Kara

* Kara
* With Aru
* With Aru 2

**Kara** is a character in the Pandava Quintet. She makes an appearance in *Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes*, and is a major character in *Aru Shah and the City of Gold* and a POV character in Aru Shah and the Nectar of Immortality. She is the adopted daughter of the Sleeper and the biological daughter of Krithika P. Shah, and Aru Shah's half sister. She is the reincarnation of secret Pandava Karna, and the untrue sister from Sheela Jagan's prophecy.

## History

### Birth

Krithika Shah gave birth to Kara when she was a teenager. Her father was a young man that Krithika fell in love with, who later died in a car crash. When Krithika found out she was pregnant, she panicked, not knowing what being a member of the Panchakanya would mean for Kara. Ultimately, Krithika brought Kara to the edge of the Otherworld, where some yakshas promised to preserve Kara her as a newborn for ten years until Krithika was able to return for her. At the end of the ten years, if Krithika still hadn't returned, the yakshas would place her with someone who would be able to care for her. Krithika tried to go back for Kara, but was sidetracked by the Sleeper and the birth of Aru. By the time she tried to go back to Kara, she had been placed with a loving family in California.

### Early Life

Kara was adopted by a family who lived in California. Krithika went to California to see her, but never worked up the nerve to talk to Kara and her new family. In the end, she just watched them play and take walks.

### Meeting the Sleeper

When Kara was 12 years old, the Sleeper took Kara from her family in California. He wiped her memories, saying it was because she would have nightmares about how badly her family treated her, and took her to his lair. He told Kara that he would have gone back for her sooner, but was locked in the Diya of Bharata for 12 years. Kara believed him and was happy with him, before she began to realize he was lying to her. She discovered that all the times he had left his house and left her alone, he was gathering an army.

## The Pandava Quintet

### Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes

When Aru gains consciousness in the Sleeper's home, she is greeted by a stranger's voice calling her full name. Aru opens her eyes and sees Kara sitting cross-legged in front of her. Aru asks where she is, and Kara tells her she is in the house of the Sleeper. Aru asks who Kara is, and Kara says that she is the Sleeper's daughter.

### Aru Shah and the City of Gold

Kara convinces Aru to let her go with her when she escapes from the Sleeper's house, and Aru agrees. Kara meets Brynne Rao, Mini Kapoor-Mercado-Lopez and Aiden Acharya, and together they travel to Lanka to answer Kubera's summons. They compete in his three trials in order to win the two things that could help them win the war against the asuras, meeting manipulative gods and being tested in ways they have never been before along the way. The Potatoes manage to complete Kubera's dangerous trials and battle alongside the Nairrata army against the Sleeper and his supporters. At the end of the book, Kara discovers her true identity and is taken by the Sleeper to find the nectar of immortality.

### Aru Shah and the Nectar of Immortality

Kara enters the labyrinth using her powers, navigating through the labyrinth and finding the amrita. However, it's encased in a powerful shield. Over several days, Kara uses her powers in an exhausting process to break the shield, with the Sleeper imposing resting breaks. In her dreams, Kara has both nightmares about Aru's birthday and dreams in which Sheela visits her and tries to persuade her that the Sleeper is lying to her, showing her memories from Suyodhana and Krithika. When the shield of the amrita breaks, she lies to stall the Sleeper. During a conversation between them, Aru and the Otherworld armies arrive. Nikita and Sheela corner Kara, who mourns the family she lost due to the Sleeper. Kara, seeing the Sleeper and fearing he was about to kill Krithika and had already killed Aru, kills him with her trident. She then joins Aru in releasing the nectar of immortality into the earth, in one final blow. After the battle, Kara is granted a life with her family back due to her good deeds, but as punishment for her taking the life of the Sleeper, all her memories of the last few years and her Pandava sisters are erased. Kara says goodbye to Aru and Krithika, and vanishes through a portal of light.

## Appearance

Kara is around the same age as Aru, with long, straight chocolatey-brown hair, high cheekbones like a model, and honey-brown catlike eyes. Kara has many similarities to her mother Krithika in her appearance, to the point where Aru immediately thinks her face looks familiar before she even knows Kara's true identity. She has a wide mouth and dark, glowing skin, and wears a white-gold ring.

## Personality

Kara is a genuinely nice person and cares about other people. When she finds out the Sleeper's plans, she doesn't want to help him and take a part in hurting people. She is friendly with the Potatoes when they first meet, even though they are the Sleeper's enemy. She also doesn't hesitate to sacrifice herself for the people she loves, such as when she threw herself in front of Aru when Other Aru tried to kill her.

Having spent the last two years of her life before *Aru Shah and the City of Gold* mainly studying from the house of the Sleeper, Kara is informative and smart, and loves sharing random facts with the Potatoes, a trait that reminds Aru of Mini. Kara is able to remember the etymology of many words and has a "ridiculous vocabulary", according to Mini.

Kara can also be very brave when she needs to be, and is a strong and determined person. She is able to keep up with the Potatoes in battle and even defeats Brynne during a fight, something that Mini doubted she would be able to do, considering that she and Aru "can barely hold their own" against Brynne. Brynne later grudgingly admits that Kara has "exceptional fighting skills".

Despite all of that, Kara is a rather lonely person. The vibe of loneliness that Kara carries is similar to the way Aru sometimes feels lonely. Before Kara meets Aru, she didn't have much interaction with other humans, except for tutors that taught her lessons everyday in the home of the Sleeper.

