Valtik

**Valtik** is a Jydi witch.

### *Realm Breaker*

Valtik meets Corayne an-Amarat and Sorasa Sarn on the ship Corayne, Sorasa, and Dom are taking from Lemarta, Siscaria to Ascal, Galland. She acts like a peddler of supposed charms and wishes. Sorasa tells her to leave them alone, but Valtik gives Corayne a charm of twisted blue-gray twigs tied with twine and catgut trailing with human finger bones carved into skulls.

After fleeing from Ascal, Andry Trelland, Dom, Sorasa, and Corayne come across Valtik at the abandoned farmhouse they stop at. It's almost like Valtik knew where they would be before they did. She reads a set of bones and reveals there is more than one Spindle. She also tells the group that their number must be seven. Only Sorasa seems to understand what Valtik means, and that their group must travel to Adira, Larsia. While stopping for the night on the way to Adira, Sorasa realizes that the vision of the Ashlanders, she, Corayne, and Dom saw was actually a sending sent by Valtik. This makes Andry realize that the whispers he was hearing since the massacre were Valtik also.

Despite being from the north, Valtik knows desert ways of survival. During their journey through the Sands, only Valtik seems unaffected. She doesn't get sunburned, leaves her head uncovered, and her eyes are wide open. Sorasa assumes it's all part of her magic.

Valtik reappears in Nezi and uses her magic to force the kraken back through the Spindle so that Corayne can close the Spindle.

## Personality

While the group often finds Valtik to be annoying, they still appreciate her powers and abilities and that she shows up when they need her. Valtik doesn't seem to be bothered by the opinions of the others. Her voice is lilted, playful, and edged in a Jydi accent. Despite all her warnings, there is never any urgency to her.

## Physical Description

Valtik is an elderly woman, it's impossible to say how old exactly. She appears as an old crone, but is lithe for her age. She has luminous blue eyes, like the most brilliant sky. She has a mouth like a gash, with a gapped tooth smile and thin lips lined by wrinkles from a lifetime of smiling. Her skin is pale and spotted. She has narrow shoulders. Her face is heavily wrinkled. Everything but her eyes seem bleached of color. Her hair is wild and gray, braided in places, and set with feathers, yellowed bone, and dried lavender. Her fingers are so knobbled by age and use that they look like broken branches. Her hands are liver-spotted and "like bird wings, fragile and flapping." Her touch feels like ice. Her feet are bare and black with dirt. Valtik wears a mismatched shawl and filthy dress.

## Powers & Abilities

Valtik only speaks in rhyming riddles, however her rhymes often reveal hidden truths. She also has the ability to foretell the future. Valtik's magic seems to give her knowledge that she shouldn't know. Valtik can appear and disappear at will. She can also change her appearance to look inhuman. She sleeps "too deep for a mortal."

## Trivia

* Valtik has an odd earthen scent that follows her everywhere.
* She speaks Jydi, Paramount, and an unknown language that no one can place.
* When Corayne asks Valtik what she calls herself, Valtik responds, "The North Star. Or bizarre."

## References

1. ↑ *Realm Breaker*: pg. 317
2. ↑ *Realm Breaker*: pg. 316
3. ↑ *Realm Breaker*: pg. 361
4. ↑ *Realm Breaker*: pg. 360