Saffron

Saffron (better known as the Tideseer) is the sister of Indigo (The Blue Queen) and a mysterious, half-fish, half-women being that lives in a cave on the windswept coastal shores next to the crags of Cruelcliff and answers three questions of all those seeking truth in exchange for three facts she has never heard before, a almost impossible task, since, as her name suggests, quickly or slowly, the winds and waters of Rondo eventually bring all secrets great and small to the Tideseer.

History
Long ago, at the beginning of Rondo, when the world was still young and when only the Terlemaines trod the earth among the trees of Old Forest and the Ancient One dreamed alone above the Rondo clouds, the Artist made the wild coast, and two twin female beings of great beauty to share it, Saffron and Indigo.

One sister wore the colour of the orange-yellow sand and the other wore the colour of the deep indigo sea, but otherwise they were as alike as two peas in a pod. But the sister who wore the colour of the seas found this displeasing. She was jealous and could not bear her beauty to be matched by the beauty of another. So one day, when the tide was high, Saffron was invited by her rival to see the shimmering ocean from the top of the headland known as Cruelcliff, and pushed by her sister over the edge, into the boiling foam of the crashing sea below.

But the sister who fell from Cruelcliff did not drown. The sea saw her beauty and her terror, and to save her life it changed her. It fused her legs together into a tail, webbed her hands and opened gills in her smooth white neck. Her white-gold hair turned green as seaweed, and her blood chilled till it was like cool arctic water in her veins. She swam away from the rocks and felt more freedom than she had ever felt on land, and as she swam the sea whispered to her with many voices, telling her many things.

As the world grew beneath the Artist's brush, Indigo, who was in a different place, and was on the point of gaining the love of the king and the crown and castle she had always desired, began to hear rumors of a mysterious being known as the Tideseer who haunted Cruelcliff at low tide. This being, she heard, part-fish, part-human, was full of knowledge and answered the questions of all seekers after truth.

Filled with dread, the murderous twin traveled back to the place where she had first drawn breath. And there, in a shadowed sea cave filled with the sound of water, she found her sister waiting for her.

The sisters no longer looked alike. The Tideseer's face showed the marks left by the passing of the years. She was thin as bone, and pale as the belly of a fish. Her eyes had altered so she could no longer see on land. The glittering tail that swept her so effortlessly through the roughest storm waves had changed back to weak and slender land legs with the slow ebbing of the tide. But the murdering sister quailed, for she could see that the Tideseer knew her, and knew besides every cruel and wicked thing she had done since last they met, from the smallest to the greatest.

"Do not dare betray me, or I will destroy you!" she cried, though she could feel the Tideseer's power, and was well aware that she did not yet have the strength to carry out her threat.

The Tideseer's smile was as cold as the thin sea blood that tricked through her veins. "It is not my business to betray you, any more than it is the business of the tide to knock down castles of sand built on the shore", she answered. "It may happen, but then again, it may not. The tide does not ebb and flow as it pleases, but must follow the patterns laid down for it. So I may gather knowledge, but I can give it only to those who ask for it. The right question must be asked of me before I can do you harm." "No doubt you await that question eagerly!" the murdering sister spat in a rage-filled reply. "But it will never come. I will see to it that this place remains dangerous and desolate, the haunt of ogres, shunned by all but fishermen and fools. And you will grow older and uglier by the day."

"So will you my sister," Saffron replied. "In the eyes of truth, at least."

The tide by this tide, by this time, was rising. The waves began to beat on the rocks of Cruelcliff, and the cave began to beat on the rocks of Cruelcliff, and the cave began to flood. The wicked sister was forced to escape to land or be drowned, and the Tideseer, her tail and sight renewed, swam back out to the welcoming sea.

Ever since that day, the sisters have lived like two sides of the same coin, aware of each other but never again meeting face to face. But when the sea tells her it is time, the Tideseer still comes to her cave among the Cruelcliff rocks, and waits for the seeker after the truth who will ask her the one question she most desires to hear. A question only she can answer. A question by which she can at last betray her murdering sister. The true name of the being people were now calling the Blue Queen. Despite never meeting once again, after gaining the Key to Rondo and the beginning of the Dark Time the Blue Queen made several attempts to destroy her hated twin, but thanks to the aid of the wind and sea, Saffron was able to escape from her clutches every time.

At some point in time, the Tideseer became good friends with a female golden dragoness, often seeing her while she was fishing, during one of her fishings, the Tideseer also told her of the Gap located in her and her mate's lair exiting by the sea. She also apparently employed the Magic Fish as her questioners guide to her sea-cave.