“For those to whom the inner world looks dark and gloomy, these galleries must be dismal indeed; but I, who live in perpetual darkness, find here something which has an affinity with my own nature. I can walk here as you would in the broadest road. If it were not for the want of air in some parts and the excessive damp in others, I should prefer these subterranean passages to any place I know.”

While the novel describes La Terrible as a terrifying and haunted place, Pablo finds solace in these caverns with his friend, Nela. Lacking sight, Pablo relies on Nela to describe his surroundings, including La Terrible. Through her descriptions, he gains an assuring view of La Terrible. Pablo’s perception of La Terrible foreshadows the light he encounters when he eventually gains his sight. When he can finally see, he no longer idealizes the darkness and seeks to know more of the light.

“In your uncertainty, it was hard to say whether she was astonishingly forward or lamentably backward.”

The descriptions of Nela in the novel often note how her qualities always fall in between stages—beautiful and ugly, old and young. She is described as both aged from her tragic life and child-like. To Teodoro, Nela appears somewhat like the native person to the colonial explorer of the New World. Her beguiling and unfamiliar qualities make him believe that she is advanced, but her wild and untamed qualities also make her appear backwards to him.

“No, Senor. I am of no use at all.”

Throughout the novel, Nela repeatedly insists that she is useless. Her lack of self-worth can be attributed to her being an orphan and living with the Centeno family, who treat her poorly. Lacking any strength to do manual labor in the mines, the only job suitable for her is to be Pablo’s guide.