Kosika

	"They didn't really want to know. They thought they did, but knowing only made them miserable."
	This article contains plot details and potential spoilers for the Shades of Magic series, particularly for The Fragile Threads of Power. If you have not begun reading the books or are not too far into the story, please do refrain from reading.

Kosika
General Information
Full name	Kosika
Alias	Kosika (Little Queen) Kojsinka (Little Tyrant)
London	White
Gender	Female
Birthday	1813
Age	14
Magic
Professional status
Occupation	Queen of Makt Thief (former)
Residence	White Castle
Personal status
Status	Alive
Family	Unnamed mother
Physical description
Hair Color	Brown-blonde
Eye Color	Black (left) Green/grey/blue/hazel (right)

Queen Kosika is the teenage Antari queen of Makt and the heir and acolyte of Holland Vosijk, the Someday King, also called the Summer Saint.

Physical description

Kosika is described as an in-between girl, with in-between skin, in-between hair (later referred to as brown-blonde), and in-between eye(s) that are neither green nor grey nor blue. Lila Bard calls Kosika's non-Antari eye hazel.

Often, Kosika wears her hair up in a braided crown. On special occasions, such as tithing days, she will wear jeweled pins in it. She also wear layers of "ritual white" for tithing days, though she usually wears white in general.

Personality

Before she became queen, Kosika had been used to the disrespect she received from adults and the inability to rely on them. Though a little feral and tending to bite, she had decent manners, even if she hardly had reason to exercise them. When the soldier who knocked her out was arrested, Kosika thought it odd, as she'd been hit a dozen times before and never even been told sorry. Though she can be serious and a little sullen, her mood tends to lift when spending time with her friend Lark. Kosika is hungry, always wanting more, whether it's stealing more than she should to indulge or sweet tooth or bringing life and magic back to White London.

After her crowning, it took her time to settle in at and be comfortable in the White Castle. She found solace in Nasi, who she quickly became close with.

As Kosika grew into her role, she started making her own decisions for the city. This forced her to harden up to combat the pushback that comes with making those decisions. Some began to grow displeased with or hateful towards her (even within her own council of Vir), particularly after the implementation of the tithe. The tithe, which she had ordered first once (presumably at age eight), then once a year (at nine), then twice (at ten), might have been what brought about her new title, only used when she is not there: Kojsinka (Little Tyrant). Since then, the tithing frequency has doubled, and the city now bleeds at the beginning of each season.

Kosika loves her friends and her world, always doing what she thinks is best for her city.

Presently, the queen is disturbed with how hungry she can feel the world is, and worries the magic will once again retreat. Though her temper has been infamous for several years, nowadays she truly is almost tyrannical. She does what she wants on her own time and takes nothing from anyone, least of all her Vir. Kosika utilizes people's fear of her and has become threatening to those around her by both her uncontrollable, unstable power and her nasty attitude. She is not quite as so around Nasi, Lark, or Holland's ghost.

All her life, she has been very anxious. Some things, like passing the guards to walk the castle halls at night, no longer have much of an effect on her (though she still sometimes feels like an intruder). In many situations she tends to fear the worst. Her unease can quickly shift to panic, understandable in cases like her impromptu first trip to Black London, but it's also something present in her conversations with Holland's ghost. Kosika is prone to laying awake, sometimes all night, when she is scared or something is worrying at her. When it comes to her personal safety, she makes sure that she is prepared even in situations where she is pretty sure she is not in danger, like her ride with Serak. However, Kosika is confident in her Antari power and is easily able to handle assassination attempts (save for the one that cut her off from her magic when she was nine), and doubts any of the Vir could actually kill her.

Biography

Age seven

Kosika used to thieve with her friend Lark, working together and splitting the profits. On this particular day, Kosika is searching a currently empty house for anything of value, having gotten in through the chimney. She finds a bag of sugar cubes and, against her own rules, takes the whole thing for herself. Kosika also finds magic-binding amulets that Lark is able to sell. Since the door is warded, she exits the way she came and reconvenes with Lark before heading home.

