Zalpa

Zalpa is an elderly Niqols shaman who preserves blood-based “old ways” that her species largely abandoned. Introduced as Liiza's former teacher and the best shaman of her time, she exposes the hidden continuation of Khan's nightmares, later saves and trains survivors during Nitis' daylight crisis, and gradually becomes the trusted family elder known as “Zaza” and “Aunt Zaza.”

Biography

Khan's nightmare investigation

Liiza brings Khan to Zalpa because modern Niqols healers cannot interpret his scar and nightmares. Zalpa initially hates that he is human, but her hostility is checked by loyalty to Liiza and curiosity about the Nak mark. She requires Khan's blood, mixes it with plants, mineral, wood, and mana in a cauldron, and creates a pale-red mirror that turns his remembered nightmare into a shared vision. The procedure reveals missing memories of the Nak healing him and imprinting a solar system in his mind. (Chapters 108–109)

Zalpa does not pretend that the vision provides complete answers. She identifies the image as a solar system, argues that the dreams were deliberately implanted, and says the destination may matter less than the Nak's reason for placing it in Khan. Her physical tests find seamless mutations that his body actively hides, making inner study and greater power the only clear routes forward. Witnessing his suffering also softens her conduct: she remains abrasive, but her concern becomes strong enough to warn both young people to find safety before the coming daylight. (Chapters 109–110)

Daylight refuge and the old ways

Zalpa's warnings prove justified when daylight mutates Nitis' fauna and tears apart the joint academy force. The survivors seek her in the forest, where she drops from a tall tree without injury, guides them through concealed passages, and opens a cave protected by ominous leaves and red symbols. Although she still voices contempt for humans, Liiza persuades her to modify stored potions for their bodies. Those remedies, food, drink, shelter, and Zalpa's mana sensitivity give the exhausted mixed group its first secure place to recover and mourn. (Chapters 204–206)

Her resistance to Khan also changes under evidence rather than sentimentality. After learning that Yeza accepted him, that he shared Liiza's grief, and that he had endangered himself for her, Zalpa stops threatening to separate them and helps prepare them for the rebel battle. She interprets their blood-drawn shoulder symbol as love or union with an eternal meaning, then teaches Khan how to reach a higher checkpoint of the Blood Shield by clotting mana into stronger flesh without corrupting its structure. The instruction preserves both the power and the risks of the old ways. (Chapters 205, 212–214)

After the battle, Zalpa uses her own blood and red symbols to regrow Liiza's severed arm. The technique causes almost unbearable pain for half a day, and Zalpa can only monitor the process once it starts, but it restores the entire limb. She then tends the other survivors, recognizes that psychological wounds require rest as much as physical injuries, and helps the group toast its dead. When the Elders later order the humans to leave, Zalpa communicates the decision and its terrible choices without falsely claiming that she can overrule it. (Chapters 223–229)

Reunion, pregnancy, and family acceptance

Ten years later, Zalpa secretly finds Liiza by following blood and hair samples retained since her childhood. She and Ilman approach without reporting the discovery because Zalpa hopes to resolve Liiza's flight before involving the tribes. The plan ends when she sees Liiza's permanent bond with Khan and confirms that Liiza is pregnant. Zalpa gives up on separating the couple, moves her supplies aboard their ship, and agrees to provide continuous care even though the mixed child's mutations exceed anything ordinary Niqols medicine can predict. (Chapters 1233–1236)

Acceptance becomes explicit during the couple's improvised marriage. Zalpa supplies blood, performs the old ritual, and records the ceremony so their union can be shown to the universe. Khan begins calling her “Aunt Zaza,” and she stops treating that family title as a joke. She travels with the newlyweds, helps reconnect Liiza with her father, monitors the pregnancy, and provides the expertise that lets the couple keep moving despite political pursuit and the risks in both parents' genes. (Chapters 1237–1245, 1247, 1251, 1261, 1280–1300)

