Creation

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

Major Story Arcs

Vasha Essex is the mother of Phaedra and Hadrian. She is a royal Elf.

Vasha’s husband and Hadrian’s father is largely unknown but was a highborn Elf of the House of Essex. He dies when Phaedra was a child. For many years Phaedra is assumed by the rest of elf society to share the same father. They all live in the palace and are seemingly very well situated in high society because Phaedra is engaged to Freyal III, the crown prince.

When Phaedra and Freyal get matching tattoos, she shows them to Vasha, who is not thrilled about the tattoos but is happy for her to be happy.

When Phaedra tries on her wedding dress, she freaks out at the attendant who wants to give her a backless option. Vasha realizes that her daughter is growing emergent wings. They talk and Phaedra says they’ve been growing for six months. Vasha then tells her the story of her real father, the powerful Phinneas II of Thane. He is a Dracona, making Phaedra half-Dracona, half-elf. Vasha explains that her husband was traumatized by the war and that they grew distant. She fell in love with Phinneas but they broke it off when she became pregnant to avoid scandal.

Knowing that her mixed-race identity would ruin Freyal if the truth came out, Phaedra ends the engagement and accepts banishment from the queen.

Hadrian apparently does not learn of Phaedra’s mixed race background but is shamed and angered by her exile, which would reflect on him as well. He presses his mother to treat her the same. Seemingly they have little or no contact with Phaedra for the next twenty years.

Phaedra leaves the palace and works as a Black Cloak, or cop. She eventually returns to question the queen after Freyal was killed. As she enters the palace, Hadrian hits her from behind, trying to kill or seriously injure her. She survive and is healed by the palace magicians. They see each other later as she is leaving, and Hadrian tells Vasha to ignore “that traitorous trash.”

A while later, Phaedra discovers the plot behind Freyal’s death--the queen has been draining the beloved and presumed-extinct cat-like Taka of their magic in order to support the city’s enervated magical infrastructure. Freyal finds out and she kills him to cover it up.

Phaedra and her partner Pax break into the castle to get proof. Somehow, Hadrian either knows they’re coming or is part of the scheme, and confronts them in the bowels of the castle. However, Pax manages to pull a gun on him. They tie him up and knock him out, leaving him in a closet that they accidentally discover is also the entrance down to the secret Taka machine.

A fight ensues between the queen’s allies and Phaedra’s allies. Vasha also somehow finds out what’s going on and joins in on Phaedra’s side. She uses her magic to prepare the machine for destruction. However, minutes after their reunion, the Queen kills Vasha with a magic blast.

Phaedra eventually destroys the machine, which causes fires and floods around the city but brings a measure of truth and justice to the society. The elves fall out of power, with the queen and her main magician ally, Master Lysanthir, being jailed. Phinneas--who kept track of Phaedra over the years and loved her from afar—becomes Prime Minister.