Yelena Zaltana

Yelena
Full Name:	Yelena Liana Zaltana
Alias(es):	Puker, Ellion, Lavender Lady
Clan:	Zaltana
Family:	Leif Zaltana (Brother), Perl Zaltana (Mother), Esau Zaltana (Father), Chestnut Zaltana (Cousin), Hazelnut Zaltana (Cousin), Valek (heartmate) Unborn Child
Magician:	Yes; Soulfinder
Appearance:	Black hair pulled back into a single long braid, oval face, green eyes, tanned skin
Home Territory:	Sitia; Zaltana Clan
Occupation:	Intermediary between Sitia and Ixia
Status:	Alive

Yelena is a Zaltana Soulfinder. At the age of six she was kidnapped and taken into Ixia. She is the oldest survivor of General Brazell and Mogkan's orphans who had had their souls stolen. She is also the liaison between Ixia and Sitia. She is also technically a Fourth Magician with her spirit guide being a bat.

Early Life

Until the age of six years old, Yelena grew up with her mother, father, brother and cousins in the Zaltana Clan.

Kidnapping

One day, Yelena's eight-year-old brother Leif announced his intentions to go down to the jungle floor to play. Yelena agreed, and went with him. Once down there, Yelena went off on her own and almost tripped over a man, later revealed to be Kangom, or Mogkan. The man claimed to have hurt his ankle and asked if she could help him stand. Yelena agreed, but as soon as she did so the man drugged her and abducted her, smuggling her into Ixia. It was later revealed that Leif saw her kidnapping but did nothing, out of fear of being harmed or killed. Shortly after coming to Brazell's orphanage, Yelena's memories were wiped and she was told that she had been found by Mogkan in Ixia and that her parents were dead.   

For the next ten years, Yelena was raised in Brazell's orphanage alongside the other orphans, who became like a family to her. Yelena gained a special friendship with May and Carra, and she looked after them.   

When being in the orphanage she is turned into a laboratory rat and is tortured by Reyad, Brazil and Mokgan to surrender her soul to them. During her time being a lab rat she starts to do acrobatics. One year she goes to the fire festival to perform in a competition but is caught by Reyad. Then Brazell confirms that she will never pass and let's Reyad take control of her. Reyad tortures her and the following rape leads her to murder him...   

Life as the Commander's food-taster

When Reyad crosses the line, Yelena kills her rapist. Admitting to the crime, she is imprisoned for a year until a foodtaster prior to her dies. She is pulled from her cell and as next to be hanged she offered the job in exchange for her life. Yelena takes it becoming Commander Ambrose's foodtaster. When she is offered the job she responds that only a fool would turn down the job and she was not a fool.

She is trained in the art of detecting poisons and her job becomes to taste a sample of Commander Ambrose's food for poisons and prevent assassination plots via his meals. Valek teaches her to recognize poisons and keeps her from running away by feeding her a poison called Butterfly Dust, leading her to believe that if she doesn't have the antidote every day, she will die. Along the way, she falls in love with Valek. Valek also starts to trust her despite his doubts and recommends her for a job in a game. She plays the part of the criminal and tries to avoid being caught for as long as possible. During this game she meets her future mentor Irys who tells her that she is a magician. After leaving Irys she allows herself to be caught by two soldiers named Ari and Janco. She gives the Commander a good review of them and they are so grateful that they offer her a favor. This leads to them teaching her how to fight. She becomes a proficient fighter thanks to her flexibility and magical ability.

She and Valek discover the General Brazell and a rogue magician from Sitia are behind the plot as well as kidnapping children from Sitia, including Yelena, for their magical abilities. The magican has the stolen souls and magic of many young adolescents. He has opened the Commander's mind to magical influence. Yelena and Valek defeat him and capture Brazell, but the Commander's mind has fled. Yelena uses her magic to find it and discovers that the Commander was born a woman and promises to keep the secret. However, because of her magic, she is no longer allowed to stay in Ixia and leaves for Sitia with Irys to learn to control her magic and reunite with her family.

Living in the Magicians Keep

After returning the surviving children to their families, Yelena meets hers. Despite the being welcomed by her parents who she cannot remember, her brother states that she smells of blood and appears to despise her. Because her brother can sense what a soul has done, many believe him. However, Irys rebukes them and reminds them that as Fourth Magician she also has blood on her hands and they have no idea what Yelena had to experience in Ixia.

As Yelena and Leif leave for the Academy to advise the Council and she to begin her magician training, they are ambushed by Cahil who believes he is the heir to the Ixian throan who keeps her chained. Yelena escapes, but returns to prove she is innocent.

The First Magician invades Yelena's mind, but Yelena is able to fight her off by reaching out to Valek through their connection and drawing a marble curtain around her mind, but not before Roze knows enought to tell she isn't a spy. Yelena later tells Cahil that the experience was worse than being raped. During her training, Yelena assists helping a young woman, Tula, who had been raped and beaten by a serial killer but manages to escape. By recovering her soul  with the assitance of Tula's sister Opal and her own brother Leif and persuading her to come back, Yelena and many others discover that she is likely a Soulfinder, a very powerful magician feared by most Sitians. Yelena tries not believe this as the last Soulfinder stole people's souls and animated a souless army before he was killed. She has a talent for influencing people and can at times take over their bodies, leaving her own. Yelena's methods for relying on herself bring the wrath of her mentor, the Fourth Magician Irys, when she goes off on her own to meet the serial killer, who has taken eleven souls of girls and needs a twelfth to come willingly. Irys breaks off the mind link between them in anger. Yelena asks Valek for help and he arrvies in disguise with an Ixian delgation and has a natural immunity to magic. Together, and with help from her brother, they capture the killer. With the help of a Story Weaver, Moon Man, Yelena and Leif work out their differences as well, though they still banter as siblings.

However, the killer nicknamed, Ferde, is not the only rogue magician out there. Yelena and another group of magicians fight many of the roughes but are forced to retreat to fight another day. Yelena and the delegation head back to Ixia. At the Commander's request, Yelena joins them, where he promises to revoke her death sentence if she becomes a spy. Instead she asks to become an liaison between the two countries once her magic training is complete.

Moving into Irys's Tower

Yelena moves into Irys tower.

Exile

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The Fire Warper

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