Complications, Yeza's birth, and wartime care

The Scarlet Eyes' agents attack while Liiza's pregnancy is advanced, triggering bleeding and premature complications. Zalpa receives Liiza after she freezes herself into hibernation, warns Khan that mother and child need him alive, and uses the Harmony Technique even though supplying both sides of the healing exchange nearly exhausts her fourth-level reserves. With Khan providing adapted mana, Zalpa wakes Liiza's body, then uses a blood-infused concoction and red symbols to replace the nutrients the baby continues to drain. (Chapters 1314, 1317, 1321–1323)

Zalpa remains at Liiza's side through the two-hour second stage of labor and delivers a healthy daughter. Her rare smile after the birth reflects the family continuity she has witnessed: the girl she once taught has become a mother, and the hostile human she threatened has become someone she trusts with Liiza's life. She inspects both mother and newborn afterward, then agrees to protect little Yeza while her parents travel, promising her own life to the task when the couple temporarily entrusts the baby to the Niqols. (Chapters 1326–1327, 1346)

Coalition elder and final family state

Zalpa travels with Yeza and the Niqols through the widening alliance, remaining near Liiza and Khan after Aynor while military representatives organize the campaign against the True Chaos. She is not an evolved combatant, so her value lies elsewhere: she helps care for Yeza, brings Tamara into the family circle, and serves as a living bridge between Liiza, the Niqols, and the diverse allies gathering around them. At the great coalition party, Liiza comfortably puts her sleeping daughter in Zalpa's arms and asks “Zaza” to handle bedtime. (Chapters 1346–1384, 1448–1498)

When universal war begins, Zalpa deliberately stays behind because a fourth-level warrior cannot affect that battlefield and because Yeza requires a Niqols guardian. She refuses to leave the child solely with human protectors, watches over her alongside Princess Rebecca, and identifies the baby's sudden red-veined transformation as connected to Khan even though its mechanism exceeds her knowledge. After the army returns, Zalpa carries Yeza through the landing and lets her fly into Liiza's arms, ending her last direct appearance alive, still entrusted with the family's youngest member. (Chapters 1597, 1626–1627)

Appearance and personality

Zalpa is an old Niqols woman with a wrinkled face, dirty red hair, white eyebrows, and white glowing eyes stained with scarlet shades. Her long fingernails and toenails are black, her soles are dirty, and her ragged dark-grey robe carries black stains and a powerful stench. Blood-colored features, hung Tainted creatures, cauldrons, and red symbols reinforce her deliberate association with the old ways rather than the cleaner appearance of modern Niqols healers. Ten years do little to change her. (Chapters 108, 204–205, 1233)

Her roughness is partly conviction and partly armor. Zalpa distrusts humans, curses freely, spits when angry, and refuses to soften warnings about sacrifice or political duty. Yet she repeatedly lets care overrule prejudice: she treats human survivors for Liiza, accepts Khan after testing his devotion, watches over traumatized students, supports a forbidden marriage, and takes responsibility for Yeza. Rare smiles and worried instructions reveal a deeply protective teacher and family elder who prefers grumbling to admitting affection. (Chapters 108–110, 204–229, 1233–1238, 1317, 1326–1327, 1497–1498, 1626–1627)

Abilities

Shamanic perception and diagnostic rituals

Zalpa understands mana through practices that modern Niqols medicine no longer preserves. Her blood-mirror ritual links Khan's mind to a cauldron and displays memories he cannot consciously access, while later tests use hair, blood, runes, and reactions around his scar to study hidden mutations. Her sensitivity also guides a large group around monsters in the daylight forest and detects biological conditions such as Liiza's pregnancy. These methods are powerful but interpretive: Zalpa can expose evidence and form hypotheses without guaranteeing a complete answer. (Chapters 108–110, 206, 1233–1235)

