Darling was the reborn White Rose, a prophesied savior who would defeat the Lady, just as the original White Rose had defeated the Dominator 370 years before Croaker's Annals. She was a young girl rescued by the Black Company, and her growth into the leading figure of the renewed Rebel movement played a major role not only in the history of the Company but of the Northern Continent as a whole.
The Black Company
Darling was a blue-eyed, blonde girl from a village in the province of Forsberg. She was deaf and used sign language to communicate with others. She was nine years old when the Black Company met her for the first time. Croaker and Raven found her and her grandfather Flick in their burnt village which had been sacked by the Limper's savage army. She was being raped by drunken soldiers serving one of the Limper's captains, Lane. Raven killed two of them and freed her, but at the cost of securing the Limper's unmitigated enmity. Raven looked after her closely, and he became her primary guardian after Flick was murdered in Oar by thugs working for the Limper's subordinates Lane and Colonel Zouad.
The Company adopted the girl. During the bloody chaos of the Battle of Charm, Darling's unique talent first manifested. A Rebel sleep spell knocked down a group of soldiers, including Raven, but Darling was unaffected. She quickly woke up Raven and several others, who sprung back into battle when this should not have been possible. This attracted some unwanted attention, as centuries before, a legendary general known as the White Rose presumably used the same sort of magic resistance, or "null", to defeat the Dominator. Raven was the first to react, and after the battle he disappeared, taking the girl with him. Croaker and Silent managed to track them down, and Croaker revealed that he and several others also had realized that Darling was in fact the White Rose reborn, which explained her immunity to magic. Fearing that the Lady would make an attempt on Darling's life, the Company decided that she should leave with Raven, while reporting them dead to cover their tracks.
Shadows Linger
Six years later Darling and Raven entered the city of Juniper, on the distant northwestern coast of the Northern Continent. They stayed at the Iron Lily inn, where she started working as a barmaid for Marron Shed. Raven began surreptitiously selling corpses to the Black Watchers, which the Black Company was eventually ordered to investigate. Raven quickly learned who was after him, and believed (incorrectly) that his old comrades had been sent by the Lady to assassinate Darling. He left the city with Darling and faked his death outside the city of Meadenvil. The Company didn't fall for his tricks and kept following. In Chimney, they learned that Raven had apparently died, but found this time even Darling was utterly convinced. She stayed with the Company on the run for the 4 years it would take them to arrive at the Plain of Fear.
The White Rose
After leaving Juniper, the Black Company arrived at the Plain of Fear after four harrowing years being chased by the Lady's Taken. There, they established a subterranean headquarters called the Hole where they were safe from the Lady's forces for two years. By that time Darling had reached her twenties and had grown to almost six feet tall. Now known as the White Rose, she led the new Rebel movement against the Lady and her Taken. Her primary protector was the godlike Father Tree, who commanded the bizarre and powerful species of the Plain to support her.
In the Plain of Fear the two opposing forces had an epic battle. The Lady counted on the Taken and their magic, while Darling used her null and the strange creatures inhabiting the Plain. The flying mantas, the windwhales, and her anti-magic field granted her some victories, but her counter-offensive was stopped by the Lady's forces.
While Darling and the Lady battled, the Dominator secured a guaranteed means of escape from the Barrowland. Darling accepted the Lady's proposal for alliance, and their mutual enemy was defeated at the Battle of the Barrowland. However, the Lady immediately betrayed her new ally, using Darling's true name to strip her of her power, the anti-magic null. In retaliation, Silent broke his vow and spoke aloud the Lady's true name in the same ritual, rendering her powerless as well. Afterward, Darling left the Barrowland and the Black Company.
The Silver Spike
Darling had several confrontations with the Limper and Toadkiller Dog, pursuing them as far as the Temple of Travellers' Repose in the Southern Continent. She and her horde of Plain monsters immediately rushed north when the Sapling informed Father Tree that the silver spike had been stolen from it. In Oar, she and her allies fought the Limper until he was genuinely vanquished and the spike secured forever. However, both Raven and Silent died during the battle. Anguished, she abandoned the title of the White Rose and chose to lead a peaceful life in the province. She married a soldier named Case and the two eventually had children together.
Gallery
_by_%D0%92%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D0%A1%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B5%D1%86.jpg "Darling (Adult) by Виталий Стрелец.jpg (66 KB)")