When she arrives, Kosika's mother tries to sell her to collectors that trade in people, particularly those with magic, though Kosika has none. Being young and small and not having yet experienced the hard life of starving for and binding magic, Kosika is able to outrun them. She takes refuge in the Silver Wood, which many children think is haunted. But, emboldened, Kosika goes deeper where she finds the body of Holland Vosijk. On closer inspection, she finds grass growing underneath him and accidentally brushes his hand trying to touch it. Kosika leaves him with a sugar cube and flees upon the imminent arrival of three Vir, whose identities are unknown.

The next day, Kosika goes back to find the body gone and that the grass had spread (though it has been the same size in the seven years since). Later, Lark tells Kosika the news of the dead king, and she realizes that was him in the Silver Wood. Kosika begins to feels the effects of magic in herself and the world around her. When they split up, Lark is caught by collectors, and Kosika gets there to see that there are three. One she kills by collapsing a piece of the Votkas Mar on top of him, another she forces to drive his sword through his own chest. The third slits Lark's throat. Kosika hurries to him and uses her first blood command, As Hasari, to save him.

Two soldiers and a Vir—Patjoric—arrive on the scene. Patjoric recognizes Kosika as Antari and wants her to go to the White Castle with him. In fear of Kosika's power, one of the soldiers knocks her out (and is later arrested for it). She is brought to the castle unconscious.

Kosika wakes up in what will be her room, with Nasi there having been waiting. Kosika sees the damage she caused from the window and also realizes where she is. Nasi tells her that Lark is okay, and explains the situation the Kosika. The king is dead, but the Vir think if they crown Kosika queen, it will yield the best and most peaceful resolution. Kosika all but agrees to it.

Age eight

Kosika's first year as queen was relatively peaceful; there had been no attacks or attempts on her life, as far as she was aware.

Unable to sleep one night, she ventures out into the White Castle. Though she usually follows the outermost corridor, eventually bringing her back to her own spire and room, this time she stops at a different set of stairs. At the top, she finds Serak making devotions at an altar with a statue of Holland. The statue is placed in front of the door to his old room.

Since Kosika knows very little about Holland, she politely asks Serak to tell her about him. Serak has a love for stories and the telling of them, and Kosika is intrigued, so she begins meeting him there every night.

A month later, Kosika has become well versed with many of White London's stories, and also ones of the other worlds, telling them to herself every day. She is in the courtyard with Nasi when she decides to try to grow a garden. The world does not provide her with a spell, so she digs her hands into the dirt and tries using As Hasari. Unexpectedly, the earth begins to violently pull Kosika's magic down into itself and she is only saved by Serak withdrawing her hands. She falls asleep for a week.

During this time, she has her first dream of the beating heart in the Silver Wood. Kosika can feel the pulse beneath her feet, she began to dig, just managing to get her fingers around the heart before she wakes up.

Upon waking, Kosika tells Nasi and Serak that she wanted to help and thought she could heal the land, though she feels foolish about it now. Serak tells her that she does not have enough blood to water the whole world, and so Kosika suggests the first tithe.

Age ten

One night, Serak uses a lantern to demonstrate what happened to the magic of White London. With all other lights extinguished, he told Kosika how they had bound magic whilst closing off the lantern flame from oxygen. The light goes out. Then, Serak sparks it again using his magic and explains that the little flame was what Holland did for them. When he asks Kosika what she will do, she sets the hundred unlit candles around them ablaze.

Nasi comes to her one day and tells her of the Vir's secret meeting. Coldly furious, she interrupts them by loudly entering the throne room. None of the Vir are pleased to see her, and Patjoric takes initiative in attempting to placate her. Kosika takes her place on the throne and resumes the discussion.

The Vir were thinking of reestablishing communication with the other Londons. Two unnamed Vir and Patjoric seem in favor. Kosika is against the idea, as it would have to be her delivering the letters and she sees it more beneficial to focus on their own world. Serak approves and Reska points out what they'd be risking if Kosika were to go.

Lastos speaks up, saying the the walls between worlds will fall and they should know their enemies before they have to fight them. Lastos gestures when he talks, and Kosika points out that he had not participated in the recent tithe. He initially waves her off, but she commands him to tithe now. Patjoric warns Lastos as the latter starts to venture in dangerous territory, pushing back against the queen, who has been calling Kojsinka (Little Tyrant) when she is not around.

