A court concubine of low caste, she was sold into servitude by her parents against their debts. Heavily trained but ‘inferior’ as her caste would be taken, she was treated as spoils and repeatedly traded, abused, and otherwise re-trained in the darker arts of combat and sacrifice as she grew older and her value as a concubine declined. Now of thirty years, unusually old in itself, her latest liege was slain by betrayal as she stood over him in the fight—and she was left there to rot amongst the blood and death: too costly to kill and not worth enslaving yet again. She was cast adrift in an unstructured, barbaric world, largely unable to think past her next few meals as she struggled with her training, sense of failure, and the dark magics that had been manifested in her.

Eventually captured again by Hyrkanian nomads, she was used to train warriors until her sale to, and release by, a roaming Stygian priestess. Li-Ling and the Stygian find their skills complementary; Li-Ling’s battle order and thirst for theology to control her demons, to Yserus’ fundamentalism of Set, and inexperience in field-craft.

Both emotionally immature yet wise beyond years (in some ways), Li-Ling (“white jasmine tinkling”) balances childish behavior off the field with myrmidon-like behavior in combat. Fearless, tireless, and merciless, she is driven by cold blood-rages and crashes hard emotionally after bloody fights. She is ever modulated, expressing few highs or lows unless fighting or immediately after. When pressed, her emotions boil over in dangerously unpredictable ways. She is not a broken slave; rather, Li-Ling is a loose cannon that can go off unexpectedly unless handled properly.