Wheelwalker

**Wheelwalkers** are humans who have the ability to see Grays without any other magical aid, see Grays' memories, and harness their strength and energy. All known Wheelwalkers have been women.

A fully realized Wheelwalker is able to communicate freely with Grays, resist the power of magical compulsion and death words, conjure up a wheel of blue flames, resist possession by spirits, harness the magical energy of multiple Grays and correspondingly, can call forward Grays to her aid. Wheelwalkers have the ability to consume a person's soul whole in order to extend their lifespan, leaving their victim's body a husk.

## Origins

The origins of Wheelwalkers are unknown. Whether, throughout history, women have randomly discovered they had this ability to see Grays, or alternatively, there was some sort of ritual or pact or magical phenomena in ancient times, the origins of Wheelwalkers remain a mystery.

This mystery ties into the uncertainty of whether the status of being a Wheelwalker is hereditary or if the powers emerge naturally.

## Abilities

### Power

Wheelwalkers have the innate ability to see Grays in full color without magical aid and see memories of their life. Other aspects of their power as Wheelwalkers can be fully realized through a combination of strong emotional drive and a general mastery over their abilities.

This power includes the ability to harness the supernatural strength, aggression, speed, and resilience of a Gray as well as being able to talk to them freely (without the aid of liquid surfaces), see their memories, and absorb their knowledge. A fully realized Wheelwalker is able to resist the power of magical compulsion and death words, resist possession of Grays, conjure up a wheel of blue flames, harness the magical energy of multiple Grays and correspondingly, can call forward spirits to her aid.

### Lifespan

To extend their lifespan, Wheelwalkers have the ability to consume a person's soul whole, leaving their victim's body a husk and their soul unable to go to its afterlife. Wheelwalkers simply have to reach out their arm and hook the person's soul to them; with the additional advantage of being able to mimic the person's natural cause of death. A normal person's soul is enough to sustain a Wheelwalker for years. By eating a soul of their own kind—another Wheelwalker—a Wheelwalker would be sustained for fifty years before becoming hungry again.

As a result of the violence inherent to consuming a soul, a nexus is formed at the site of the killing.

### Connection to New Haven

Once a Wheelwalker takes the path of extended mortality, they can no longer leave New Haven without starting to decay. This is credited to the fact that New Haven has a large concentration of magic unlike anywhere else.

## Physiology

Wheelwalkers are of the human species. Beyond their ability to see and interact with Grays, there is little to no difference between them and the average human being.

Interestingly, Daisy and Alex are both described as being 'wrapped in night' in which they are distinguished from being an ordinary, average human being. For example, the spirit that kills Daisy senses something more about her, causing him to panic and shoot her.

> *“There was a gun in his hand and a woman was screaming. She was pleading. But she wasn’t a woman; she was something terrible. He could see night gathered around her. The boys had sent her to bring him back so they could cut him open again.”*
>
>

With Alex, this description is first applied to her by Darlington at the Manuscript party. While he was drugged at the time, Manuscript magic—illusory magic—works with what is already there*.* Darlington thinks about this hallucination, or vision, again at Rosenfeld Hall:

> *He remembered her at the Manuscript party, shrouded in night, and had to blink twice to shake the image from his mind. It wasn’t the first time the memory had come back to him, and he was always left uneasy, unsure of whether it was the shame of that night that lingered or if he’d seen something real, something he should have had the sense to look away from.”*
>
>

## Known Wheelwalkers

* Alex Stern
* Daisy Fanning-Whitlock
* Sophie Mishkan
* Colina Tillman

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 *Ninth House* Chapter 31 (Early Spring)
2. ↑ Alex wonders if her grandmother Estrea Stern knew how to protect her from Grays or perhaps her unknown father could do what she does
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 *Ninth House* Chapter 19 (last summer)
4. ↑ Ninth House Chapter 32 (Spring)
5. ↑ Ninth House Chapter 21 (Winter)
6. ↑ Ninth House Chapter 10 (last Fall)
7. ↑ Ninth House Chapter 18 (Last Fall)