The Oleai (olei), or more accurately a militant sect of them led by Sh'shari, have been ramping up for another attempt at Amber. (Their last being known as the Moonrider invasion because of their white armor with the sphere emblem) The Oleai can not tolerate long periods in Shadow, a discomfort made worse the closer one gets to Amber. This was a significant factor in the last invasion and considerable effort has gone into coming up with a solution to this disadvantage.

Sh'tora, the leader of the last failed invasion attempted to find a solution near the end of the war by entering Amber by Stealth and approaching Dworkin in the guise of a Unicorn. Seducing him in this form she hoped to conceive a child containing aspects of both the Oleai and their Sign modified descendants. Perhaps such a child could then provide a template for the modification of the existing Oleai, allowing them to enter or at least better tolerate the Shadowlands.

The seduction was successful, although Dworkin was not fooled he allowed Sh'tora to believe he was. He did not know of the Oleai at the time he drew the Pattern and has felt remorse for their fate. More pragmatically, he knows that unless a permanent solution is found, the cycles of invasion will continue until one finally succeeds. He hopes to use the child not as a weapon to facilitate the Oleai invasion, but as a bridge to bring them into the Shadowlands as full participants.

Sh'tora traveled into Shadow and birthed the child there, the strain of the childbirth combined with Shadowsickness killing her. Without her leadership the already failing invasion quickly disintegrated. The child was moved to an extremely slow time Shadow by the few Oleai who knew of her existence, to allow the Oleai time to regroup but still keeping the child young and malleable.

More conservative elements reclaimed leadership in the Oleai and plans of further invasion subsided. The girl (Dalena) not widely known of, was all but forgotten.

Eventually rebellious factions of the Oleai began to rise, polarizing around Sh'shari. This was catalysed when the Patternfall war created the creation wave and for a brief moment some of the old Oleai were shown to have survived in a form of stasis and may be able to be revived if the Pattern were to be removed. The keepers of Dalena did not support Sh'shari's extremism and decided to move the girl to Amber, out of Sh'shari's knowledge and clutches. Only one of the keepers entered Amber to get her situated, the True Realm was particularly uncomfortable and the errand thought simple.

It was not. Dalena and her nurse were set upon and the nurse, (Akale), was killed. The girl was found by an Amber Guardsman named Merik, he attempted to take her to the Church of the Unicorn but was seen by Father Phillip who saw the Helm of Sh'tora and remembered the Prophesy of Pernick Malibine, (See The Prophesy). He arranged to meet Merik and convinced him that Dalena was an illegitimate royal. He did not reveal his identity, wearing disguise and claiming to represent "Forces in the Court" who were interested in the girl's welfare. He implored him to keep and raise the child, claiming the royals would surely kill her were her identity known, and giving him the Totality Emblem from Sh'tora's helm, telling him that when the emblem met it's mount, he would know the girl's benefactor.

Merik was dismissed from the Guard some years later right before the Pattern Fall wars when a sub-priest went through Father Phillip's desk and found part of his notes on the affair. He went to Eric who confronted Merik on the matter, believing the child to be an illegitimate. Merik refused to speak on the matter, claiming it was personal and was saved from more drastic measures by Father Phillip who intervened and claimed he knew of the child and knew she was not related to the royals. This dropped the matter for Eric for the short term, who had other matters on his mind and was not in a position to oppose the Church at that time. But Merik was dismissed for his impudence in refusing to fully answer a question posed by his superior and Eric made clear that his mind was not fully at ease on the matter.

The priest in question was assigned to a far province. He never arrived.

When Eric was crowned Merik knew all bets were off. He still believed Dalena to be a royal and managed to sneak her into the Pattern room and watch her walk it, successfully. He gave her the leather pouch containing the artifact his contact told him was Dalena would know her benefactor. The Totality Emblem, (a flat white sphere, like a moon), from Sh'tora's helm.