Daenera came from a small village in All About Luingern Province where her father was a tanner.
When she met Bahadur, he was a traveling Trader. Because he was older than her, and he had a wider experience in the world, he had more of an education than she did. To her mind, this made him smarter and more worldly.
Bahadur was smitten with the dark-haired, green-eyed girl.
After they had "known" each other for a year (as much as they could while he roamed the country as a Trader), Bahadur finally asked her father for permission to marry Daenera.
Glad to be rid of another mouth to feed, her father all but shoved her out the door.
Bahadur had bought them a house in southern About Banern Province, in a village called Mooreridden. Calling on a previous skill learned as a youth, he had taken on blacksmithing work so he no longer needed to travel. A holy man who lived in Mooreridden, performed the Marriage Ritual and within a year, Nareese Meridian was born.
A few years later, Naledi was born.
Likely as a result of being in a constant state of poverty when she was growing up, Daenera always looked for what she saw as the finer things in life. She asked for things from Bahadur that were far better than they needed. She wanted fine plates and things to decorate the house to impress her friends, and he argued that they did not need to impress people. Of course, she didn't do this in the early years of their marriage, but around the time that Nareese was born, Daenera began openly coveting and pursuing wealth.
She pushed Bahadur to work harder, and seek out richer clients. By the time Naledi could walk, her parents fought often about money, and their expectations of one another.
One day was Naledi was eight or nine summers old, Daenera met another woman at the market and became friendly with her. They began spending an increasing amount of time together, and after Bahadur left for his forge, Daenera would also leave to go to the home of her friend, Osya Adela, a noblewoman. Old enough to care for little Naledi, Nareese was often left in charge of the house and keeping it up, as well as preparing the meals.
Daenera had become a neglectful mother in pursuit of power and status.
Eventually, Bahadur confronted her, and they argued about that too.
One day, Daenera accused him of not working hard enough and told him she had developed romantic feelings for Osya. Daenera told him she was, in fact, leaving him for Osya, and ignoring the tears of her daughters, left them all.
She never returned, nor inquired after the health of her daughters.
Not even when Bahadur, shamed by his failure to keep his wife, jumped from Mooreridden Falls and took his own life.
Naleedi and Nareese told themselves both their parents were dead.
But did Daenera die, or was she really so cold-hearted that she turned her back completely on her own children?
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