Ninimdes

Ninimdes is an elf girl from Oswa that was raised as a human by her grandmother. She is the main female protagonist and was introduced on the first page of the book.

Appearance
Ninimdes is a short, mousy girl with long, bright red hair. Her hair is wild and curly, nearly untameable aside from somehow holding it back in a ponytail. Nearly her whole body is covered in freckles. She's thin and appears very dainty, but is stronger than she looks. Because she grew up with older brothers, she's accustomed to roughousing.

Personality
She is a very upbeat character that has no trouble making friends or introducing herself to people. She has the ability to find good in anyone she meets, which sometimes makes her unable to see someone's true intentions. She can be very gullible and naive, which is first shown in the beginning of the book when Alpheus and Vehiron led her to believe that Vehiron was only named after the real prince and that the one she was with was only an ambassador to the area.

She gets easily upset when people point out her naivete, even if it is true. She dislikes feeling stupid or disliked by someone. She is distractable and with that, her habits are messy.

Ninimdes was raised in Ablil believing she was a human girl. She refuses to believe anything aside from that she was a teenage girl in the village just like any other, and goes on looking like a dumb little girl rather than giving anyone the opportunity to tell her.

Relationships
Ninimdes's social and outgoing attitude is what brought many of the characters together at the beginning of the story. Without her, Veryan wouldn't have been introduced to Vehiron in Kemme's tavern.

Vehiron - is the first of the party that she met. At first, their relationship was very rocky. Vehiron was certainly not her biggest fan. As the story goes on, he warms up to her little by little. He starts to care for her wellbeing and safety and they start to become friends rather than just acquaintances. The two become romantic interests later on, despite the short period of time during Caunwen's reign where he nearly killed her.

Alpheus - was her first real friend and protector. They often goof off when the time isn't appropriate and side with each other during disagreements. The two of them were responsible for executing the plan of killing Caunwen together. Ninimdes allowed herself to be captured by guards, and then Caunwen had set Vehiron up in a situation where he had to choose between killing Ninimdes or killing an innocent citizen of the kingdom.

Danear - was never one of her favorite people. He always seemed to waltz in where Vehiron wasn't and it gave her weird vibes. He would only flirt with her when she was displeased with Vehiron, so even she started to catch onto their hatred for each other.

Caunwen - started off as a very close friend. They supported each other as the only two women in the group and Caunwen often gave her advice when things went wrong. Caunwen soon started hitting on Vehiron quite openly, and Ninimdes knew it shouldn't have bothered her. But the way she went about it just grossed her out. Caunwen started to do things to spite her and then talk Ninimdes into believing it wasn't meant to be that way, she was just overreacting. They didn't strongly start disliking each other until Caunwen took control over everything.

History
Ninimdes was abandoned in Oswa as a baby by her elf parents that she has never met. A sorceress living nearby stumbled across her and decided to graciously take her in. They moved to Ablil and settled there, where Ninimdes was raised. There she was living with the sorceress she called her grandmother, four older brothers and one little sister, all of whom were adopted as well. As Ninimdes grew up much slower than her human siblings, it was increasingly harder to keep Ninimdes from having to experience the pain of immortality. Her siblings became teenagers while she was still very young, even though they had been the same age once before. Eventually, her grandmother started to wipe young Ninimdes's memory of anything to do with the aging/permanence of those around her. For example, in the beginning of chapter 1 she tells Grandmother all about her adventures of the morning. One event in particular that she mentions in passing is that one of her friends is a regular at Kemme's tavern. She had gone to see him, which is how she even came across her new friends. She expressed her concern for him to her grandma that he hadn't been there that day, to which she replied that he was an old man and perhaps he was only taking a day to rest. This friend she had known for many many years, however when things like this happened her memory had to be wiped so that she would never have remembered playing with this friend in their youth. She then remembered him as an old man and believed he always had been since they'd met. Shortly after his death, her memory was wiped of him entirely.

When she meets Vehiron and is away from home, there is no continuance of spells to prevent her from experiencing loss as time goes on. He has a hard time comprehending how she doesn't know that she's really an elf and tells her regularly, but she believes that's only a silly joke of theirs. Unfortunately, as time passes this becomes less and less of a joke for her and more like a horrible horrible reality.