A legend of the second civilizational period of Villanova tells of the life of Anzia of Kalidri, whose name, in ancient Tavoran, translates approximately to "Rainshadow". In that time, the Tavoran empire was a collection of duchies united under the First Dynasty, and each was responsible for supplying a levy of armed forces to the crown, not just ground troops but naval and air squadrons as well. The sons of the lords and the lesser nobility had the duty of leading these fighting units, and the young Lord Derev, son of the Marquess of Gellenras, was assigned to command the air levy of his father's domain. But as he was human, he would require a mount, a 'craft of one of the fighting races - brave, hardy, intelligent and unswervingly loyal. In the years before his son came of age, the Marquess and his vassals searched the realm before locating an orphan of a rare mountain fighter breed, in the southern end of the Kalidri range. This child the Marquess claimed and marked for his own house, personally daubing her cheeks with the double slashes of a hereditary retainer of Gellenras. He also gave her a legitimate name, Anzia, after the desert in the lee of the mountains. Anzia was then placed with an aircraft vassal's family for her upbringing and education, which went on for several years before she was finally presented to Derev on the occasion of his agecoming.

In the interval before this day, Anzia had been converted into a "Charger", with a rear cockpit that could accommodate a human, and transmit communication and guidance cues. To be the personal armed bond-warrior of a noble was considered a high honor for a commoner, and she had accepted her destiny. Lord Derev had everything that went with being an extroverted young man, for good or ill, but Anzia's introspective and contemplative viewpoint was just what he needed to balance him. If his father had anticipated that Anzia's influence would make a better man of his eldest son, his instincts had proven right. After several years of service together, they now led the armed air squadrons of Gellenras, and had successfully defended their turf in a number of military engagements under the harshest of conditions. But Anzia and her rare capabilities had caught the eye of the old Empress, who requested that the fighter be transferred to the Crown's Own Squadron. As it was under the command of aircraft nobility, there were no charger teams in those ranks, and Derev, now expected to take on greater duties in his father's house, could not accompany her. To Anzia, this was a shock after being in an intense partnership for so long. Though she submitted to this new direction with a stoic mien, her discreet manner concealed a deep distress that revealed itself mainly in sleep problems and lack of appetite. There is speculation that Anzia may have had food allergies aggravated by the sudden change of diet, but this, so far, is unconfirmed.

It wasn't long before it became apparent that Anzia's reassignment had an ulterior motive: Empress Kasia III was a woman who took an intense interest in the personal lives of the higher members of her court, and had plans for the old commander of the royal squadron, who had recently retired. He had been widowed for some years, and Kasia did not approve of the old fighter rattling around his estate by himself. The Tavoran monarchs of that period could and did arrange marriages among court nobles, for political and other reasons. Anzia, being in the peak of womanhood, was considered to be a fine consolation for a lonely old man, whether they really desired the union or not. So, by order of the Empress, they were married in a court ceremony attended by nobles and notables of all the races. However, after drinking her "marriage cup", Anzia became violently ill, and vomited out the ceremonial cognac, and the rest of the contents of her stomach. She then spent the rest of the night in the royal airport infirmary while the groom and wedding guests were left to contemplate this possible bad omen. The rest of it didn't get much better; intimate relations were physically painful for Anzia, to the bafflement of the empire's finest doctors and technicians and the chagrin of her husband, once he discovered the agonies Anzia was concealing from him. But all of those discomforts paled in comparison to the night she finally conceived, and was overcome by pain that would have been the death of her if the court empaths hadn't placed her in an induced coma for the duration of her pregnancy. Anzia delivered a son, who was taken to be reared by her husband's relatives while she was brought slowly out of the coma.

Empath-induced comas had one major drawback - the longer one is maintained, the greater the chance of memory loss, with the most recent memories going first. Anzia came out of it with no recollection of the last three years, no trace of memory of her time in the royal squadron or her marriage or pregnancy. It was decided to quietly annul the marriage and conceal from her that she had ever given birth. As they were unsure of Anzia's state of mind, the royal doctors had her moved out to a residence in the far corner of the royal reserve surrounding the airport, with a pitty couple as caregivers. It was there that Derev finally found her again, and now that the old empress had finally passed on, he could move Anzia back to his family estate to recover with familiar faces around her. In time, the mystery of her ancestral origins reared its head once again, and once her strength was back, Anzia and Derev returned to the Kalidri mountains to find out who she really was. Legend had it that aircraft of the "God Lines" were unable to experience physical intimacy or pregnancy with those outside their breed without pain, and they were now considered extinct, but if there was one still alive, there could be others... and even the dangers of the barbarian mountains and the threats lying just beyond them wouldn't be enough to keep Anzia and Derev from finding them.