Anafiel Delaunay

In Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy series, Anafiel Delaunay is a clever spymaster and poet, the man who buys Phèdre nó Delaunay's marque and trains her. He has very fine features, grey eyes, and ginger hair, and was educated at the University of Tiberium. He is noted for having an air of stillness about him, an observant calm that lends him a dignity surpassing others in any crowd.

Anafiel's true name is Anafiel de Montrève, and he is originally from the province of Siovale. His father was the Comte de Montrève, who disowned Anafiel for failing to marry and get heirs, and his mother was an Eisandine woman named Sarafiel Delaunay. From his homeland and upbringing, Delaunay inherits a great love of learning, and keeps a grand library at his home in the City of Elua.

Anafiel and Prince Rolande became lovers when they were at the University of Tiberium together, and remained so throughout Rolande's life. While at the University, Rolande began to call Anafiel by his mother's maiden name, as Delaunay was also the name of an Eisandine shepherd loved by Elua. He was nicknamed Antinous by the masters of the University, after a lad loved by an ancient Tiberian Imperator.

There existed no ill will between Edmée de Rocaille and Anafiel; they had been childhood friends, and Edmée understood that she was trading passion to be the Queen of Terre d'Ange and the mother of Rolande's heirs.

When Edmée was killed, Anafiel wrote a poem, Antinous' Ode to His Beloved, describing in a thinly veiled story the machinations of Isabel L'Envers to remove her rival from the equation. Isabel called for Anafiel's banishment, a fate he escaped when he refused to claim authorship of the poem, but at the price of having his poetry banned and destroyed.

At the Battle of the Three Princes, Anafiel served with Rolande, and thus stood as witness to the Prince's death. Anafiel rescued the boy Alcuin from a village that was being overrun by the Skaldi, simply to fulfill Rolande's promise that the boy would always be cared for. Anafiel also swears a vow to Rolande before his death to stand as protector to Rolande's daughter Ysandre.

Anafiel is called to Cereus House by its Dowayne, Miriam, to inspect Phèdre when her penchant for experiencing pain as pleasure is first noted. He buys her marque for an extremely high sum, which even so was less than her true worth, and leaves her at Cereus to be reared until her tenth birthday. He encounters her once more before then, at the Midwinter Masque.

When Phèdre is delivered into his charge, he immediately sees to her education in languages, culture, politics, and physical training. Anafiel allows her to run away to visit her friend Hyacinthe, under the condition that she let his retainer Guy know before she leaves his house, indicating that he does not wish to deprive her of her freedoms, but to ensure that she acts intelligently and responsibly, and to see that she does not come to harm. It is Anafiel who introduces Phèdre to Melisande Shahrizai his sometime friend and long-ago lover.

Delaunay uses Phèdre and his other charge, Alcuin nó Delaunay, to uncover political secrets buried by the years, including the names of the murderers of Isabel L'Envers, two members of the Stregazza family. His next mission is to work to unite the crowns of Terre d'Ange and Alba, fulfilling the betrothal promise of Ysandre and the dream of the Albans; he is awaiting word from Admiral Quintilius Rousse when he is murdered by agents of Isidore d'Aiglemort. Several months after his death, Ysandre rescinds Ganelon's edict against his poetry.

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