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Sarai is one of five godspawn survivors of the Mesarthim massacre known as the Carnage.
Appearance[]
As a godspawn, Sarai has blue skin that's described as "the blue of opals, cornflowers, or a spring sky."[1] She is very slender. She has hair that's the red-brown of cinnamon, and her eyebrows and eyelashes are bright against her blue skin. She has blue eyes, full cheeks, and a sharp little chin. Her eyes are a paler blue than her skin. Her teeth and the whites of her eyes are the only thing that isn't blue. Her mouth is damson-lush, with a full lower lip. She has a slender neck and small hands. She closely resembles her mother, Isagol. Sarai wears silk slips that would be considered undergarments.
Personality[]
Despite living in an environment where she has been taught to hate humans, Sarai does not feel the need to hurt them and defies Minya even if it means seclusion and disownment. Sarai only wants to live among humans. Minya also fails to manipulate Sarai’s emotions by appealing to her guilt because Sarai is quite fixated on her personal beliefs and would never do anything she isn’t comfortable in doing. She uses her powers to torment humans but regrets it. Sarai hates it when Minya brings new ghosts into the citadel because they feel like "a mirror reflecting her monstrosity back at her."[2] She's ashamed of feeling pity towards humans and envies the other godspawn's gifts while hating her own. She is afraid, and her greatest desires are freedom and to be loved. She is incredibly stubborn. Sarai refuses to surrender her decency or mercy for her own comfort. She doesn't care what others would do in her place. Upon making up her mind, she refuses to ever serve Minya's twisted will again.
Quite idealistic, Sarai has impossible dreams and feels limited by being trapped inside the citadel. She lives her life through others dreams and used unique ways to torture them. Unlike Minya, Sarai is not practical about the hatred that she receives from them and hopes that someone will love her despite her being a godspawn. After four thousand nights spent among humans in their dreams, Sarai knows them in a way the other godspawn can't and this is why she's lost the ability to easily hate them. She is expressive, curious, kind, and versatile. She keeps most things to herself. Sarai's moths represent pieces of her soul. They can make her vulnerable. They are delicate and can easily be squashed or scared away.
Background[]
Sarai's dream powers manifest in the shapes of one hundred moths, through which she can experience the world in full sensory detail. Her moths leave her in the evening and return before sunup, so she sleeps during the day, from sunrise until nearly sunset. She takes a tonic, called lull, to help her sleep without dreams. She refuses to dream because she keeps the terrors she creates with her gift within her, and thus when she dreams, she's at the mercy of her unconscious with no control over the terrors within her.[3] In other people's dreams, Sarai is an invisible bystander, but she can control the dream, including turning it into a nightmare. Her gift is as if her "consciousness has wings." Her velvety moths are "the purple of the twilight, with the shot-silk shimmer of starlight."[4] Her moths die at the first appearance of the sun. They leave an aftertaste of salt and soot in her mouth. If she doesn't take her moths back into herself at the end of each night, she is unable to talk for the following day.
Sarai and the other godspawn have been living in the citadel for the past fifteen years. When she was about six years old, her gift finally manifested. Alongside Feral, Sarai acts as parents to Ruby and Sparrow. In order to protect herself and the others, Sarai makes sure that each moth leaves a subliminal warning of the horrors of the citadel in the minds of the people of Weep so that they dread the citadel so badly that they can't bear to even look at it. Sarai and the other godspawn grew up with a "stew of envy and longing. They hated the humans, but also wanted to be them." They wanted to be accepted and loved, but since they couldn't have that, their feelings took the form of spite. They layered cynicism atop their longing. They hardened themselves, by choosing to meet hate with hate, all at the direction and command of Minya.
Plot[]
Strange the Dreamer[]
Due to her gift, Sarai is awake during the evening and nighttime, and sleeps during the day. Less Ellen brings Sarai her lull every morning and then brings her tea and biscuits when she wakes up.
After Ruby shares her conviction that they won't grow old, Sarai asks Feral if he shares her belief. Feral claims that he doesn't. He tells Sarai that "naturally" he will marry her, Ruby, and Sparrow because he doesn't want anyone to feel left out, knowing Minya wouldn't mind. They will have a dozen children and he will become a "distinguished elderly gentleman."
