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Liraz is a seraph and the half-sister of Akiva and Hazael. Her father is Emperor Joram, and she is a member of the Misbegotten.
Appearance[]
Liraz has honey-colored skin, fair hair, and blue eyes. Her hair is pulled back into twelve severe braids. She has a slender build. Ridiculously attractive, her beauty is "coolly shark-like" [1] and her eyes appear cold. She has an icy beauty with a withering stare. Her hands and arms are lined with an extraordinary number of kill marks, so many that they appear pure black at a distance. Liraz takes strongly after Joram in appearance. Like all seraphim, Liraz has magnificent fiery wings and heat that emanates off her.
Personality[]
Liraz is a deadly killer who expresses no emotions except on occasion, when she is around her brothers. She's a determined warrior. Intimidating and fierce, she has been cited as the person one would least like to have as an enemy among the seraphim. Even as a child she had been ferocious. She is the first in the sparring ring regardless of the opponent. Liraz is cunning and clearly a threat.
It is revealed many times that Liraz's fierceness is a facade for her fears. She is afraid to care, afraid to show her fears, and most of all, she fears intimacy. The only people she cares about are Hazael and Akiva, and she would do anything for them. Very deep down she has a surprisingly large soft side. She comes across as rather harsh and mean, but it's only a mask for her fear and sadness.
Liraz also has an impulsive streak, a hot temper, and is quick to jump to conclusions. In addition, she possesses an unusual sense of justice, as observed when she feels disgusted about killing helpless civilians. She's blunt. While Liraz possesses the instinctive hatred of chimaera characteristic of seraphim, she secretly admires the Kirin.
Background[]
Like Akiva and Hazael, Liraz is a Misbegotten, one of Joram's many illegitimate children. She was raised to be a soldier and thus never met her mother and does not remember her at all. Liraz, Hazael, and Akiva were all born in the same month in the emperor's harem, and grew up together.
Plot[]
Daughter of Smoke & Bone[]
Liraz, Hazael, and Akiva have been traveling around the human world, scorching black handprints into the doors leading to Brimstone's shop. Once all the doors are marked, "the end would begin."[2] The plan is for the three to meet in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, where a portal to Eretz is.
They return to Eretz, but then return to the human world to search for Akiva when he goes looking for Karou. After witnessing his strange fight with the blue-haired girl, they find him on the Charles Bridge in Prague the next day, embracing Karou and weeping. Quick to anger and thinking that he is abandoning them again, Liraz confronts Akiva and tries to attack Karou, forcing her to fly away. Akiva, trying to stop Liraz's pursuit, finally tells her the reason for his previous disappearance. He had fallen in love with a chimaera named Madrigal, who has been resurrected as Karou. Liraz is disgusted, and she and Hazael leave Akiva without attacking him further.
Days of Blood & Starlight[]
When Akiva first returns to Eretz, he finds Liraz and Hazael on the training ground. They ally to spar against Akiva, claiming nithilam, but stop before killing him. Liraz has begun to understand why Akiva has gotten squeamish about killing the chimaera and she and Hazael slowly start to feel regret for their prejudices. It is gradually revealed that Liraz's greatest fear is that she does not know how to be anything but a soldier.
When Akiva and Hazael plan to end the war by assassinating their father, Joram, Liraz follows along unwillingly. The plan ultimately fails due to their uncle Jael's meddling, and Liraz faces the threat of joining Jael's harem. She rejects the new emperor vehemently, leading to Hazael's attempt to defend his half-sister and his death. Unable to believe that their brother could be dead, Liraz and Akiva fly his corpse under the cover of a glamour, and ask Karou to save him. She agrees, but then realizes that because Hazael's soul was not put in a thurible, she cannot resurrect him.
After it is revealed that Jael is taking a phalanx of seraphim through the portal to try and obtain human support and weapons, Akiva proposes to ally the Misbegotten and the remaining chimaera, to Liraz's shock and disbelief.
Dreams of Gods & Monsters[]
Liraz is distrustful of the chimaera with which the Misbegotten find themselves allied. Her anger and confusion are heightened by the fact that the chimaera are using their hamsas to flash magic at the seraphim, and she hates that they don't give her a real reason to hate them. Liraz is later cornered by the revenant Haxaya in Ten's body, who reveals that her first death occurred because Liraz killed her in a particularly brutal way. Before Haxaya can kill Liraz, however, her neck is snapped by Ziri, in Thiago's body. Ziri then takes Liraz to the Kirin healing pools to revive her, and tells her his real identity. Liraz starts to fall in love with Ziri, but won't admit it.