Lastos does not think Holland to have been the someday king, and faces reproach from his fellow Vir for his beliefs. He credits their world's revival to the course of nature. Lastos becomes increasingly angry with Kosika, calling her arrogant and a little girl, and Kosika points out that she is queen because the Vir had made her so. Lastos says that they shouldn't have. He looks for support from the other Vir, but none is given.

Kosika dismisses him from his position. Unable to simply walk away, Lastos asserts that she should have been killed, since the best thing Holland ever did for them was die. He is cut off by Serak, who had stabbed him in the back for his "blasphemy." He dies on the throne room floor, and Kosika considers his spilled blood a waste.

Serak reaffirms his loyalty to the queen and spurs the other remaining Vir to do the same.

Age thirteen

Having become increasingly curious about the sealed door to Holland's room behind the altar, Kosika finally opens it one afternoon. Inside, she finds a cloak hanging on the wall and written notes on the desk. One simply says "OSARON" and, as with some of Kosika's other spells, she unintentionally speaks As Osaro into being. This enshrouds the room in an impenetrable darkness. Panicked, once she is able to counter it with As Illumae, she quickly leaves.

That night, she goes back to meet with Serak. She tells him to tell her the different versions of the story of the ten days between the deaths of the Danes and Holland's return. Among them, there is a version where he died and another saying he went to Black London and brought something back, the latter of which is true. But Serak says that Holland would never do such a thing, and Kosika agrees in kind even as she realizes that he actually might have.

She goes back to Holland's room the next day, returning to desk to see that, in addition to the papers, there is a sealed box that can be opened with As Orense. Inside are Holland's tokens to the other Londons, including one for Black London made of glassy stone. When Kosika picks it up, just as has happened many times before, her lips are forming the spell without her conscious thought. As Travars sends her falling from her position four stories up in White London to a street in Black. Though she manages to slow her descent, she still lands hard enough to break the Black London token into shards and leave a bloody handprint on the ground.

Kosika realized what she had done and where she was. Once again, she begins to panic. The feel of the city is disturbing, dead, and cold. Though she worries, nothing happens with the blood she left on the ground, as far as she can tell. But the air is heavy with ash and she covers her mouth with her sleeve so as not to breathe it in. Kosika attempts to travel back to her London, but tries using that Black London token. She figures out she needs a token from her world instead and uses her arrow-point knife (a gift from Serak) to return. When she does, she does not experience resistance the way Holland, hosting Osaron, did. She is now on the first floor, in the great hall. The Vir, servants, soldiers, and nobles are surprised by her sudden appearance, particularly because she was unrecognizable at first under the all ash she brought back with her. Kosika turns away and leaves without giving an explanation.

When Kosika arrives at her room to take a bath, Nasi is there. Kosika does not answer her friend's questions about what happened as she undresses and gets in the bath, not until Nasi began washing her hair (a feeling Kosika loves). She tells her about Holland's room and the token box and Black London, then says to burn her clothes. When Nasi does, the shards of the Black London token fall to the floor, and she takes one and puts it up to her eye in a way that made her appear Antari. The pieces are then set aside and Nasi leaves Kosika to herself.

Kosika falls asleep in the bath, though she does not know it. It feels real, and she gets out, grabs her robe, and goes to return the token pieces to the box on the desk. When she enters Holland's room, however, the candles are all lit and he is there. Holland knows what she has done and his anger frightens her awake, still in the bath. She repeats the same process and successful puts the token shards back in the box, though she does not seal it. That night, she lies awake, afraid. She finally falls asleep some time in the early morning, and her dream takes her back to Holland's room where she finds him again. She kneels this time, and Holland asks who she is, then tells her he has been waiting and turns away. Kosika is unable to follow wherever he tries to lead her as Nasi shakes her awake. Due to Kosika's restlessness, Nasi decides to stop sleeping in the bed with her. Kosika is entirely fine with this.

Holland continues to appear in Kosika's dreams for the next week and seems to be more real each time. He tells her about his life, though more in depth than any of Serak's stories, and also of his time before Ros Vortalis. Kosika assumes is just her imagination creating these details and this projection. She voices this to him, one night, but he claims that he is really there, her dreams overlapping with the shadow world or waiting place in which he resides. Holland wonders why she has found him now, of all times, and ask if she has done something. He remembers the open box and the Black London token Kosika had taken and becomes angry with her again. Holland grips her shoulders to the point of pain and demands she tell him she took nothing back from Black London. Kosika becomes scared that she accidentally might have, but Holland tells her she would know. He confirms that he did go to Black London and brought out Osaron, though he tells her that Osaron's fire was put out with his own. Kosika wonders how it is possible for Holland to be there if what he said was true, though says nothing.

