The Sorceress
also known as Riina
Riina: a long-lived offworlder of a kind the narrator implies has been around long enough to have made the same kind of risk calculation many times. She had come to Lumar confident nothing on it could threaten her — and lived to find she was wrong about that twice over. Driven from the planet entirely by Tress and her crew after the narrator broke the curse she had laid on him. STD:Tress:Ch 63
The unmet ruler of a stronghold hidden somewhere in the remote Midnight Sea. She periodically sends ships to raid the edges of the Verdant Sea, is held to be unmarried, and is feared at the level of moons. After Charlie's disappearance she sent a ransom letter the duke refused to honour. STD:Tress:Ch 5 superseded at STD:Tress:Ch 63
Known facts
- ransom-refusedSent the duke a ransom letter for Charlie after his ship was taken. The duke dismissed it as a trick to lure more ships into the Midnight Sea and the king declared Charlie officially dead — leaving the rumour of her ransom standing only on the word of the duke's steward Brunswick.STD:Tress:Ch 5
- war-with-the-kingThe Sorceress's raids on the inhabited seas have escalated to the point that the king is openly building up for war — commandeering merchant vessels at will, which has in turn pushed many otherwise-honest captains into smuggling under forged writs.STD:Tress:Ch 8
- controls-the-passageSits on the only sailable passage between the planet's two halves — through the Crimson into the Midnight — and uses that geography to control all trade between them. Only her ships are allowed to sail her waters. The alternative is circumnavigating the world to come at the Midnight Sea from behind, or sailing through several mountain ranges, neither of them options.STD:Tress:Ch 22
- demands-souls-not-moneyDoes not accept money as ransom, per Fort. What she asks for is souls — most often from the royal bloodline. A simple ransom of gold would never satisfy her, which is why no amount of plunder will buy Charlie back from her.STD:Tress:Ch 22
- curses-her-captivesHangs one of her tailored curses on every captive she keeps, Fort says — different curses for different people, but always *something*, to keep them pliable. The geas Hoid carries is one example; Charlie, if he still lives, will be carrying another.STD:Tress:Ch 22
- island-near-crimson-midnight-borderThe Sorceress's island sits in the Midnight Sea near its border with the Crimson, perhaps half a day's sail inward from the boundary — a location Tress identifies on deck of the Crow's Song by pointing at one spot after another on a sea chart and watching Hoid go silent only when she touches this one.STD:Tress:Ch 41
- three-trials-to-reach-herBy Huck's informant's account, three trials stand between any visitor and the Sorceress herself. First, the Midnight Sea's rains feed ship-sized midnight monsters which she keeps continuously supplied, and which swarm any ship that comes near. Second, on the island a force of indestructible metal men captures anyone who lands — captives are imprisoned indefinitely and do not get an audience with her, so deliberate capture is no use. Third, she lives atop a tower of indestructible metal so slick it cannot be climbed or stuck to, with only two ways in: doors locked by means the informant could not name, and the small high window through which her ravens travel.STD:Tress:Ch 45
- island-defended-by-hidden-reefsThe Sorceress has chosen her island specifically for its approach: long jagged lines of rock cut up through the sea like sandbars with teeth, barely peeking through the spores. Only her own midnight creatures — guided by magical gift — know the safe path through. Any ship sailing in blind, even the Crow's Song, would tear its hull apart on the way. The trial of the metal army is a second line; the reefs are the first.STD:Tress:Ch 58
- glowing-immortal-from-far-awayThe Sorceress looks roughly in her fifties — the age at which she stopped aging — short, plump, with hair in a businesslike bun. Her kind glow softly, with a silvery sheen on the skin, and prefer plain clothes that don't compete with the light. She is from very far away. She is extremely powerful.STD:Tress:Ch 59
- has-been-spying-via-forts-boardThe Sorceress has been watching the Crow's Song more or less the whole voyage by piggybacking on Fort's writing board. The narrator concedes that, in his right mind, he would have noticed long ago that the boards' default security protocols left them trivially hackable; she stopped paying close attention once Tress left the ship in the launch.STD:Tress:Ch 59
- keeps-a-vat-of-acid-for-ulaam-s-kindBy her own remark to Tress, the Sorceress keeps a vat of acid set aside specifically for Ulaam — one of the only ways she considers reliable for being sure of his kind. A good fire, she allows, is the other.STD:Tress:Ch 59
- terms-of-charlies-curseThe Sorceress's rat-curse on Charlie is structured as a forced trade: he stays in rat-form until he brings the person he loves back to her stronghold *for her to curse* in exchange for his own release. Merely delivering Tress under his own control — not as a sacrifice — does not satisfy the curse's terms, leaving him permanently in rat-form unless she consents to be cursed in his place.STD:Tress:Ch 60
- driven-from-lumarDriven from Lumar entirely after the Crow's Song's officers and the unmasked narrator confronted her in her tower; her risk calculation — that she had come to the planet because nothing on it could threaten her, and was wrong about that twice — turned the standoff in Tress's favour. The tower went with her, a speck of light into the sky.STD:Tress:Ch 63
Events
- STD:Tress:Ch 59 Sits at her desk with a white cat and a panel of viewing-boards — one piggybacked on Fort's board aboard the Crow's Song — and amiably dismisses Tress's claim to have defeated her by being captured. Offers the rescued Charlie in trade for the two cups, has Seslo open the holding chamber, and performs a deliberately silly bit of mock-magical doggerel to *un-curse* him in front of Tress.
