Brigadier General Jiretta Danlann is one of Narlon’s close allies in the war against the Sarshen. She also wields a flaming blade and is known in legend as Erinar, the Phoenix. Jiretta divulges how she became the first female officer in the Puxim army in the series, but the origins of her magic sword aren’t explored much. In today’s blog, we’ll give you a little history of the sword and Jiretta’s path to her destiny.

Jiretta came from a well-to-do family in southern Puxim, and her parents planned for her to follow a traditional role of a Puximian woman as a wife, mother, and homemaker. Jiretta was never content with the limited scope of that future. Since the first days she heard her grandfather’s tales of battling Snakemen in Puxim’s dense forests, Jiretta wanted to be a soldier just like him. As he talked, she would stare at the glistening blade above the mantel, an old family heirloom passed down from the early Second Age. He and his ancestors had been wielding it for centuries. With no male heirs in this generation, it would adorn the wall until Jiretta bore a son.

Jiretta didn’t want to bear sons. She wanted to bear arms. Enterprising and determined, Jiretta decided to disguise herself as a man and join the military. As she sneaked out of the house the night she ran away, she stopped to touch the old family sword for good luck. As soon as her fingers touched the metal, the sword glowed with a rim of fire. Her grandfather’s stories said the sword had only flamed for its first owner, and never again. Why had it come alive for her? She didn’t know, but she took it as a sign that she ought to bring it along.

As Jiretta progressed in her military career as the man Narran Silriver, her skills and natural leadership complemented her flaming blade’s power as she became a force to be reckoned with. She was the destined inheritor of the first Erinar who’d come thousands of years before her time, and she more than lived up to the title.

When she at last revealed her true identity and established herself in the Puxim army, Jiretta dared to return home. She had not eloped, as they’d surmised, stealing the sword to sell for passage to another country. The truth of her military career shocked her parents, but her grandfather’s surprise was tempered.

“It showed you its fire.”

She summoned the flames along the blade. “No. I showed it mine, and it replied.”

~~

Morgan