Cassandra Marlowe

Cassandra has blue-black Marlowe hair and her mother Valka's hard green eyes. Her hair is short. Her left arm is missing; she has refused throughout to have it replaced, a choice Hadrian comes to interpret as an expression of faith. She wears what has become Marlowe Imperial black, having abandoned her mandyas by this point.

Cassandra's genome was written on a Jaddian loom, leaving her stronger and faster than ordinary humans, though not as strong as Hadrian. She is a Maeskolos of the Ninth Circle, having undergone the secret trial of il Ebtellah du Qal. She carries a highmatter blade and speaks Jaddian fluently. She refuses any mechanical replacement for her severed arm.

• Hadrian (Father)
• Valka (Mother) -- appeared to Cassandra in a vision during her clinical death, directing her to return and saying "Tell your father he was right. Quite right."
• Master Hydarnes -- her swordsmanship teacher at the Fire School
• Edouard Albe -- HAPSIS agent; accompanies her into exile aboard Ascalon
• Princess Selene -- close friend and Hadrian's betrothed; they clasp hands as Selene passes at the council table
• Lorian Aristedes -- moved by her resemblance to Valka; kisses her hand on departing
• Neema -- lived with during confinement on Forum
• Prince Kaim -- she narrates events to his court
• Prince Alexander -- political opponent she pursued through the Aurora melee
• Ushara -- the Watcher who possessed her at Danu; now destroyed
• Ramanthanu -- Cielcin captain whose death shook Cassandra deeply
• Sabine Marlowe -- Hadrian's sister; Cassandra is tasked with recruiting her at Caria

Cassandra was created by Jaddian natalists from Valka's preserved genome and Hadrian's contribution, grown in suspension and raised on Jadd. She trained at the Fire School for nearly thirty years before becoming a Maeskolos of the Ninth Circle through the secret trial of il Ebtellah du Qal.

She joined Hadrian's mission to Sabratha as part of the Phanamhara expedition, boarding a proper starship for the first time. On Sabratha she fought in the Cielcin assault and survived captivity in the Vaiartu ruins alongside Hadrian. During the voyage home she learned from Hadrian the truth of Valka's death and his resurrection by the Quiet. After a four-year near-imprisonment on Forum she endured the grief of Hadrian's apparent death by Chantry poison, then refused to accept his return until a violent confrontation in which she attacked him with her sword -- breaking down and calling him "Abba" when he caught the blade.

She joined the assault on Vorgossos and lost her left arm to one of Kharn Sagara's scions at the power station, insisting on no mechanical replacement. While still recovering from that wound aboard Demiurge, she escaped the medica to fight the saboteur Kedron alone before being incapacitated and rescued by the Irchtani.

At Gododdin she confronted Prince Alexander over his dismissal of her legitimacy and was warmly reunited with Princess Selene. On Danu she fought Dorayaica and cut the White Hand from the Prophet's wrist before Ushara possessed her and compelled her to drive her blade through both herself and Hadrian simultaneously. She was clinically dead for fifteen minutes before being placed in Demiurge's healing tank.

After seven months in the tank she awakened with short hair and a vision of her dead mother, who told her: "He needs you. He can't do this alone, and it can't be me" and "Tell your father he was right. Quite right." Returned to service, she fought through the evacuation crisis on Gododdin -- surviving the Catraeth riot, clearing a doorway past Martian guards alone, neutralizing the daimon Here Soonchanged, and shielding Edouard from a knife-missile.

She recovered Hadrian from Dharan-Tun after he sealed her out of his lone mission and fought alongside him on Aurora through the final confrontation, pursuing Alexander through the melee and comforting the dying Emperor. When Ramanthanu died during the escape, her composure broke and she dropped her sword. At the Demiurge council she spoke in support of Hadrian; Lorian kissed her hand on departing and said she looked so much like her mother.

After the battle, Hadrian commissioned Cassandra as his Auctor and princess royal, pressing one of the Emperor's rings into her palm. He tasked her with sailing to Caria to recruit his sister Sabine and thereafter to build alliances among the lesser houses, Norman lords, and others on the Imperium's behalf. In their final farewell she struck him lightly in the chest and wept. She departed aboard Ascalon with Edouard and the surviving refugees. Hadrian notes in retrospect that he never saw her life in his visions -- only her death, many thousand times.