Zélie Adebola is the novel’s primary narrator and protagonist. She begins the novel as a divîner, or a person with magical capabilities whose magic has not yet awoken. She has white hair that begins straight but grows curlier the more magic she uses, and pale eyes. She is considered beautiful by both Inan and other men featured throughout the novel. Tzain believes that she looks like their late mother, especially when wearing traditional clothes and makeup. While Zélie has lived a difficult life that has involved both hard labor and difficult defense training, she does not bear many physical scars until near the end of the novel. When tortured by Saran, she is branded with the word “maggot,” a derogatory word used to refer to divîners.

Zélie begins the novel driven primarily by impulse and fear. This is exemplified in the first scene of the novel when Zélie stands up to guards collecting tax money but is assaulted by one of them. The man makes move to sexually assault her and Zélie thinks, “I want to scream, to break every bone in his body, but with each second I wither. His touch erases everything I am, everything I’ve fought so hard to become” (12).