Hessa

**Hessa** is a peasant girl with a withered leg and Quantal traits, who Nona Grey first meets in Giljohn’s cage. The pair both end up in the convent of Sweet Mercy, where they become very close friends.

## Appearance and Personality

Hessa is a small, bony girl with straw coloured hair in tight curls. She has a withered leg, and walks with a crutch.

Hessa has strong Quantal traits. She’s a sweet and quiet girl, but very clever and something of a prodigy at Quantal Thread-work. She and Nona eventually develop a particularly strong friendship, and become Thread-Bonded.

## History

Hessa is a peasant girl, who was sold by her poverty-sticken parents to the child-taker for a clipped penny. In Giljohn’s cage, Hessa often entertains the other children with stories. She forms a curious connection with Nona Grey, recognising in her the same Quantal traits. In Verity, Giljohn  tries to sell Hessa to The Academy and to three different mages, but they find her unsuitable for their work. She is still in the cage when Markus is sold to High Priest Jacob, and witnesses the ugly incident that occurs. When the mule Four-Foot bites the priest, he insists on buying it, which Giljohn only agrees to with great reluctance. Jacob then beats Four-Foot to death while Markus tries to ease the poor animal’s suffering. Somehow, Hessa ends up at the convent of Sweet Mercy.

### *Red Sister*

At the convent, Hessa is enrolled in Red Class. A sickly child, she spends much of her initial time in the sanatorium. When she’s finally released from the care of Sister Rose, she finds that Nona has also joined the convent. One night after a nightmare, Hessa calls Nona outside and uses her skill with Threads to show her what happened to Markus and Four-Foot. This experience establishes the Thread-Bond between the two novices, who afterwards regularly share dreams.

Although Hessa can’t participate in Red Class because of her leg, she proves something of a prodigy at Quantal Thread-work. She spends a lot of time with Sister Pan, and in her own private study. When High Priest Jacob comes to Sweet Mercy, and puts both Abbess Glass and Nona on trial, it is Hessa who volunteers to participate in the Shield Trial. Nona is shocked by this, not having realised that the pair had become strong friends. Through her Hunska speed, Nona amazingly survives the trial against three projectiles: a spear, a throwing-star, and an arrow. Hessa escapes unharmed, other than falling over when she feels the pain of the arrow hitting Nona.

Nearly two years later, Hessa graduates to Grey Class. When she first joins, the class bully Darla gives her a beating, but Nona takes some revenge on her when she joins some months later. Sister Pan eventually takes her three Quantal novices - Hessa, Nona and Arabella – to The Academy. The Sweet Mercy novices are to face off against Academy students and Ancestor brotherhood novices. The first contest is between Hessa and Chara, another girl from Giljohn’s cage. Chara is able control fire, but Hessa defeats her using her Thread-Work.

When Nona learns that Yisht is trying to steal Sweet Mercy’s Shipheart, Hessa urges her to tell the Abbess. However, Nona and the other novices insist on dealing with her themselves, subduing her and shipping her to Durn in a wine-barrel. However, while the others are away from the convent on the Ranging, Yisht returns which Hessa senses. Sending one of the other novices to warn Abbess Glass, Hessa makes her laborious way through the caves to the Shipheart cavern. Yisht has made extraordinary progress in her excavations, and Hessa realises that she’s a Marjal Rock-Worker, whose abilities are enhanced by proximity to the Shipheart.

Dropping down into the cavern, Hessa finds the corpse of Sister Flint, who has been killed by Yisht. As Yisht reaches the Shipheart and begins tunnelling away, Hessa pulls on all her threads, hurling her back. However, Hessa doesn’t have the ruthlessness to kill Yisht outright, and giving her the chance to collapse the cave on Hessa. Nona has seen all this from the Ranging through her Thread-Bond with Hessa. She uses her Flaw-Blades to cut away her shadow, and calls on Hessa’s help to pull it through. Nona’s shadow leaps from Hessa and begins attacking Yisht. Even so, Nona can feel Hessa fading as she dies.

The pain of Hessa’s death fuels Nona to be able to defeat the Tacsis soldiers and eventually Raymel Tacsis himself.