Amaranta
A herbalist in her late twenties who lives in Straff Venture's travelling camp — one of the king's older mistresses, kept past the age he would normally discard her because of her skill with poisons and their antidotes. She prepares a fresh general antidote for him each time he suspects he has been poisoned, and is the secret tool by which he survives Zane's regular tea. MB1:WoA:Ch 18
Known facts
- poisoned-straff-by-addiction-not-zaneAmaranta reveals to a dying Straff that Zane never actually poisoned him — only made him think so at her request, so that Straff would run to her each time for the "antidote." The drug she gave him was the only addictive ingredient; without daily doses he goes into lethal withdrawal. The arrangement was her revenge for being discarded once she aged out of his favour.MB1:WoA:Ch 49
Events
- MB1:WoA:Ch 18 Comes when called, kneels expectantly, is told to keep her dress on, and brews the general antidote from her cabinet while Straff waits in increasingly cold sweat for the poison to take.
- MB1:WoA:Ch 39 Arrives at Straff's tent with surprising speed, mixes her catch-all draught, and pulls him out of the latest dose Zane has fed him.
- MB1:WoA:Ch 49 Caught mid-brew with the wrong ingredients; reveals to a dying Straff that Zane never poisoned him and that her "antidote" was an addictive drug she dosed him with for years. Is strangled to death on the floor of the pavilion.
Backreferences
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 18
- factBirchbane
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 39
- factStraff Venture
- factZane
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 49
- factStraff Venture
- factAmaranta
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 50
- factStraff Venture
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 53