Zia Rashid

**Zia Rashid** is a female magician and a powerful scribe of the House of Life. She was the favored one of Ra and hosted Nephthys when Julius Kane freed the five children of Nut and Geb.

## Personality

Zia is highly intelligent, and is often harsh, determined, and single-minded, making her an excellent fighter and strategist. She is also, however, passionate, holds her dear ones close to her heart, and possess a warm, soft and more vulnerable side that she rarely allows to show. Carter is likely one of the few to ever have seen it, though indirectly being as it was still only her *shabti*. Zia may at times become scared, intimidated, and frightened.

She fears that she is unworthy, not ready, and not strong enough to accept her responsibility as Ra's host. After kissing Carter, she tells him she fears getting close to people as everyone she cared about deeply (Iskandar, her parents) have died, though Carter apparently helps her get past this.

## Appearance

Zia is described as being very beautiful with "vaguely Arabic" features and straight, jet black hair cut at her jawline, Egyptian-style. By *The Serpent's Shadow*, Zia grows her hair out down to her shoulders. Her skin is caramel-colored and her eyes are startling amber and lined with *kohl*. When she is furious, Zia's eyes look like they "might ignite". She wears loose linen clothing and Egyptian perfume.

Later, Zia is often seen wearing white linen and camouflage outfits. She has been described as "both beautiful and dangerous". According to Carter, she looks like Queen Nefertiti, with her high cheek bones and bright red lips. After being given the last Khepri beetle by Ra, Zia wears it as a necklace which allows her to channel Ra's power. Even after Ra merges with Khepri and is reborn, Zia is still seen wearing this scarab necklace.

## Powers & Abilities

### Powers

* **Egyptian Magic**: Zia is an extremely skilled magician of the House of Life and specializes in the element of fire. She is skilled in general combat as well and seems to be adept in terms of strategy. Her position in the House of Life is the scribe, meaning she is just beneath the Chief Lector's ranks. Ra, the sun god, recognized her potential and she later became the Eye of Ra, fighting Apophis quite well along with the other gods.
	+ **Fire Magic**: Zia was a Fire Elementalists with an immense specialty using fire-based magic. The fact that she can cast the Pillar of Fire, the strongest technique a fire mage could create, to trail Desjardins proves that she is a master of fire. However, Zia collapsed after the incantation, and was powerless the next hours. She can also absorb fire into her staff with a command word. When she fought Serqet, Carter describes that she left a trail of flames wherever she moved. Zia is also strong enough to destroy two hotels shortly after coming out of a three-month coma. Zia can also put greater energy into her fire magic to make her fireballs white-hot and thus, cause greater damage to her opponents.
	+ **Divine Words**: Since she is the former scribe of the First Nome, thus directly beneath the Chief Lector's ranks, Zia can speak a good number of Divine Words. Throughout the books, she has been shown to speak six Divine Words: *A'max, W'peh, Sahad, Heqat, Tas,* and *l'mun.* However, it is presumed that Zia can speak more words of power than shown although does not use it, preferring to use fire magic instead.
	+ **Hieroglyphic Spells**: Like the magicians of the House of Life, Zia can use hieroglyphic spells. When shabti Zia taught Carter and Sadie, she displayed a good knowledge of the principles of magic and hieroglyphs. Zia is a former scribe of the First Nome so it is presumed that she can write hieroglyphic spells and use them to a proficient extent.
	+ **Magical Persuasion**: By lacing her words with magic, Zia can force her opponents to talk to her. She displays this in the Red Pyramid when she commands Sadie to tell her where Amos was. Sadie described it as an uncomfortable pressure that was building up inside her, similar to a burp trying to get free. Zia displayed it later when she convinced the mortals in Luxor, Egypt, to leave since Carter and Sadie would fight, claiming that mortal minds were very easy to manipulate. This was never seen again in the book.
	+ **Portal Summoning**: Zia shows that she can summon portals and is moderately good at them. She speaks *W'peh,* the Divine Word for 'Open', so the portals open at their auspicious moment. Zia mentions that there is a calendar with the activation times and that she memorized it after several years, something Sadie found very difficult to believe. Later, Zia created a portal to Luxor for the duel between Sadie and Carter.
	+ **Scrying**: Zia learned how to scry as an initiate, and communicated with Carter during the six-month gap between. She can show something like a video to the person she is talking with, like when showing Carter Jacobi's speech.
	+ **Seven Ribbons of Hathor**: A very famous spell used by Zia is the Seven Ribbons of Hathor, which she uses to cleanse a human host of gods. She displays this during the Red Pyramid when she forced the scorpion goddess Serqet out of her host. However, she can only do this once a year. Zia is also skilled in manipulating already-created Ribbons of Hathor, such as when she turned them into a leash when she dragged the ghost Setne away.
	+ **Summoning Spell**: After crossing the Sea of Chaos, Zia cast a summoning spell to summon Apophis' *sheut*. Carter explained that it was similar to summoning a *shabti* or a minor creature from the Duat. However, since it was Apophis' *sheut*, Zia's summoning spell only made the shadow reveal itself.
* **Path of the Gods**: During the final battle against Apophis, Zia became the Eye of Ra to fight the enormous serpent. Although she retained her powers from the Path of Ra, she also had another attack which she lost after Ra and the other gods left to the Duat. Unlike most hosts, Zia's connection with Ra was so immense that she can utilize small bits of the god's power remotely without fear of burning up.
	+ **Comet of Khepri**: By channeling the power of Khepri-Ra, Zia can summon a miniature comet of fire at her opponents by thrusting out her hand. It was strong enough to get past an Apis Bull's fire-resistant shell and reduce the creature to ashes. However, because Zia didn't have practice with the Path of Khepri-Ra, she almost exploded the first time she used this spell and Carter had to douse her with water.
	+ **Illusion Casting**: Zia can influence an enemy, even Apophis, to mistake her location. This was shown when the Serpent attacked her, only for her to disappear and re-appear a few feet back. She can also increase the amount of illusions by influencing the target with heat.
	+ **Khepri's Shield**: In the battle with the Apis Bull, Zia channels the power of Khepri to produce a shield that resembles a scarab shell, absorbing the Bull's sunfire weapon. The second time she used this was to protect against the Sea of Chaos' magic and it worked despite the others being unable to use divine magic. However, Zia mentions that she exhausted herself by using Khepri's Shield for so long and could not assist in battle.

## Paraphernalia

### Other Equipment

* **Tools of a Magician**: Like every Magician, Zia keeps various equipment in a leather bage, such as a staff, wand, and shabti statues that could be summoned at a momments notice.

## Trivia

* Zia's last name, "Rashid," is the Arabic word (رشيد) meaning, "rightly guided" and is also the Egyptian name of the Rosetta Stone.
* Zia is also the name of the Native American symbol for the Sun.
* Zia speaks fluent Egyptian Arabic, being Egyptian by birth.
* When Zia was hosting Nephthys, there was a chance that she could die due to being a fire elementalist. This risk is gone as Nephthys left her body.
* After she summoned the power of Khepri and passed out, Carter heard her say "dung balls. Time to roll the dung balls", as scarab beetles are also known as dung beetles.
* The first time Zia met the Kanes, she wanted to kill them, with Desjardins holding her back. Later, it is the other way around.