Matisse
A young Arelene orphan who was taken in by Karata's gang after being found in a sludge-filled alley, then crossed into Elantris when the Shaod fell on her. In New Elantris she has the job of looking after the fifty or so children kept in the building called the Roost, and has begun calling Dashe her father. Carries a still-burning cut on her cheek from her first day inside, treats it as a small price for a place where she is needed, and has long privately suspected that the Aons are something nearer to nature than to scholarship. EL:HoE:Prologue
Known facts
- orphan-beggar-rescued-by-karataBefore the Shaod took her Matisse was an orphan beggar in Kae who spent her days ignored and feeling useless; Karata found her in a sludge-filled alley and took her back to the palace, where she became one of the children the gang sheltered.EL:HoE:Prologue
- takes-care-of-the-childrenMatisse's job in New Elantris — looking after the fifty or so children at the Roost — was already the job she had been doing since Dashe brought her to Karata's palace as an orphan; Spirit's rule that everyone had a job only made it official.EL:HoE:Prologue
- calls-dashe-fatherMatisse started simply calling Dashe *Father* one day; he never objected. The stern warrior had a particular soft spot for her, smiling more when she was around and calling on her when something needed doing.EL:HoE:Prologue
- saved-the-children-of-new-elantrisDuring the Dakhor attack on New Elantris, Matisse led the fifty children of the Roost out of the cleaned section into the dark of Elantris proper, then drew the Dakhor soldiers off her own trail with a flashing Aon Ashe — the first Aon to answer in ten years — and her lantern, while Ashe guided the children to the hidden library where Karata and Galladon could shelter them.EL:HoE:Prologue
- bonded-to-seon-aeoAfter Elantris's restoration, Dashe passed Matisse one of the two recovered seons Raoden gave him in thanks for his service to New Elantris — a seon bearing the Aon Aeo, for bravery.EL:HoE:Prologue