Liraz and Karou intend to go together through the portal to stop Jael. However, caught in a battle in which she thinks the chimaera and Misbegotten will die, Liraz pushes Akiva through instead, reminding him of Hazael's words, "The urn is full." Meaning Akiva must survive.
When Jael and his seraphim return unsuccessful in their plan to garner human support, he finds Thiago's body, placed by Liraz, and believes that all hope is not yet lost for him. Newly arrogant, Jael goes into his tent and finds Liraz waiting for him. She overpowers him, and, apparently poised to kill, reveals that she has "plans" for her uncle, as he once had for her.
Liraz brokenly discusses the now-dead Ziri with Karou and admits she has managed to capture his soul, meaning he can be resurrected in his true body. After Ziri's resurrection, she finds him and the two are finally united in love.
Liraz is revealed by Eliza Jones to be one of the godstars in seraphim myth.
Relationships[]
Akiva[]
Liraz is Akiva's half-sister. They are very close and are protective of one another. Sometimes, Akiva feels like he doesn't know Liraz at all.
Hazael[]
He is her half-brother. Liraz does not show affection towards others due to her rigid upbringing but it is notably obvious how she cares for her brother. Hazael is one of the few people who can tease Liraz and manage to keep his skin intact. Liraz does show annoyance towards his optimistic attitude and nonchalance, tragically these traits that continually peeved her are what she misses most once he dies. Liraz is devastated by the loss of her brother and often reminisces about their trials as soldiers and how he always provided her with a faint sense of hope. It is Hazael's love of life that causes Liraz to open up more to others after his departure and why she finally allows herself to fall in love.
Ziri[]
The basis of a romantic relationship between Liraz and Ziri forms. Liraz's hatred towards chimaera, due to age-old prejudice, causes their initial meetings to have a definite air of hostility, mostly one-sided from Liraz. Both creatures are shown to feel lonely among their peers and it is this loneliness that draws the two together. Liraz is recovering from the loss of her brother, Hazael, while Ziri is trying to cope with being trapped into the role of Thiago, after Karou kills the true host, when they begin to truly interact with one another. Their meetings beforehand are brief encounters from afar. Both of them are downtrodden as they realize their respective counterparts, Akiva and Karou, are drawing away from them as time goes on increasing their despair since neither are capable of showing their true emotions. Liraz only knows war and bloodshed, while Ziri is impersonating Thiago. The basis of their romance is developed when Ziri, in Thiago's guise, saves Liraz from rebel chimera who seek revenge on the angel for slaughtering their kind in the past. Liraz has finally snapped and all those years of penting up her emotions are released into hysterical laughter which Ziri recognizes in his current status. Ziri, who dislikes needless bloodshed, has his first intentional kill as Thiago to save Liraz from receiving the final blow from the hamsas. Realizing that her life is slowly fading away he sneaks her over to healing pools and brings her back to life. Ziri repeats the sentence that he used in their interactions, "We haven't been introduced..." where he reveals his true identity to her. This marks the change in their behaviors towards one another and Liraz begins to feel romantic implications towards Ziri. This sentence and parts of Liraz's response back of, "You know who I am, and I know who you are, and that will serve" are repeated several times also. It's heavily implied that Ziri and Liraz become a couple in the end.
Memorable Quotes[]
Days of Blood & Starlight[]
- "I am a link in a chain, she thought." - pg. 368
- "'Just stand there,' she told them. 'Demonstrate for us your great skill at standing there, and you'll be fine.'" - pg. 420
- "Bad luck? By all means, let's not start having any of that." - pg. 499
- "She had said she didn’t feel fear, but it was a lie; this was her fear: being left alone. Because of one thing she was certain, and it was that she could never love, not like that. Trust a stranger with her flesh? The closeness, the quiet. She couldn’t imagine it. Breathing someone else’s breath as they breathed yours, touching someone, opening for them? The vulnerability of it made her flush. It would mean submission, letting down her guard, and she wouldn’t. Ever. Just the thought made her feel small and weak as a child—and Liraz did not like to feel small and weak. Her memories of childhood were not kind."
- " She’d thought that she would do anything for them, but it had never occurred to her that 'anything' might mean letting them go."
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Liraz is the second angel in the series to fall in love with a chimera, with her half-brother, Akiva, being the first.
- Her relationship with Ziri is a foil to Akiva and Karou/Madrigal's.
- Despite Liraz's initial dislike of Karou, stemming from feeling threatened that Karou will take her brother away, the two begin to finally form a friendship by the end of the series.
- Liraz's name means "I have a secret" in Hebrew.
- Liraz is asexual.
References[]
- ↑ Daughter of Smoke & Bone Chapter 35, pg. 253
- ↑ Daughter of Smoke & Bone: Chapter 10