Zaira
"We have not met. Have we? No, this is definitely the first time. But - hmm." The Lady of the Cages shakes her head sharply. "Best to proceed as if it is the first, don't you think?"[1]
Zaira is the overseer of gaoler's honey production on the Isle of Cats.
A Vacant Stare[edit | edit source]
"This place is full of peace. Do I mean peace? Yes, I think I do. Serenity. Stillness. The roses are innocent, even though they half-sprung from hell. You don't find that worth something?"[2]
A direct subordinate of Pirate-King Leopold,[3] Zaira is known to most as the Lady of the Cages - although she prefers to be called the Lady of the Gardens.[4] (She responds to both, and admits both are true.)[5] Described as tall,[6] she wears a distinctive gold veil that obscures her eyes, and carries dozens of keys with her that unlock the cages of the Isle's prisoners.[7] Her primary responsibility is to supervise and tend the Cage-Gardens, and ensure that honey production goes smoothly.[8] While not the official overseer of the Melliferous Sisters, who take care of the lamplighter bees and perform the bulk of the honey-harvesting, she works alongside them - for better or for worse.[9]
Zaira has consumed so much red honey that her own memories have been essentially washed away.[10][11] She struggles to remember the people she meets,[12] let alone practical advice,[13] and even has difficulty remembering her station and duties.[14] In a stark dissonance from the reality of the Cage-Gardens, she views them as a place of peace, pointing out that the roses that grow there are innocent even though they are hybrids with Hellish flowers.[15] Her responses to Leopold's pragmatic advice are equally eccentric and detached; her idea of getting to know a business partner is consuming the memories of someone who knew them.[16] She seems, perhaps out of necessity, to be entirely dissociated from the meaning and consequences of her duties and the process of harvesting red honey.[17] However, she is still coherent enough to be sharp-witted when spurned,[18] and when threatened she is remarkably lethal no matter her mental state.[19]
Zaira is actually completely blind. It appears that her eyes were put out (understandably not depicted in her artwork) and her brain ravaged by lamplighter bees harvesting her memories[20] - perhaps lending credence to her own story of freeing herself from the Cage-Gardens,[11] but also offering a further explanation for the erasure of her identity. Additionally, some of her compatriot Isery's comments about her are much more condescending in this light.[21]
References[edit | edit source]
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