| “ | You always said I could see the present, but I can see nothing about her—my own daughter. | ” |
| — Candle regarding her daughter, Rain[src] | ||
Cantle Osqa'ami (almost always referred to as Candle) is a Quadling women who rarely speaks, but originally only in her native tongue, Qua'ati (though she understands other speech). A gifted musician, as a girl she was left at the Cloister of St. Glinda by her uncle with a promise to return in a year or so, however, she would later marry Liir and have a daughter with him named Rain.
She is a character featured exclusively in the novels, appearing in Son of a Witch and Out of Oz.
Son of a Witch[]
Raised in Ovvels, as a child, Candle hunted charfish with a spear, and like most of Quadling Country, her settlement had become economically blighted in the decades of the Wizard’s ascendancy over Oz. Her father having died and her mother being rather wiftier than was useful in a wife, led Candle to travel with her uncle and other family members trying their luck as itinerants. She was ultimately left at the Cloister of Saint Glinda by her uncle, where she ended up working in the kitchen under Sister Cook.
At the start of the novel, Candle is a novice who is tasked by the maunts to ease a comatose Liir’s passage into death. Using an instrument called the Domignion, which is unique to Quadling people, Candle nurses Liir back to life but not before sleeping with him in his comatose state, which leads to her getting pregnant. After he wakes up, the pair hide at the Apple Press Farm, thanks to some guidance from Mother Yackle. Candle would later give birth to their daughter, whom she would name “Oziandra”.
In order to protect Oziandra from the Emperor's forces, who were hunting for the family, as a diversion, Candle took a bundle of rags, which she passed off as the baby, and left her behind for Liir to find. After washing her off, Liir discovered she had "cleaned up green".
Eventually the family is reunited, and while wandering with Liir and baby Oziandra, they meet a serpent who has the power to change skin tone. It is decided that the child would bear Liir’s pale skin tone, which was the same as the majority of the population of Oz. Candle and Liir then give their child to Glinda to be kept safe from the forces of the Emperor and Oziandra would later come to be known as “Rain”.
Out of Oz[]
In Out of Oz Candle and Liir are eventually reunited with Rain, though Candle’s relationship with her daughter appears to be uncomfortable at first do to Rain’s formative years being spent apart from her family.
Candle, Liir, Rain, and Liir’s half-sister Illianora settle in the Vinkus at a place called Nether How where they build a house for themselves. Rain lives there for about three years, becoming closer to her family. Their stay comes to an end one day when Iskinaary informs Liir about the bounty out for the Grimmerie and the possibility of the Emperor wanting to find Rain. The family then leaves and separates; Candle and Liir head for Kiamo Ko, while Illianora takes Rain to Shiz to enroll her at St. Prowd's, a seminary school, in order to protect her identity once more.
Candle would later participate in the final parlay between the Emperor and Mombey in the Emerald City. In the end, Candle and her family return to Nether How, but after one year her and Liir’s relationship ends in divorce and Candle leaves Nether How, much to Rain’s sadness. While it is unknown where Candle situates herself after leaving Liir, it is later revealed in The Witch of Maracoor, that Candle still visits Liir at Nether How from time to time to make sure he is okay and to also catch up. She also plays the domignion for him during these visits too before eventually leaving again.
Description[]
Candle doesn’t have the typical ruddy skin coloring as most Quadlings, as her skin is less red and more umber in color. She is described as having a pleasing face, proportioned along hair the color of oakhair nut with a broad brow, high cheekbones, sweet swollen cheeks, and a small but firm chin.
Trivia[]
- She has a "talent for reading the present."