#zayda

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it actually baffles me that i havent made a post about zayda yet because not only is she one of my favourite characters but she's also integral to so so many plot points, but we're here now!

zayda grew up in the stainside slums, the poorest part of kusig, an almost warren-like area of narrow allies and too cramped housing and the closest district to the coast in the entirety of kusig. there's debate around why it's called stainside. some say it's because it's so poor and dirty that it's a 'stain' to the supposedly beautiful capital city. others say it's because, due to the slums proximity to the coastline, fishmongers have to wheel their barrows of seafood through stainside to get to the markets to sell them, and the constant up-and-down spray of seawater combined with the general closeness to the sea causes a lot of salt damage to the buildings there, which makes everything look discoloured/stained. some even say it's called stainside because it sounds like 'stay inside', as it's so dangerous and rife with crime in the slums that it's an area no one in their right mind would ever want to venture. the people raised here are brutal, hardy and oftentimes incredibly bitter. it's a livelihood based around survival and nothing more. there's little love here, even amongst families as any extra mouths to feed are seen as a curse, yet overpopulation is common. by day, stainside is for the fishmongers. by night, it's a red light district. what stays the same throughout is that it is always every man for himself.

zayda never knew her father and her mother was murdered in front of her when she was only ten. it was a mugging, her mother stabbed in an ally for a loaf of bread she'd managed to get. it had been to celebrate zayda's birthday. no one so much as investigated the matter because such crimes were seen as inevitable in stainside. zayda grew up as an orphan.

despite all of their misfortune, one thing zayda remembered is her mother's love of the harasaeons. she saw them almost as a fairytail, a dream, proof that there was life beyond the ever-present grime of the slums. she really romanticised them and it's kinda me exploring the phenomenon of how a lot of working class people really really latch onto the royal family, because she saw the harasaeons as these infallible symbols of prosperity and stability. no matter what went wrong in their life, the harasaeons were unshakeable, but it was more than that. the few happy memories zayda has of childhood, the few chances of joy her mother ever got, were when the royals had a Big Day. all of the scarrings, all of the coronations, all of the royal birthdays and weddings etc - every single one caused a shared celebration throughout burnos, and nowhere was it felt more than in kusig itself. zayda was raised in the worst of poverty, but she remembers the day of kiva's birth as the day her mother bought her beautiful ribbons, a simple thing for most girls but something zayda had never had and has latched onto despite how young she was at the time. she remembers parties in the streets and dancing and music. she remembers the handful of nights the people of stainside were united.

maybe it was because she was raised in kusig and therefore where the harasaeons were inescapable, or maybe it was because of the way her mother drilled it into zayda from the beginning that the harasaeons were good, possibly the only good in their lives, but either way, the day her mother was murdered, zayda decided to become a guard. at first it was just because she wanted to be someone who could stop crimes like the mugging that took her mother from her, but as she worked her way up the rankings, getting closer and closer to the harasaeons, she became desperate to serve the royals themselves. it's a loyalty planted in her by her mother and one that grew with her through life.

from the moment zayda was left alone as an orphan in stainside, she began training herself. guard-training was only available for those who were of age, which was in another six years, but zayda knew she wanted to be better than the others from the start, the very best. she stayed in stainside and struggled every day merely to survive, fighting the other kids that tried to take her food and even getting in trouble with the local gangs time and time again. she was quicker than all of them, smarter too. she would push the fishmongers' wheelbarrows every morning up the steep hills and narrow allies of stainside in order to get strong and earn a few coppers, and at night, a lot of the sex workers would keep an eye on her (because they always tried to keep tabs on the orphans about stainside) and zayda would learn people/social skills from them. the more expensive sex workers knew every inch of their bodies, how to move every limb for maximum efficiency in what it was they were trying to achieve, as well as dances and footwork, and zayda learnt from them eagerly. by the time she was sixteen and showed up in the inner-city to sign up for official training, she knew how to move quickly, efficiently, elegantly, how to use her mind and problem solve and, better than every other recruit, she knew how to survive.

she took to combat training easily. the fighting aspect she was already good at, and while swords were new, zayda was determined, training night and day until she was able to beat everyone in her class without even breaking a sweat. guard training is a two-year course with an understanding that you'll learn more complex skills on the job, and it's tradition that the best student of a set of new recruits is offered a job in the queen's guard while the rest are sent to the royal army. the lowest of the low rankings in the queen's guard, but the queen's guard all the same. when zayda was eighteen, she was accepted into the queen's guard easily without a single other student even coming close to her talent, and that day, she returned to the brothels of stainside, where she was welcomed home as a hero.