Blood symbols and the old ways

Zalpa uses her own blood, a patient's blood, or prepared organic materials to draw mana-bearing symbols with lasting effects. She removes restrictions, conceals travelers, creates blood marks for marriage, and teaches that old-way techniques demand an actual price instead of bypassing it through reduced understanding. Her Blood Shield lesson shows the method's precision: blood must be gently clotted into suitable flesh, stronger checkpoints require better materials and more power, and an imperfect structure can damage everything previously built in the user's body. (Chapters 108, 205, 212–214, 223, 1237–1238)

Healing and biological manipulation

Zalpa modifies potions for different species, stops blood loss, regrows Liiza's arm through blood symbols, and uses the Harmony Technique to repair damage. Her later work supports an unprecedented interspecies pregnancy through inspection, nutrient-rich mixtures, and symbols drawn over Liiza's body. These techniques carry real limitations: the arm regeneration inflicts extreme pain, the Harmony Technique can exhaust Zalpa when the patient cannot contribute mana, and Yeza's inherited transformations eventually exceed even her expertise. (Chapters 205–206, 223–225, 1235–1236, 1317, 1321–1327, 1626)

Physical capability and limits

Even in old age, Zalpa is superhumanly strong and fast. She can yank Khan off balance, cut his palm with a thumbnail, hide her actual power from his senses, and land from an eight-meter fall hard enough to crater the ground without suffering injury. The later source explicitly identifies her as a fourth-level warrior. That level supports her medical work and survival but leaves her far below evolved combatants, so she does not join the final universal war and instead protects Yeza. (Chapters 108, 204–205, 1233–1234, 1321, 1626)

Relationships

Liiza

Zalpa taught Liiza that mana is free and helped shape the rebellious independence that eventually let her choose Khan. She calls her “Lii,” preserves childhood samples, and alternates scolding with fierce protection. Although she initially wants Liiza to remain loyal to the Niqols, the permanent bond, pregnancy, and marriage convince her to support the life Liiza has chosen. She ultimately acts as teacher, midwife, elder, and trusted guardian to Liiza's daughter. (Chapters 108–110, 204–229, 1233–1238, 1314–1346)

Khan

Zalpa begins by treating Khan as both a hated human and a dangerous Nak remnant. His nightmare changes pity into reluctant concern, while his conduct during the daylight crisis proves that his bond with Liiza is reciprocal. Years later she accepts his marriage, pregnancy-related gratitude, and family nickname. Khan in turn trusts her with Liiza during battle and with Yeza during war, and Zalpa finally recognizes that his willingness to sacrifice himself makes him worthy of the family he built. (Chapters 108–110, 204–229, 1233–1238, 1317–1346, 1626)

Yeza Khan

Yeza is the interspecies child whose safety turns Zalpa's family role into a continuing duty. Zalpa helps Liiza survive the pregnancy, delivers the healthy girl, performs postnatal checks, and promises to protect her with her life. Later she carries Yeza at coalition gatherings and during the final war, insists that the child needs a Niqols nanny, and investigates the inherited transformation that occurs during Khan's ascension. Yeza's flight from her arms into Liiza's closes their last scene together. (Chapters 1235–1236, 1314–1346, 1497–1498, 1597, 1626–1627)

Ilman

Ilman volunteers to help Zalpa find Liiza, understands the political risk, and pilots the Niqols ship that lets their secret search continue. Once the pregnancy makes separation impossible, he follows Zalpa's order to move their supplies and joins the couple's improvised wedding. Their cooperation is based less on similar personalities than shared loyalty: both are prepared to strain Niqols rules so Liiza can be protected without immediately setting her against her species. (Chapters 1233–1238)

Tamara

Tamara enters Zalpa's orbit as the rescued Nele child traveling with Khan and Liiza. Zalpa lets her assist with family tasks, walks hand-in-hand with her, and becomes one of the adults around whom the child can ask for a role rather than remain a passive dependent. At the coalition gathering, Tamara eagerly volunteers to help “Zaza” put Yeza to bed, showing that Zalpa's reluctant family circle has expanded beyond species boundaries. (Chapters 1234, 1245, 1497)