Darkia Steele is the Chief Military Commander of the Dragon Kingdom — grey-purple scaled, four-armed, and carrying the kind of presence that fills a room before she speaks. She was not given authority. She built it, over centuries, one battle at a time.
She is disciplined and formidable in the way that only age and genuine hardship produce. Her wisdom is not academic — it is earned. Beneath the surface: emotional depth she rarely lets anyone see, and wounds that never quite healed.
She doesn't ask for loyalty. She's simply never given anyone reason to leave.
Her devotion to Lilya is the one place her armor genuinely softens. She is deeply proud in the quiet way — she watches Lilya operate and says nothing, because nothing needs to be said. Lilya's overconfidence worries her in the way only a parent can be worried, because she remembers being exactly the same.
Her oldest and most significant relationship outside her family. Zoe is one of the only people Darkia recognizes as a genuine equal. Centuries of shared history have produced something rare: a friendship built entirely on mutual respect and blunt honesty, with no performance and no pretense.