in the water of the Lagoon in a way that Pax and Phaedra are not. He is familiar with the Maids, or mermaids, a type of being that most of the people of Kiros are afraid of because of their powers and ferocity.

He is missing one of his four arms, possibly due to contact with the Maids.

Phaedra asks Sashenka to get a Mermaid out of a run-down bar, the Salty Crow. She’s on display and looks sick.

Phaedra contacts him again so that she and Pax can talk with the Maids about Dace, an Elf that died recently in the Lagoon (with Maid bite marks), and Yanha, a Maid that died that same night. Sash and Nycila, who seems to be his assistant, give the Cloaks diving equipment and tell them how to minimize the effects of the Maids’ musical powers.

Sash introduces Pax and Phaedra to the Maids but they are overcome by the Maids’ song. Sash keeps talking with all of them and eventually persuades the Maids to telepathically communicate their experience of the night Dace and Yanha died. She shows that Lysanthir, a prominent royal magician, dumped Dace’s body. The Black Cloaks thank the Maids and Sash and continue with their investigation.

Years later, after Phaedra becomes an apostate for both saving the beloved animals known as the Taka from the Queen’s predatory machinations and partially destroying the city in the process, Sashenka still works with her. Phaedra is seen working as a detective in some way, swimming in the flooded section of the Narrows for some kind of evidence. Sashenka and some Maids help her.

Sash and Nycila help Pax, Phaedra, and Pax’s new partner Alden get ready to swim in the Lagoon again. This time he leads them to a crime scene in an apartment that can only be accessed from below, through the water.

As they swim along, they realize they are being chased by a Dragyern, a giant mythical beast. Sash urges the others to keep swimming while he holds it off. He uses a net and electric harpoon but Phaedra worries that he will be killed in the clash. Luckily he survives and they all manage to make it to the apartment. The Dragyern surfaces and enters the room as well, but Dagmar and Valorie teleport in and Dagmar casts a spell to stop it.

Sash helps carry the now-unconscious Dagmar to safety and then goes to check on his people. He knew the victim of the crime scene they visited—Ellyse Locke, an activist journalist—and needs to let people know what happened.

He is seen briefly at the end of the arc, hanging out with friends and Taka, after Phaedra and Pax have brought the killers to justice and found a new ethical source of magic for the city.