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this is 100% canon!!
okay so for some reason i headcanon skulduggery's wife as being called annalise? idk that's just what i call her in my head so that's what i'll call her here
annalise was caught up in the war early - by the time she was fourteen, she was helping her father (kenspeckle grouse) with healing wounded mages, and in herself was a pretty good healer. during this time, she meets skulduggery; a couple of years older, ran away from home and met ghastly on the way, and they signed up for the war together
things are dire, everyone knows too well that each day may be their last and annalise and skulduggery are close. in a relationship, in fact.
skulduggery comes close to dying one day, and annalise brings him back from the brink of death. at this stage, he's eighteen, she's sixteen. he proposes where he is, and as a spur of the moment thing, she says yes.
the wedding is messy and fast and barely a ceremony, but they're in love and everything is such a brash decision now that they want to savour their relationship for as long as they can. everything is good, or something.
annalise starts to get caught up with everything - she's struggling to find a purpose to this war, she's eighteen years old and married for two and watching her husband be battered to bits on a regular basis and going through that too, she's seeing death and blood and gore and everything awful around her and she's just so sick of it and wants it to end.
slowly, the idea of the church of the faceless starts to appeal to her. she was brought up in it as a child, her mother's family devout worshippers before her father took her away. it's something familiar enough that it's impossible not to fall back into.
slowly, she becomes more desperate. finds herself flitting between sides secretly, finds herself on mevolent's side. it was never supposed to be like this, but now she's her own faceless one - nobody knows what she looks like. she's simply a name, someone spoken about from the shadows, managing to push herself into power. nobody knows what she looks like, only that she is powerful and devout and someone who knows secrets, who holds knowledge.
skulduggery is clueless, unknowing about the way his wife leaves his side on "missions" and comes back, only for the church to have gained information, power - all from the hands of this unknown woman.
rumours, of course, start to spread. they say she is too beautiful to look at, and that is why she stays hidden. she must be older than time itself to have all of this information, and yet looks so young. she flits through mevolent's castle, seen as nothing more than a low-ranking convert, unknown and worthless. nobody associates the name known by all with that young, young face.
annalise is nineteen, and wakes, one day, to her lover's dead body beside her. she is alive, and realises that someone must know. this is a warning.
within two days, she is back at her husband's side, saying nothing about where she was. nine months later, the baby comes.
it has been three years. there is still that unknown enemy, the woman with a face beautiful enough to make men give their lives for her, and yet it is a face known by none. their daughter is three, now, and looks nothing like skulduggery. annalise knows that he'll start to suspect soon, knows that his suspicion of her unfaithfulness to him could lead to more.
one night, she leaves. releases her reflection, her child's reflection, orders them to hide until the time is right. and annalise runs.
three days of travel, alone, her child in her arms. three days and she meets a witch, offers her a deal.
a new face. a new face, one which will make men give their lives for her. a new identity, a new life.
“and,” says the witch, “what will i gain in return?”
her magic. her healing. she is young, only had her surge a year ago, and yet she is strong. stronger than she should be.
the witch accepts, and annalise brings her reflection to mevolent's castle, lures skulduggery in, and watches him die.
perhaps, in a few hundred years, she will allow herself to feel remorse. but not now. for now, she has power and a new identity to fill.
years pass. the child picks the name solace, and when skulduggery pleasant meets china sorrows for the first time, he notices her eyes. they are beautiful, a pale blue, just like his wife's once were.
four hundred years later, china still finds herself looking at her husband for longer than she should.