- STD:Tress:Ch 59 Settling back into her seat when Tress bursts back into the chamber; hesitates briefly when she accuses her of having turned Charlie into a rat.
- STD:Tress:Ch 60 Rolls her desk aside and steps into the centre of the room; tosses aside the amiable affect she had worn for the audience. Her eyes go hard as stones, her lips a flat line — visibly displeased that Tress has seen through the doppelganger.
- STD:Tress:Ch 60 Explains the actual terms of Charlie's curse — the curse only breaks if Tress is cursed in his place — then is interrupted mid-scoff when red lights flare across her desk and walls and a screen shows the Crow's Song crashing through the midnight spores toward the island.
- STD:Tress:Ch 61 Wakes her tower defences and her armies, then cuts the call and pins Tress to the wall with bands of light when she notices what is being said.
- STD:Tress:Ch 61 Has turned away to mobilise her armies; does not notice Charlie slipping down the stairs.
- STD:Tress:Ch 63 Stalks forward to lecture Tress on her powerlessness, ignoring a clinking noise from the stairs behind her — distracted enough by her own speech that she misses Charlie making his escape down the steps inside a pewter tankard.
- STD:Tress:Ch 63 Releases her saved-for-special-occasions curse on Tress; lowers her hands and her jaw when an Aon shield catches it and the narrator greets her by name; swears at him as his curse visibly breaks.
- STD:Tress:Ch 63 Drops Tress from the wall, refuses to break Charlie's curse on principle, and — pistols and an Aon-wielding narrator both raised at her — does the risk calculation and leaves, taking the tower with her in a vanishing speck of light.
Backreferences
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 5
- factCharlie
- factDirk
- factBrunswick
- factMidnight Sea
- factCrimson Sea
- factVerdant Sea
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 7
- factTress
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 8
- factThe Sorceress
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 12
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 14
- factHoid
- factHoid
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 20
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 21
- factHoid
- factTress
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 22
- factThe King
- factCaptain Crow
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 23
- factHoid
- factGeas
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 27
- factCharlie
- factFamiliar
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 28
- factCharlie
- factCharlie
- factGeas
- factGeas
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 32
- factTress
- factCaptain Crow
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 34
- factMidnight Sea
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 35
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 41
- factHoid
- factHoid
- factTress
- factThe Sorceress
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 42
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 44
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 45
- factCharlie
- factCharlie
- factThe Sorceress
- factMidnight Monsters
- factMetal Guardians
- factThe Sorceress's tower
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 51
- factTress
- factXisisrefliel
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 52
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 53
- factTress
- factFort
- factThe Sorceress's tower
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 54
- factMidnight Monsters
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 55
- factTress
- factVerdant Spores
- factCharlie
- factThe Dougs
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 56
- factHoid
- factTress
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 57
- factTress
- factCharlie
- factMidnight Monsters
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 58
- factCharlie
- factThe Sorceress
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 59
- factTress
- factThe Sorceress
- factThe Sorceress
- factThe Sorceress
- factLumar
- factThe false Charlie
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 60
- factCharlie
- factCharlie
- factThe Sorceress
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 61
- factHoid
- factLacy
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 62
- factLaggart
- factAnn
- factSalay
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 63
- factHoid
- factHoid
- factHoid
- factTress
- summarySTD:Tress:Epilogue
- factHoid
- factTress
- factCharlie