Dramatis Personae - The O'Rourke Girls (and pet)

Rachel

Rachel Angela O'Rourke. The Ice Princess Rachel of the House of O'Rourke, Heir to the Ice Throne of Vinterland.

Rachie.

Conceived on a battlefield in Pennsylvania, a girl who was born in her great-grandmother's cottage in a place between Things, who was fighting Magical menaces almost as she was learning to walk.

Who thought she was going to be an Ice Princess when the battles ended.

Who instead got stuck for years in a Mundane Realm with her aunt, who suddenly looked different. And who couldn't get them back. She thought that Aunt BeGee could do anything. And sometimes she wonders if BeGee is really trying.

She doesn't like going to Mundane school. Doesn't like the Mundane cousins. And her de facto grandmother seems to prefer things as they stand.

Rachel has to be Rachel, for the Knot to work.

That doesn't make things any easier.

For anyone.

Annie

The Mystery. The Knotkeeper. Since the latter days of BeGee's childhood, the O'Rourke Family has been visited by...someone. Someone who won't say exactly who she is, save that she's one of "Frieda's People." And she meets Frieda, just the once, and the old woman tells BeGee that is she is to trust Annie with her life, and those of the Family, but to never, under any circumstances, Truesight her.

Annie pops in and out, to help alleviate various crises. And one day, after a climatic battle, with Rachel and BeGee stuck in the Mundane Realm and BeGee weakened, Annie shows up just as a Path is being cut off, and asks if she can live at the Bookstore for a time, to help protect the place and Family. And Annabelle always has room.

Annie turns out to be one of Annabelle's "easy" children - all things being relative. She's weird, and unused to Mundane life. But she takes to it with gusto. Almost like she's in training for something. She's an enthusiastic softball player for Vitelli's. Her and BeGee have all manner of small scale Magic adventures.

But she's definitely hiding things. And although she protects Rachel, it's obvious that she can't stand being around the child.

And she eventually has to leave. Annabelle begs her to reconsider. She wants the kid to stay and go to college in Ohio. To be normal.

Annie, crying, explains that she wants to, but can't. She just can't. But before she goes, she lets Annabelle know her True Name. And she shows her the reason why she has never taken her glasses off.

In the aftermath, Annabelle wonders. Annie's real last name isn't O'Rourke. She's not aware of ancestors that used Annie's real surname. So, how does Annie have the Nose, and why does she wear the trademark O'Rourke eyeglasses?

Where did this kid come from?

Or, maybe - When?

Anya

Anya Maria O'Rourke. The last of Rachel's children. An illegitimate, half-ogre, part human/ice person/elf. Physically weak. Almost no Magic.

She reminds Snowflake, in a good way, of how he was before he was empowered. He's always carrying the kid around.

Annabelle adores her.

BeGee wasn't going to get close to another of Rachel's kids. That lasted until she first saw Anya. She picked her up and announced: "MINE."

Her mother was less than enthusiastic.

Anya's Magic is concentrated on GiftGiving, so she becomes The Helper early on. Ostensibly assisting BeGee in toymaking, and then helping with delivery on the Eve. In reality, she functions as a de facto Belfana, keeping BeGee on track. Which isn't always easy.

She's a popular kid. Everyone loves Anya.

Except her mother.

And things come to a head.

The Triplets / The Glitterbugs / The Triumverate

Not O'Rourkes by birth - they weren't actually birthed in any case, but manifested.

The daughters of the Kingship and Queenship of the Monarchy of Otherville - Vinterland's staunch allies from the Realm next door, these kids appeared in the room when Anya was being born. And they almost didn't fully live.

Annabelle had been through that once. Never again. She revived them by serving as a funnel for Amy's Magic, and through her own willpower.

Snowflake considers them as Ice Princesses. Anya's their ever so slightly older sister. And all four are brought every evening to a certain bookstore in Ohio so their Nanna can read to them.

Rachel, of course, hates them. They're competitors to her daughter, "inferior" as she is, for the Throne of Vinterland.

After the Family has fractured, and Annabelle begins to fade from memory, the Triplets don't forget. They watch the old woman constantly. What is time for beings who live outside of objective reality? They sit and watch game shows with her every night. When she wakes up and doesn't know where she is, she's not alone. And woe betide anyone who isn't kind to her.

And they have plans for Vinterland. That involve making Rachel watch as they destroy the Realm, brick by Magical brick.

Beth

A little girl who has just lost her great-grandmother, and is now unsure of her place in a bizarre Magical land, sneaks into a long-empty room, to sit with the plushie that her Nanna gave her. But instead of finding a chamber filled with old ghosts, she comes face to face with an entity long thought - perhaps hoped- to be gone. And this entity both looks like her plushie, and if you gaze at her just right, a bit like her Nanna.

Bereft of even a formal lastname, this somewhat lost child is taken to a far off Mundane land, to a very old Mundane woman, who  gets to, one last time, Name the youngest member of her House.

Seemingly the weakest of all the "royal" Vinterlanders, this little girl grows up under the tutelage of something from beyond to become...More. 

She never quite gets to BeGee's class. But even the Prime Belfana heeds The Overmother.

Erica:

A woman who very nearly lost everything to a careless action by the O'Rourke Family. She was reduced to questioning her own sanity. Even BeGee could only do so much to alleviate things. Erica should have been her enemy.

But at heart, this was a good person. One who, while hating the very concept of Magic, would recognize the shame being felt by a blue elf over something not her, but her family did. BeGee couldn't bring someone back, but she could make Erica and her family part of her plans for a better Vinterland.

And in a time long after Annabelle's passing, citizens of Vinterland begin using a long dormant title anew for Erica.

She still hates Rachel with an utter passion, though.

Erica never met Annabelle. Their times were far different than each other's. But they exchange Christmas cards every year.

Dutch

Strictly speaking Her Ladyship The Ice Duchess Frances, although she is highly embarrassed by the title and just goes by Dutch. One of Erica's daughters, and BeGee's unofficial great-great niece. She'll never rule Vinterland, at least officially, but in her adulthood has a great deal of influence, both in the castle, and out among the "rank and file" Vinterlanders. Roughhousing with Magical creatures since childhood, she's taken her share of hard knocks and kept getting back up. And she knows more Magic than any Mundane has in many a year.

Bella

Dutch's grand-niece. For all intents and purposes. Her student in the ways of Magic. And basketball.

She's a few other things as well.

She is the Last. And the First. She has held both ends of The Knot.

Rufus

Many years ago, a certain blue elf's less than tidy housekeeping habits attracted a horde of Trash Dragons, roving pests that move between the Magic Realms. After a weeks long effort by the Vinterlandian Department of Public Works and the levying of fines against the Prime Belfana (unpaid to this day) the creatures were finally driven off, save for one runt that was left behind. This little Draco Garbaginus was quickly adopted by BeGee and her "kids" and eventually matured into a one-ton monster with a sweet disposition and the foulest breath imaginable. Perpetually on a diet, he now splits his time between the Royal Castle, Dutch's home, and BeGee's cottage.

The Belfana: A BeGee the Elf Adventure Index