Ma Linya

Biodata

Background / History

Ma Linya came from the countryside and was born into poverty. Her younger brother lost an arm after gambling at the Black Market, forcing the family to sell most of their farmland. He died in a brothel less than two years later; within another year, her adoptive parents met violent deaths, leaving her alone 14 36.

The military recruited her at sixteen. By the time she received her noble title two years later, she had treated at least five thousand people and attracted the Holy Temple’s attention. Her service earned her a baron’s medal, with an estate, a land deed, and a monthly allowance of one thousand Livre among the title’s stated benefits 22.

As an army healer, she received funding for medicinal ingredients. Yetos authorized her requests without requiring individual review, allowing her to obtain costly supplies despite her limited personal means 14.

Appearance

Ma Linya has fair skin, golden eyes, a slender figure, long legs, and neck-length reddish-gold curls. Her bearing is graceful 14.

• Usual clothing: Gray clothes beneath a cloak, with a plain gray medical bag marked by a red cross at her waist 14.
• Protective covering: A white silk scarf worn over her face during the Black-Feathered Sparrow attack to block their stench 18.
• Wedding attire: A red gown with a pleated train, a golden crown with silver ornaments, and crystal slippers supplied by Bright 33.
• Battle attire: Close-fitting white-gold armor bearing baronial emblems on its breastplate and helmet 50.

Personality

Ma Linya is attentive to her patients but brisk about treatment. She feeds and dresses the incapacitated Zeng Mu despite his embarrassment, dismisses his attempts to act stronger than he is, and teases him for talking too much. When her memory-awakening procedure nearly harms him, she apologizes and accepts his refusal to try again 14 15.

Her concern for the wounded can override caution. During the sparrow attack, she tries to leave shelter to rescue fallen knights until Zeng Mu and Kanni stop her. Rather than remain helpless indoors, she turns to medicine as a way to protect the city 18 19.

She is also capable of calculated deception. To obtain a Blue Starfish that cannot safely be stolen, she accepts Bright’s marriage proposal, gains his voluntary transfer of ownership, and then sedates him. Her purpose is to resolve Sand City’s poisoned-water crisis 33 34 35.

Her family’s losses underpin her hatred of gambling, and she openly disapproves of men visiting brothels. As a newly ennobled baron, she insists that serving the Holy Temple includes fighting rather than hiding during an attack 24 36 50.

Abilities & Skills

Elemental Medicine

Ma Linya prepares medicines from herbs and Elemental Beast ingredients. Her work requires knowledge of ingredient properties, careful blending, and greater concentration than ordinary medicine 14 20.

• Wound treatment: Stabilizes Zeng Mu’s life-threatening injuries and treats a bone-deep wound with elemental herbs. Her medicine, assisted by Yetos’s residual Wood Element energy, allows him to recover in roughly two days 14 15.
• Acupoint massage: Helps strengthen an unconscious patient’s awareness and accelerates absorption of medicinal treatment 14.
• Elementalist tonics: Prepares a foundation-strengthening, vitality-nourishing tonic for the newly awakened Zeng Mu using Flat Fern-Wing Duck blood, Green Bamboo sap, cypress roots, and other ingredients 30.
• Sedation: Uses dizziness-inducing powder already placed in Bright’s nostrils to make him fall asleep 35.
• Limit: Her best available medicine cannot match the recovery benefits that an absorbing Elemental Source provides to nearby Elementalists 28.

Repellents and Beast Countermeasures

Her medicinal knowledge extends to deterring dangerous animals and countering biological threats 19 24 35.

• Iron-Armored Beast Powder: Extracted from the beast’s liver; repels Black-Feathered Sparrows and other vicious birds for approximately ten minutes, until it evaporates 19.
• Fragrant Herb Potion: Uses fragrant herb and Elemental Rainbow Butterflies to disrupt the sparrows. The finished liquid releases a strong fragrance when heated; citywide dispersal depends on Yetos’s assistance 19 21.
• Snake repellent: Keeps Yellow Sand Diamondback Snakes out of her stone house 24.
• Blue Starfish countermeasure: Recognizes the fish as a natural enemy of Red Night Ants capable of purifying their toxins 35.

Memory Awakening

Ma Linya attempts to guide Zeng Mu into his subconscious using charcoal, a firelighter, and a scarf 15.

• The procedure produces a vision of a peaceful village but does not recover his name or the village’s location 15.
• Performing it too soon after severe physical and mental injury risks leaving the exhausted subconscious unable to awaken 15.
• She describes the technique as an aid rather than a substitute for memories reconnecting naturally 15.

Swordsmanship and Agility

Although introduced as a healer, Ma Linya is a proficient swordswoman. Her performance against the snake tide surprises Zeng Mu, who had worried about her ability to fight 26.

• Combines thrusts, cuts, chops, jabs, sweeps, parries, and rapid changes of position 26.
• Fights through the Snake King’s violent elemental-energy surge and insists she can continue despite exhaustion 26.
• Escapes an overturning carriage with several aerial somersaults and lands securely 32.
• Fights coalition soldiers at Sand City’s eastern gate while Kanni guards her back 50.