zayda has been serving the harasaeons since she was eighteen, when lugalia was still queen and when kiva hadn't even had lilla yet (kiva is four years younger than zayda). despite her world weariness at such a young age, i still think it's important to note that all of this happened before zayda became an adult, and in guard-training, everything was centred around the royals to the point it bordered a little on indoctrination. zayda has been told since birth that the crown comes before everything, even her own life. she idolises it, hero-worships the harasaeons, and is blindly loyal, but she doesn't see the harasaeons as people. not really. to her, they're almost like artefacts to which she is a security guard. it is her job to protect them at all costs, but it never really crosses her mind that they might have personalities and feelings.

not until kiva. growing up, zayda was always told about princess kiva. they were of similar ages, and so of course zayda heard about her constantly. by the time kiva was getting married and having herines and adeunus, zayda was a high-ranking member of the queen's guard. the youngest to be in lugalia's inner-circle but there nonetheless due to her sheer talent and loyalty. zayda began to see kiva, see her outburts, see her tackling motherhood at such a young age, see her struggle and fight and pull herself back together again every time. zayda was present for A LOT of shit, and kiva latched onto her because she recognised zayda as someone, amongst the old noble faces who tormented her, that was young and new and not from here. zayda saw kiva as a job but kiva treated zayda like a friend, and when it came to lugalia's abuse, zayda never did anything. she watched, which kiva understood because what was a guard to the queen of burnos, but when kiva came to zayda for comfort, someone to talk to, or just some sort of assurance that this wasn't normal, zayda would not offer her that. even in confidence, zayda refused to speak ill of the crown, because to do that would force her to acknowledge that the crown was not this perfect, infallible thing that she had based everything off. no matter what kiva went through, zayda refused to breach anything further than perfect professionalism with her, even at the expense of basic humanity. instead of being angry or giving up, kiva just persisted, too desperate for an ally, anyone, in the palace that was entirely on her side. not her mother's or even her husband's; someone that was just hers.

then one night, herines wouldn't stop crying. kiva was exhausted and willem was visiting his family at green castle, and it was after an argument between kiva and lugalia. instead of going to her baby, kiva just curled up in bed and ignored him, and zayda, the guard of the princess and the highest ranking queen's guard side the head of the queen's guard themself who was charged with guarding the monarch, was struck dumb for a moment by how young kiva looked curled up in bed like that. kiva would have only been around eighteen then, and zayda, without thinking, went to rin and comforted him. some of the sex workers back in stainside had had children, and zayda had seen from them how to comfort a baby. she stopped his crying almost instantly, and just held him for a few minutes, swaddling him and rocking him and humming to him. it would have been beyond unprofessional even if kiva had ordered it, because this was herines harasaeon, son of kiva and future king of burnos, and zayda was at best a guard and at worst an orphan from stainside. but kiva hadn't ordered it, and zayda had no idea what she was even doing, but kiva was watching her with wide eyes and said, in the most broken, exhausted voice that has haunted zayda ever since; thank you.

it was that thank you that stuck with zayda, or more specifically, the pride she felt from it. such a simple thing, but zayda had helped a girl not much younger than herself in a moment when kiva had been so alone, so scared, so desperate, and professionalism, royalty, duty - none of it mattered for a second. to this day, one of the proudest moments of zayda's life wasn't the day she completed training, wasn't the day she got promoted to guard the harasaeons themselves, wasn't even the day she became the head of the queen's guard. it's this day, this night, when it was just two young girls and a sleeping baby, and zayda had known truly, indupitably, for the first time in her life, that she was helping someone.

skip to where we are when tbos starts, zayda is the head of the queen's guard and has been a steady presence in rin and drako's life since they were born. her and kiva have an incredibly intense, complicated friendship that's hard to understand to most outsiders, but zayda is learning to ease back on her sense of duty, to let herself feel fondness for the family she serves, and it gets easier every year to the point she now feels and is treated very much as one of the family. she can be rude to drako and rin in ways literally NO other guard/staff is because to them she's just their mean babysitter, and she wont hesitate to offer council to kiva even when she knows the queen won't like what she has to say. at this point as well, zayda is the best swordswoman in burnos. there isn't a person alive in the kingdom who can best her with a sword, though she's been training drako since he was a child, and he's determined to beat her one day (this is why he's such a good fighter. it's impossible to be bad when you've been trained by THE zayda of the queen's guard).

