Inej Ghafa

## **Appearance**

Inej has a lean, almost skinny build; all lean muscle and no fat. She's 5'3, has bronze-brown skin, long black hair that she usually wears in a braided coil, and dark brown eyes. She walks with the presence and confidence of someone who's walked the high wire all her life. As the Wraith, she wears a hooded tunic, breeches, knee protectors that hide spikes that emerge when she clicks her ankles together in just the right way (used for both climbing and defense), and a pair of Fabrikator-made leather slippers with nubbed rubber soles specially made for gripping any surface.

## **Powers**

She has no powers as such, though some have speculated that her ability to seemingly appear out of nowhere is some sort of unknown Grisha talent. It isn't. She’s just really good at what she does.

## **Talents**

Inej was trained as acrobat from the time she could walk, and has proficiency with the high wire and trapeze. She honed and built upon these skills as The Wraith, and it's said there's no place she can't get into or out of. She has a knack for going unnoticed; it's not invisibility despite having been described as such by her enemies (and occasionally by her friends). She's good with knives, and while she doesn't generally seek a fight (slavers excepted) she's willing to do what needs to be done. Lockpick aren't her best skill, but give her a couple of minutes and she'll usually come though.

One of her favorite sayings is that as The Wraith, the only law that applies to her is gravity, and sometimes she defies that too.

## **Interests**

The eradication of piracy, her Suli heritage and its saints, improving and demonstrating her skills (and okay, she'd still enjoy performing, given half a chance), and, strangely enough, drinking songs. Don't ask her to sing. She will.

## **History**

Inej was born to a family of travelling acrobats, and grew up travelling in caravans and performing. At the age of 14, she was captured by slavers, and her indenture was sold to The Menagerie, a pleasure house in Ketterdam.

It was there, a year later, that she met Kaz Brekker, who'd come to purchase information from the owner of the house. On impulse, she offered to help him. When he walked away, she assumed he'd rejected her offer; instead, he returned the next day and purchased her indenture. He offered her a choice; she could leave with him and join the Dregs, a street gang where she'd be expected to use her abilities to garner other people's secrets to pay off her contract, or she could stay on at the Menagerie. Unsurprisingly, as she'd already attempted to run away from the Menagerie once, she chose the Dregs. It wasn't long before she became Kaz's best "spider" and the closest thing he had to a confidant, and it was he who nicknamed her The Wraith, saying that every team had spiders, she was something more. It was probably the closest thing to a compliment she'd ever received from him.

Reserved by nature, she never really felt as if she were a part of the group's camaraderie until a few years later, when Kaz invited her in on a job to break into the impenetrable Ice Palace. She was nearly killed in an ambush before the group even left Ketterdam, and found that her teammates were really her friends as well. Despite overwhelming odds, they rescued the scientist (or, well, his son, but let's not quibble over details) who they'd set out to find, and escaped, if not unscathed, then still alive. She planned to use her portion of the take to outfit a ship she'd then use to eradicate piracy one slaver ship at a time.

Unfortunately for the Dregs, it turned out that they'd been played; the alleged representative of the Council of Merchants who'd hired them was playing his own game and had no intention of paying. In fact, it was only contingency planning on Kaz's part that kept the entire group from being killed. Unfortunately for Inej, Kaz chose the crisis to reveal how important she was to him, and the VanEck took her as a hostage.

So Kaz took one of his own, setting into motion an entire new set of events involving foreign governments, phony deaths, schemes and counter schemes. And at the end of the day, they found themselves still alive (with one sad exception) and in possession of the fortune they'd been promised.

Moreover, Kaz found her a ship, and more importantly, found her parents. Inej figured she had everything she'd wanted - or nearly. She'd be back to Ketterdam eventually, back to see Kaz, who was trying to deal with his issues, and time would tell what fate the Saints intended for them.

She never expected fate to lead her to Wall, but two years later, she walked through the door of an inn, excited about her planned reunion with her friend Nina in Ravka, and found herself there instead.

Personality-wise, Inej is reserved, intelligent, and driven. She has a strong faith in the Suni Saints, for whom she has named her knives, and is prone to quoting Suni proverbs when the situation fits - and it fits often. She doesn't have a great deal of faith in people, but will offer her friendship to her teammates - and once she's your friend, you can count on her for anything.