Another time, Holland tells her about the other worlds, seemingly preparing her to visit them. She says she doesn't see the point. This is the first time, though not the last, Holland becomes displeased with her. The next night, she is unable to find him, searching until she wakes up. She sees him standing at the window, in her room, and assumes that this is also a dream. She realizes it is not when Nasi enters. Though he is perfectly visible and audible to Kosika, Nasi cannot see or hear him, and Kosika is terrified of what that means and what Holland might be. Holland chastises her for her doubt and lack of faith, though Kosika is quick to assure him that she isn't slipping. She sends Nasi away. Holland tells Kosika that he chose her in the Silver Wood, and asks if he had chosen wrong, and Kosika desperately responds that he didn't. He placates her with a reminder that his power is now hers, and grows a sapling between their joined hands. With no doubt or hesitation, Kosika promises to be his servant, his hands, and to follow his guidance.

Present day

It is the day of the tithe for when summer gives way to autumn, Kosika's favorite due to the changing colors of the leaves and sky, and also it being her birthday. She is now fourteen, which she is proud of because it means she has been queen for half her life and from this point on she can say she'd ruled longer than she hadn't.

Kosika sets out on the tithing road, completing the first of three blood sacrifices at the statue of Holland the Servant in the castle courtyard. The second tithe is at the banks of the Sijlt with a statue of Holland the King. After Kosika says the ritual words, letting the blood flow into the river, she stops a knife thrown to kill her. Though the soldiers are quick to find the attacker and are prepared to kill him, Kosika tells them to wait. The man is one who believes Holland Vosijk's death meant more than his life and tells Kosika that the earth only wants her Antari blood. Kosika rests her bloody hand on his shoulder and waits for what the world wants from him. The spell given to her is As Orense, to open, and the man's body splits apart. Kosika sends his blood into the river.

The third and final tithe takes places at the edge of the Silver Wood and the statue of Holland the Saint. Kosika cuts deeper than the other times for this offering. The Silver Wood is a place of peace and comfort for her, now, and she makes her way to her own personal, private, fourth tithe. No one but her is allowed into the Silver Wood. She goes to the place where Holland died, where the grass still grows, and bleeds there.

It is dark when Kosika arrives back at the White Castle, and she is tired. As with every tithing day, the great hall is filled with people there for the feast and party the Vir insist upon having. Kosika does not agree with these parties as she sees tithing days as days of sacrifice, devotion, and prayer. Already exhausted and wishing to clean up and sleep, she heads for the stairs. Reska cuts her off, telling the queen she must stay, before realizing her mistake and kneeling. Kosika, steely, puts her hand on the Vir's shoulder, a threat after the events with the assassin earlier that day. Reska assures her that if she is tired, she should rest, and the Vir will host the party in her stead and honor.

Nasi catches up to her on the stairs, calling Kosika out on her treatment of Reska. When Kosika turns so they are face to face, Nasi asks why she is so mad and the anger deflates out of her, though she is still ticked. She voices her grievances and her worries, then asked if the people of White London would follow her if the magic disappeared again. Nasi tells her they won't, but it is no concern as Kosika would open her veins into the Sijlt before anyone could kill her. Nasi kisses her on the cheek and hands her a birthday gift, then heads back done to the party. The gift is the most important kol-kot piece, the king, but instead modeled after Kosika.

Kosika replaces the silver and white king with her piece in the kol-kot board in her room. She returns Holland's greeting, and they discuss the tithe and the magic of their world while Kosika cleans her cuts. Kosika is impatient and worries that what they are doing will not be enough, that she as an Antari will not be enough, and Holland reads her thoughts. He says that what they have is better than what they had and she expects too much. She remains resolute in her ideas, knowing that their world can be much more than what it is.