zayda is quiet, tough and has a very cold exterior. almost everyone is scared of her. her humour is rare and hard to navigate, but to people who get her, she can be fucking hilarious even if it's just the look of disgust she'll throw rin when he leaves his boots in the hallway again or the smack to the head she'll give drako when he sneaks out for yet another joyride. she's tall and burly and always without fail wears her hair (long and black) in the most mercenary ponytail you ever saw. literally idk how this woman doesn't have a constant migraine but i guess when you're zayda you're just automatically that powerful. she has dark brown skin, brown eyes, a hooked nose, and a mole beneath her lips, as well as a scar on her jaw from one of her many childhood skirmishes. she's not really seen wearing anything other than the uniform of the queen's guard, which is white trousers and a white tunic beneath golden armour. she regularly complains about how stupid it is to wear white when you're a guard; it's one of the few things she is actively vocal on and will take any opportunity to get a dig in to kiva about it. it's an inside joke with the two of them now, because kiva out of spite refuses to change the uniforms.

zayda is not a sentimental person at all to the point she's often seen as mean, but she always always wears the bracelet she was given by the sex workers before she left stainside for guard-training. it's just a bunch of silk threads woven together, but they're all different shades of pink so it's very pretty and it would have cost some of the workers a night's worth of earnings just to get the material. even without that, the fact it's from them is enough for zayda, and she hasn't taken it off since she was sixteen.

there is still a huge part of zayda that believes the crown comes before everything. her fondness for the harasaeon trio hasn't changed that, it's simply taught her that she can retain her loyalty while still allowing herself basic humanities. this stubborn handle on her loyalty is a massive character point, and is the source of zayda's entire character arc, because it leads to her making some really shitty decisions and it gets very, very messy....

fun facts about zayda:

drako came to her when he was only seven wanting to learn how to use a sword and she immediately put him in the dirt. he was STUNNED bc he went in all cocky thinking she'd have to go easy on him bc he's 1) a child, and 2) a harasaeon. zayda immediately went 'fuck that'

she's had the same horse since she was in her twenties (she is now in her forties). he's a beautiful palimino stallion who's very realiable and steady and hasn't faulted her the entire time she's had him. she insists she's not attached to him because he's just an animal and, like i said, zayda isn't a sentimental person, but she definitely is and it becomes A Thing

zayda hates seafood. the smell makes her feel sick

zayda and the boys are very close because drako's entire childhood was him being his very gentle, honest self and her being like 'kid go away' on and on until he wore her out and now he has a really special place in her heart, and zayda has had a soft spot for rin ever since he was a baby because of what happened that one night

this means, of course, that the boys absolutely fucking torment her. yes, it's partially because she's head of the queen's guard and therefore charged with wrangling them, a job anyone would struggle with even if the princes weren't actively trying to get up to mischief, but because it's zayda they ARE actively trying to get up to mischief. they're always pranking her/each other and running away when they know she's supposed to be keeping tabs on them and just generally making her life a thousand times more difficult than it has to be

kiva taught zayda how to read and write. it was slow going at first because it again went against zayda's professionalism rules and also it was just more of a pride thing (kids from stainside are NOT good at accepting help especially from someone like kiva where there's a very obvious power dynamic), but kiva was patient and kind and never ever judged

zayda stuck to her promise of wanting to bring down crime in kusig the moment she became head of the queen's guard, as she could now order other guards and had enough respect to kind of do her own thing. it was her original goal to chase all of the gangs out of stainside and the other slum districts, but kiva stopped her. it was the closest the pair have ever come to arguing because zayda has never wanted to go against the crown before, and she demanded to know why kiva would do this to her when - by then - kiva knew about zayda's upbringing. kiva pointed out that zayda was smarter than this, that if this was anything else, zayda would use her head. zayda realised she actually had been thinking from a place of bitterness, because the gangs in stainside only existed because of the poverty, same as the crime itself. flushing out the gangs would only relocate the criminals. so together, zayda and kiva came up with an investment plan for the poorest parts of kusig, channelling money that used to go into lugalia's excessive parties towards funding better housing, infrastructure and education in the slums. even a few years later, the benefits are palpable and the crime rates are falling

zayda is absolutely fucking terrified of small animals (mice, rabbits, squirrels etc) and it plagues her because she's supposed to be literally The Strongest Soldier In Burnos but if she sees a mouse then she will (and has done) leap onto drako's desk and scream