Observation and Elemental Beast Knowledge

Ma Linya uses smell, sound, and specialist knowledge to assess unfamiliar situations 25 34 36.

• Beast identification: Recognizes the Yellow Sand Diamondback Snake King and estimates it to be at least twenty years old from its golden tail ring 25.
• Elemental Sources: Identifies the source released by the Snake King and explains its restorative effects 27 28.
• Scent recognition: Notices Bright’s persistent fishy smell, leading her to Little Blue 34.
• Sound location: Listens against a tree trunk and directs the party to Hidden Lake by bearing and distance 36.
• Limit: Cannot identify the Black-and-White Fruit and recommends consulting Cobert 41.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Medical bag — Gray pouch marked with a red cross; carries bandages, elemental herbs, powders, and treatment tools 14 15 19.
• Beast Tweezers — Made from an Earth Element Mole’s shinbones, which are hard and naturally disinfecting; used to remove herbal residue from exposed bone 15.
• Elemental Medicine book — Obtained from Cobert; contains the tonic recipe she uses for Zeng Mu after his awakening 19 30 31.
• Sand City map — A yellowed birch-bark scroll used to explain the route to the herbal shop 19.
• Pale-gold sword — Awarded with her baronial title and forged by White Miles 24 32.
• Baron’s battle armor — High-quality white-gold armor worn during the coalition assault 50.
• Little Blue — A weak Water Elemental Beast known as a Blue Starfish. Bright verbally transfers ownership to her; taking it without that consent would cause it to die within a day 34 35.

Relationships

• Zeng Mu / Nameless — Patient and traveling companion. She treats his injuries, attempts to restore his memories, and supports his recovery after becoming an Elementalist. He protects her from Viking arrows, while she anxiously awaits his return to Sand City and later asks for him during the battle 14 15 30 36 38 40 50.
• Kanni — Comrade who entrusts Zeng Mu to her care and accompanies her on the water mission. Their exchanges are often argumentative; he guards her back during the eastern-gate fighting 14 24 31 50.
• Yetos — Commanding officer who funds her treatment supplies, assists Zeng Mu’s healing, and selects her for the Hidden Lake mission 14 31.
• Cobert / Uncle Bert — Herbal merchant and source of medical knowledge. Yetos considers Ma Linya the person Cobert is most willing to hear out, though her attempt to persuade him to join the mission still fails until Kanni threatens him 30 31.
• Bright — Bandit chief whose marriage proposal she accepts to secure Little Blue. The formal ceremony is postponed; she gains ownership of the fish, persuades him to visit Sand City, and sedates him before departing 33 34 35.
• White Miles / Uncle White — Sand City blacksmith who forged her sword. She knows his history well enough to tell Bright that his uncle survived Black Iron Town’s destruction 32 34.
• Adoptive family — Her brother’s gambling losses and death, followed by her adoptive parents’ violent deaths, leave her alone 36.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Zeng Mu’s Recuperation

Ma Linya oversees Zeng Mu’s recovery in Sand City, treating his severe injuries and caring for him after he awakens. Her unsuccessful memory-awakening attempt reveals a village in his subconscious but leaves his identity unresolved. Once his wounds close, she takes him outside to resume moving 14 15.

Sand City’s Beast Attacks

During the Black-Feathered Sparrow attack, she shelters Zeng Mu and Kanni, supplies temporary repellent for their trip to Cobert’s shop, and prepares the Fragrant Herb Potion. After the crisis, they deliver rare herbs and her baron’s medal 18 19 20 21 22.

She later joins the investigation of the snake tide, identifies the Snake King, and fights alongside the commanders. After Zeng Mu kills it, she recognizes the Elemental Source that gives him the opportunity to become an Elementalist 24 25 26 27 28.

Poisoned Wells and the Hidden Lake Mission

The warm water she brings Zeng Mu contains Red Night Ants, exposing contamination of Sand City’s wells. Yetos sends her with Zeng Mu, Kanni, and Cobert to retrieve water from Hidden Lake under a merchant disguise 30 31.

A bandit ambush leads her to Bright and Little Blue. By securing the fish’s ownership, she obtains a means of addressing the contamination rather than merely replacing the city’s water temporarily 32 33 34 35.

She locates Hidden Lake, survives Viking attacks with Zeng Mu’s protection, and returns ahead of the two knights with Cobert and the Emerald Bead. She subsequently returns the artifact to Zeng Mu 36 38 40 41.

Defense of the Eastern Gate

When the coalition breaches Sand City’s eastern gate, Ma Linya fights in her baronial armor. She rejects Kanni’s suggestion that she remain sheltered, invokes her duty to the Holy Temple, and demands to know where Nameless is 50.

Notable Quotes

“Of course. Saving lives and tending the wounded is my job.” 14

“We have to do something. We can't just stay here and ignore everyone else.” 18

“Don't forget, I'm a Baron, after all. I have a duty to serve the Holy Temple.” 50