Zole

**Zole** is a girl from the ice-tribes, and the ward of the emperor’s sister Sherzal, who enrolls her in the convent of Sweet Mercy for mysterious reasons. Zole is eventually revealed to be a Four-Blood, something virtually unheard of in history. Because of this she is widely believed to be the prophesied Chosen One.

## Appearance and Personality

Zole is a dark haired girl, with the broad cheekbones of the ice-tribes and eyes like black-stones. She is eventually revealed to be a Four-Blood, possessing the traits of all of the four tribes of men, something that is virtually unheard of in history. Her Gerant blood has not yet begun to show, and she is not particularly tall. Zole has none of the normal Threads that most people have, only the deepest and most fundamental ones, something Sister Pan has never seen before.

Zole is extremely taciturn, rarely speaking and then usually less than a half-dozen words. She’s also very unemotional and driven, merciless with an opponent and fighting-on no matter the consequences.

## History

Zole’s past is a mystery. Sherzal claims that she is the only survivor from the town of Ytis after a Scithrowl incursion, but this is almost certainly untrue. Presumably, Sherzal’s soldiers and Thread-Worker hunted her out, in much the same way as they hunted for Nona Grey in her village. Sherzal has adopted her as a ward, and had her trained in various fight styles by teachers including Safira and the Noi-Guin.

### *Red Sister*

Some two years after Nona joins Sweet Mercy, Sherzal pays a visit to the convent, wanting Zole to join as a novice. While Abbess Glass tries to refuse, High Priest Nevis insists. The emperor’s sister also asks to see Nona and Zole fight. Both are Hunska primes, and the fight ensues at lightning speed. However, Zole knows moves that Nona doesn’t, beating her and then raining kicks on her prone opponent. With no one seeming keen to end the fight, Arabella Jotsis steps forward having walked The Path. Ordering Zole to stop, she shows her power by destroying one of the practice dummies. High Priest Nevis is not amused, and orders Ara punished. However, Sherzal has her own suggestion, that Nona as supposedly the Shield should take the whipping, a practice common among The Sis. Despite her injuries Nona agrees and receives twenty strokes of the wire cane. As she’s led off from the Blade-Hall to the Sanatorium, Nona flashes Zole a bloody grin, and sees in her eye something that might be respect.

Zole is enrolled in the convent in Grey Class, and her bodyguard Yisht is allowed to stay in the guesthouse. Zole doesn’t make any friends in Sweet Mercy, but proves a gifted student, particularly at Blade-Class. Zole wins a place on the Caltess Forging, along with Nona and Clera, where they to pit their skills against the trainee and apprentice ring-fighters. Yet, even Zole proves no match for the apprentices, but stubbornly fights-on in her final bout and getting badly injured.

Meanwhile, Abbess Glass is curiously tolerant of the strange behaviour of Yisht, fearing that otherwise Sherzal will take-back Zole from the Ancestor Church. Nona eventually discovers that Yisht is trying to steal the convent’s Shipheart, which she eventually succeeds in doing.

During the annual Ranging, Zole, Nona and the other Grey Class novice must cross open country alone from Harran Fens to the Kring. Zole is accompanied by her new bodyguard Tarkax the Ice-Spear. After the novices become split-up in an ice-storm, they realise that the region is full of men who seem to be Durnish raiders. Eventually Zole, Nona, Ara, Clera, Darla, Ruli, and Jula gather in a cave with Tarkax for protection, who explains that the men are in fact Tacsis soldiers disguised as raiders. Eventually the twelve soldiers surround the cave. As they are preparing to fight them, Clera reveals herself to be a traitor, poisoning Tarkax, Ara, and Zole before the others manage to subdue her. Despite their losses, Nona insists on fighting anyway. Using a combination of her Hunska speed, Path energy, and her Flaw-Blades, Nona tears apart the soldiers, and then eventually succeeds in killing Raymel Tacsis himself, thanks to Yisht's Amulet of Negation.

### *Grey Sister*

Zole is now widely rumoured to be the Argatha, the prophesied four-blood Chosen One. She graduates from Grey Class on the same day as Nona, with the nuns seemingly keen to keep the two novices together. Upon joining Mystic Class, Nona immediately gets into a feud with another novice, Joeli Namsis. Joeli eventually brings Nona up on charges of brutally attacking her, before Abbess Glass and the other nuns. Zole is brought in as a witness, but insists that there was no brutal attack, despite the fact that she didn't see the whole event. It seems that Nona and Zole have slowly become friends. Later, Zole surprising Nona by warning her to hide the Demon Keot better; Demons are known to the people on the ice as the Klaulathu. She also promises to help Nona learn to live on the ice during the Ice Ranging. She even knows Nona well enough to know the day she'll attempt the Shade-Trial, the day that Darla and Zole are not on guard duty, because she "*would not strike against a friend, Nona Grey.*”

Meanwhile Sherzal has adopted Zole in an effort order to reclaim her from Sweet Mercy, since according to the Ancestor Church a parent's rights have primacy. However, Abbess Glass refuses to hand over the girl and Zole herself insists she wants to remain at the convent. One seven-day, Arabella invites Nona and Zole to come with her to Verity, to visit her friend Terra Mensis, with Sister Kettle tasked with escorting them. However, at the bottom of the Vinery Stair, they encounter a throng of pilgrims eager to see Zole, as the supposed Chosen One. This causes Zole to panic and flee back to the convent. It also prevents Safira from kidnapping her for Sherzal, having infiltrated the Memsis house disguised as a servant.

When the Inquisition descend on Sweet Mercy, Nona is forced to flee the convent to escape punishment for breaking convent rules by exploring the undercaves. Nona is eventually imprisoned by the Noi-Guin who have been tracking her for years for Thuran Tacsis. Zole secretly follows Sister Kettle as she attempts to rescue her. Near the Tetragode where Nona is imprisoned, Kettle is ambushed by a group of Lightless but is saved by Zole. The nun and novice come up with a plan to sneak into the Tetragode, with Kettle disguised as a Lightless with a prisoner, and Zole using Thread-Work to trick the guards. The plan works until they encounter a full Noi-Guin who Zole cannot manipulate. He is only one man, so Zole distracts the Lightless and kills him. Kettle and Zole then flee into the Tetragode, knowing his death will have raised an alarm. Eventually they split up, with Zole tasked with raising a distraction, so that Kettle can rescue Nona. Zole's distraction is eventually revealed to be stealing the Noi-Guin Shipheart. When Nona and Kettle along with Abbess Glass try to escape Sherzal's palace, Zole helps them, causing the hillside to collapse using Rock-Work fueled by the Shipheart and obliterating the soldiers pursuing them. When Zole emerges from the rubble, Nona can see that she has become possessed by a Demon from contact with the Shipheart.