Anna

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Anna was left on the streets as a young child and survived through Li En’s kindness. Raised under the same roof as Li Mo, she became his childhood friend. Once old enough, she insisted on taking responsibility for the household’s maid work to repay Li En, despite his attempts to dissuade her. Her only remembered connection to her parents is a lullaby 2 32.

Alongside her household duties, Anna attended secondary school with Li Mo and consistently ranked near the top of her grade. Following his withdrawal from the academy in Wellington, she worried that his constant reading reflected distress and sleeplessness. She initially cooperated with Li En’s attempt to discourage his immediate return to school, only to discover that his mathematics had far exceeded her expectations 1 2 3.

Appearance

• General appearance: Li Mo considers her strikingly beautiful and describes her usual maid outfit as old-fashioned 9.
• School uniform: A long dark pleated skirt, fitted dark-gray buttoned vest, and white blouse 9.
• Everyday clothing: Changes back into her maid uniform when resuming household duties 16.
• Ritual sign: Her hair rises and moves without wind while she performs basic mystical practice 7 8 60.

Personality

Anna sharply separates her household role from her friendship with Li Mo. At home, she insists on addressing him as “Young Master” and maintaining the distinction between maid and master, even when they are alone. Outside, she speaks to him as an equal, scolds him by name, and freely challenges his neglect of his health 9 31.

Her protectiveness is practical and persistent: she catches Li Mo when he stumbles, takes him home when exhausted, and supervises his rest. Although she lectures him about overwork, she resolves to sacrifice two hours of her own sleep to train in mysticism. She repeatedly underestimates her exceptional talent, believing that she must work harder to compensate for being ordinary 8 12 15.

Anna also enjoys teasing Li Mo and knows his personality well enough to turn his attempts to embarrass her back on him. Her composure has limits, however; she becomes angry when he disregards her boundaries or makes light of her embarrassment 17 24 41 60.

Abilities & Skills

Mystical Aptitude

Anna displays unusually rapid comprehension and spiritual sensitivity despite initially refusing to study mysticism or use the household’s mystical creations 7.

• Exceptional awakening speed: Her introductory ritual takes less than a minute, compared with the three or four days Li Mo needed when he first learned it 8.
• Rapid learning: Masters Ember Rewind after being taught once 25.
• Research significance: Li Mo regards her as exceptionally suited to drawing energy from the Red Moon. He hypothesizes that differences in innate blood-vessel networks help explain individual mystical talent 60.

Ember Rewind

A first-rank investigative ritual that allows Anna to perceive lingering images of past events at a location 26 57.

• Method: Regulates her breathing in a repeating pattern of two long breaths and one short breath, scatters charcoal powder, and traces paths through the air. The powder hangs suspended while she describes the images she perceives 26.
• Crime reconstruction: Witnesses Thomas’s final moments and the attack on Helen 26 28.
• Tracking: Identifies the western birch woods as the kidnapper’s destination and later locates a concealed cellar 28 29.
• Physical cost: Repeated use leaves her severely weakened; Li Mo has to catch or support her after rituals 28 29 31.
• Incomplete images: Cannot clearly make out Helen’s kidnapper’s face during the reconstruction 28.
• Countermeasures: Powerful shielding can leave her seeing only blankness, as at Morris’s murder scene 57.

Physical Strength and Health

• Strength: Once knocks an aggressive drunk unconscious with a single punch 10.
• Constitution: Li Mo recalls never seeing her fall ill while they were growing up 10.
• Balance and reflexes: Catches Li Mo when he stumbles and can carry him home when he is exhausted 15 23.

Cooking and Caregiving

• Experienced cook: Has more than a decade of cooking experience by age eighteen. Through experimentation, she develops techniques resembling Maillard browning and low-temperature cooking 66.
• Signature food: Her bacon sandwiches are a childhood staple for Li Mo, who associates their flavor with a mother’s cooking 5.
• Caregiving: Treats wounds, prepares food and warm milk, and helps distressed companions settle to sleep 31 32 59.
• Comforting others: Uses her remembered lullaby to soothe Helen after the kidnapping 32.

Relationships

• Li Mo — Childhood friend, employer, classmate, and mysticism teacher. Anna initially understands her affection as that of an older sister toward a younger brother; Li Mo likewise regards her as family. Their closeness later becomes more emotionally complicated, without an explicit confirmation that they are dating 2 17 18 19 23 30.
• Li En — Her benefactor and the head of the household she serves. He regards her as a daughter and supports her efforts to look after Li Mo 2 16.
• Wayne — Friend and investigative companion. She exchanges barbs with him, questions his motives for wanting an invisibility cloak, and calms him when Matthew provokes him 20 28 30.
• Helen — Rescued friend who turns to Anna for reassurance after her kidnapping. Anna comforts her, helps her bathe, and arranges sleeping accommodations so she will not be left alone 29 31 32.
• Sheriff Sanders — Works with Anna and Li Mo on murder investigations, relying on her ritual ability to supplement physical evidence 25 26 56 57.

Story Role / Major Arcs