## Relationships

### **SUYODHANA/THE SLEEPER** (stepfather, boss)

Kara is the Sleeper's adopted daughter. In the beginning of the book, Kara is thought to be the biological daughter of the Sleeper. Two years before the events of *Aru Shah and the City of Gold*, he took her away from her supposedly less than ideal home and wiped her memories of it entirely, something she's grateful to him for. She loves him a lot and refers to him as 'Dad'. However, when she discovers what he's up to, she becomes scared and doesn't want to help him by becoming his secret weapon. Later on, when the Potatoes encounter the Sleeper, Kara stands up to him and chooses to stick with the Potatoes rather than return with him. Near the end of the book, the Sleeper reveals to Kara her true identity as the reincarnation of Karna, the secret Pandava brother. He convinces Kara to come with him and help her family become whole again, and Kara joins him to help him find the nectar of immortality. Unbeknownst to her, the Sleeper lied to Kara about not having a loving family without him, most likely only telling her that she lived with a horrible family to earn her trust and manipulate her into helping him find the nectar of immortality.

### **ARU SHAH** (captive, half-sister, soul-sister)

In *Aru Shah and the City of Gold*, Kara is the one to greet Aru when she is captured by the Sleeper, and offers to rescue her if Aru will take her with her. Kara helps Aru escape from the Sleeper’s lair and goes with her, as she does not want to stay with him anymore, seeing the bad things that he has been doing. Kara goes along with the Potatoes on their quests. In the beginning, Aru has trouble trusting Kara, and even lashes out at her at one point. However, as the book progresses, Aru comes to trust Kara, and they eventually become very close to each other, fighting alongside each other and watching each other’s backs. Kara is happy to be with Aru and the Potatoes, as she feels like she belongs and has a family. When the Sleeper reveals that Kara is the reincarnation of Karna, Aru and Kara are both shocked. Kara uses the astra to destroy Aru’s and her other Pandava sisters’ celestial weapons, something she later seems horrified by. In the end, the Sleeper takes Kara with him, separating her from Aru and the Potatoes.

### **AIDEN ACHARYA** (friend, unrequited love interest)

Throughout *Aru Shah and the City of Gold*, Kara and Aiden became close friends, and Aru suspected that there was romantic attraction between them, feeling jealous of Kara because of it. Aiden frequently took Kara's side when the Pandavas weren't being nice to her. At Aru's birthday party, Aru overhears Kara telling Aiden she likes him. However, he rejects her and tells her he only thinks of her as a friend. Kara runs off, embarrassed. Soon after, the Sleeper crashes Aru's birthday party, and in an attempt to get Kara to betray her friends, tells Kara about how Aru was watching her confess to Aiden. This upsets her and, along with other things, convinces her to go with him.

### **KRITHIKA P. SHAH** (mother)

Kara is the daughter of Krithika and another man, who died. Krithika became pregnant with Kara when she was a teenager, and, feeling it was too much of a burden to care for a child when she was that young, decided to freeze her in time for ten years until she could come back for Kara. However, Krithika became busy and distracted by other things such as her doomed romance with Suyodhana and her new child Aru, and by the time she was able to go back for Kara, she had already been adopted by another family. Kara only knows Krithika as the missing mom of Aru until she meets her on Aru's birthday for a few minutes. When Kara finds out that Krithika is her mother, she feels betrayed and saddened, thinking that Krithika chose Aru over her and abandoned her.

### **MINI KAPOOR-MERCADO-LOPEZ** (soul-sister)

Kara and Mini meet in *Aru Shah and the City of Gold*. Mini and Kara act kindly towards each other, and they bond fairly quickly because they both have a love of sharing random facts with their group. Later on in the book, they seem to enjoy each other's company, laughing with each other about Bert. When Kara betrays the Potatoes, Mini is visibly upset and barely says a word in the hours that follow.

## Powers

Note: After the events of Aru Shah & the Nectar of Immortality, Kara’s access to the Otherworld and Otherworldly magic has been revoked indeterminately.

### **The Sleeper's Enchantment**

Kara has a white circle about the size of a dime on the back of her neck, which the Sleeper enchanted onto her.

#### **Ward**

The enchantment prevents her from being tracked by gods and demons, including the Sleeper.

#### **Beacon**

When the Sleeper is near, the enchantment on her neck circle lets Kara know, and she can call to him if she needs to. It also glows whenever Kara's biological mother is around.

### **Sunny**

Sunny is Kara's celestial weapon can take the form of a trident or a silver-gold ring. Sunny is made of a drop of sunshine that fell into Kara's hand when she was born, and took the shape of a trident.

#### **Dispelling Illusions**

Kara can make illusions vanish using her ring.

##### **Creating Light**

Kara can create bursts of light with Sunny. The light that Sunny produces doesn't burn things, unlike Vajra, Aru's lightning bolt.

### **Pandava Lineage**

#### **Seeing Through Illusions**

Kara can see through multiple layers of illusions and tell when what seems to be real and what isn't. This presumably has something to do with her being the reincarnation of Karna.

## Trivia

* Kara is derived from the Italian word "cara", which means "beloved, dear".
* Kara is also a Hindu name which means "graceful, beautiful, pure, friend, darling, dear one, and beloved".
* Her name is also very similar to that of Karna, the secret Pandava whom she's revealed to be the reincarnation of by the end of *Aru Shah and the City of Gold*.
* If Kara's birthday was accurately confirmed by Roshani Chokshi as April 3, she is an Aries.
* In *Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes*, Kara is described as having black hair. However, in *Aru Shah and the City of Gold*, the book states that she has chocolatey-brown hair instead.
* Kara's rejection by Aiden in favor of Aru can reflect the actions of the three's former soul bearers: Karna's marriage proposal was rejected by Draupadi, who chose Arjuna and went to live with him as his spouse.