After the arrival of Lazlo Strange and the other outsiders in Weep, Minya shows the other godspawn the massive number of ghosts she has kept hidden and imprisoned in the heart of the citadel for the last fifteen years. She tells the others that her plan is to arm the ghosts with knives and force them to protect them from any invading humans. Sarai and the others are horrified.
Minya and Sarai find themselves at a standoff. Minya sabotages Sarai's lull, keeping her from sleeping without nightmares. Minya will restore Sarai's lull as soon as she kills Eril-Fane using her gift.
On his first night in Weep, Lazlo's dreams are visited by Sarai. She discovers that Lazlo can see her, something that has never happened before. Every night after she visits Lazlo's dreams but doesn't reveal herself or change a thing about them. Lazlo always dreams of the fantasy version of Weep he has created, and Sarai finds it beautiful. After seeing the mural of the Carnage, Lazlo believes he has seen Isagol in his dream, and can't reconcile the two women. On the sixth night, Sarai discovers that Lazlo is dreaming of her as he saw he last time. She becomes jealous of the dream Isagol and makes her disappear and take her place. They are both curious about the other, and begin talking. Sarai still doesn't reveal who she really is, letting Lazlo believe she is Isagol.
The explosion caused by Drave makes the citadel begin tipping. Sarai falls off the balcony and is impaled on a pole. Lazlo is able to right the citadel, revealing his true identity as a godspawn and that he has Skathis's power. Lazlo is heartbroken and devastated by Sarai's death and pleads with Minya to save her spirit. Minya does, but only so she can have leverage over Lazlo.
Muse of Nightmares[]
...
Relationships[]
Lazlo Strange[]
One night during Sarai's nightly outing, she stumbles into the dream of Lazlo and is quickly mesmerized by his thoughts. She decided not to scare him like how she would with the other villagers but decides to walk around in the world that he created in his dream. When she enters his dream, it turns out that Lazlo is able to see Sarai, even though no one else can. Lazlo, not knowing what or who she was, thought she was pretty despite the blue skin. Later on, Sarai goes into his dream again and she and Lazlo talk. After meeting each other a few times in Lazlo's dreams, they both fell in love.
However, Sarai can't reveal what she is because she's scared of how he'll act. Eril-Fane and his wife go to the citadel where they're horrified to find Sarai and the other godspawn to be alive. Then the accident happens, causing the citadel to tilt. Sarai falls and is impaled by a pole. This greatly devastates Lazlo and triggers his inner godspawn abilities and he goes to balance the citadel. When he gets there, Minya offers to keep Sarai's ghost around if he terrorizes the village the way the gods used to. Despite Sarai's protests, Lazlo agrees to Minya's deal.
Minya[]
Minya and Sarai have a very complicated and contentious relationship. Minya gave Sarai her name, "Muse of Nightmares," and the purpose that went with it. She made Sarai what she was. She became the weapon Minya wanted her to be and punished humans in their dreams. Every morning Minya would ask Sarai if she had made someone cry or scream.
However, ever since Sarai stoped blindly doing everything Minya tells her to do, Minya has viewed her combatively, with spite, frustration, and venom. Sarai feels indebted to Minya because she saved her life during the Carnage. Sarai's changing feelings towards the humans are viewed as a threat by Minya because they challenge a basic tenant of their lives, that the humans are their enemy and the humans view them as the enemy. Minya becomes furious with Sarai's resistance towards her. She tells Sarai she's too weak and soft. She says the most hurtful thing she can when she says she wishes she had saved a different baby. Sarai is incredibly hurt by Minya's words.
Memorable Quotes[]
Strange the Dreamer[]
Trivia[]
- Sarai dies on the second Sabbat of Twelfthmoon.
- She was eight years old the last time she had cake.
- Sarai remembers a time in her life before her gift manifested. She had hoped to have the gift of flight.
- According to Lazlo, Sarai smells of rosemary and nectar.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Strange the Dreamer: Prologue; pg. 2
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Strange the Dreamer: Chapter 16, pg. 131
- ↑ Strange the Dreamer: Chapter 17, pg. 148
- ↑ Strange the Dreamer: Chapter 17, pg. 143