Rhyaena is, from an outsider’s glance, an example of an ideal and virtuous Ophaesian princess. She is known to be modest and humble, submissive and obedient. Demure in the presence of strange men. Possessing a mastery of proper ettiquette and adherence to court decorum. A devout worshipper of Naphenia. And as far as anyone knows, an avowed virgin until marriage.
However, in lieu of further perfecting her musical craft or appearing at afternoon garden tea parties more than the absolute bare minimum expected, Rhyaena spends her remaining free time venturing into the realm of Myteus with her rigorous study of mathematics, the natural sciences, and economics. Numbers and truth are her sole constant companions.
She spends sleepless nights on the balcony charting the courses of the stars and planets. Her fatigued appearance the next morning is always brushed away with assumptions of delicate constitution.
A renowned Mytean priest was bemused to find on his doorstep- a copy of his dissertation on Diophantine equations that was accompanied with a commentary twice as long. He didn’t recognize the handwriting.
Tools, pots, pans, and utensils “mysteriously
disappear” from the royal kitchen to be used for chemical experiments. Few suspected there was indeed more to the princess’s explanation of almost setting her rooms on fire than just a spilled candlestick.
Shortly after the prevention of said fire, a groundbreaking, yet anonymous treatise on the properties of sulphur was widely read and spread amongst the alchemically-inclined in the Mytean priesthood.
Somewhat weaker is her grasp on history and politics. Nonetheless, Rhyaena’s keen intellect and calculating mind is only a boon for navigating the dangerous pit of vipers that is the Ophaesian royal court.
She will most likely be curiously drawn to Mavrys’ simple outlook on life and athletic prowess, and very impressed by his gentle heart. However, the fact that he will never hold such feelings towards her is yet another tragedy of her sex.