Lark knocks on the door with dinner for the both of them, and Kosika invites him in. Holland stays, though Lark cannot see him, a fact Kosika takes pleasure in as it means that she was chosen. As they eat, Lark mentions how he hardly ever sees her anymore, as the Kosika he sees outside of privacy is Kosika the queen. She wishes that she and the queen were separate, as she is both not a proper queen and not girl she was. Lark doesn't, telling her that she is changing the world, then describes the party downstairs. When he leaves, he wishes her a happy birthday and gifts her a bag of sugar cubes. Once there alone, she asks Holland if he remembers her putting a sugar cube in his hand in the Silver Wood. He does not, but justifies it by saying that was only his body and he was already gone. Kosika points out the flaw in his logic, asks how he could choose her if he were not there, but is met with heavy silence and a dark look before he says that it only matters that he did. Though Kosika tells herself that he, her saint, was right and she should not question him, it keeps her awake that night.

The next morning, Kosika watches Lark and the other soldiers train from the castle terrace. Larks looks up at her after he beats his sparring partner, flashing her a smile that makes Kosika smile herself. Nasi sneaks up on Kosika, teasing her about having a crush. When Kosika tells her that she and Lark are like siblings to her, Nasi draws nearer, insisting that one day Kosika will want more. At the queen's rebuke, Nasi simply says that she just doesn't want Kosika to be alone. But Kosika is never alone, anymore, as Holland is at her side then just the way he has been for almost a year.

Lark shows up at Kosika's door one morning, a basket in hand, calling them both out for a picnic to make the most of the good weather that always comes after a tithe. Lulled by Nasi reading aloud from her book of poetry and feeling full, tired, and warm from the sun, Kosika is unable to keep herself from falling asleep.

Kosika has her second dream (or rather, nightmare) about the beating heart in the Silver Wood. She (in the dream) wakes in her bed in the middle of the night to the sound of revelry in the great hall. Though the celebrations that come with tithing days should be done, the party is bigger than ever. The crowd press against and jostle her as she tries to cross the room, and she feels less like a queen than an intruding child. In the middle of the room is a fountain with Holland, not a statue, holding a bowl overflowing with his blood. People fill their empty glasses and drink. When nobody acknowledges Kosika's commands to stop, she runs. Only the Vir turn to watch her leave, and she flees to the castle doors, emerging not into the courtyard but the Silver Wood. She once again starts digging for the heart, this time exposing it as soft and human-sized and silver-white in color. Kosika recognizes it as the heart of the city, and when she holds it in her hands, she can see White London as it used to be, and how she is determined can be again. But the heart begins to fail, and the image of a prosperous White London fading with it, becoming cold and hard and dead. The heart stops beating in her hands and Kosika wakes up.

Nasi and Lark had been talking quietly while she slept, not having wanted to rouse her, though she wished they had. The remains of the picnic are still between them. Kosika notices a little braid Nasi had put in Lark's hair as Nasi picks her poetry reading back up. Despite the recent tithe, Kosika swears she can feel the magic fading, that it's not enough, that what she is doing is not enough. Lark interrupts her thoughts by throwing a cherry at her head. He says that it must have fallen from above, but there are no cherry trees in the orchard. Kosika, smiling wickedly, takes up a knife to cut herself. Using the pit from the cherry and As Athera, Kosika grows a new cherry tree to full maturity in seconds.

After the picnic, Kosika returns to the tree. It is tall and in full bloom, but the trees around it look sickly, starved and fading. Holland joins her and tells her that magic is not an infinite resource. Kosika remembers the heart of the world in the Silver Wood. As they stand there, Serak approaches. He will not tell her what is the matter, only that she is need, and he brings her to a carriage at the castle gates. When Serak catches her speaking to Holland and is reasonably confused, Kosika considers telling him the truth, but Holland's look keeps her silent in the end.

The carriage takes them away from the castle and into the city. Had it not been Serak who came to her, Kosika would have suspected a coup. All the same, she makes sure the cut she used to grow the cherry tree remains open. They arrive at their destination, an alleyway with a white tent hiding what it is Serak wants her to see. Inside is the floating afterimage of the door Tes Ranek opened between Red London and White. Though it is not definite, Serak and others suspect the mark to be an indicator of damage to the walls between the worlds. Panicked, Kosika posits that there might be a way to fix them, strengthen them again. Serak seems doubtful, and Holland tells her that there was a time before the walls and a time after. The walls may not even fall for another couple centuries. Kosika tries to use As Hasari, desperately, prepared for the world to violently pull the magic out of her like the day in the courtyard when she was eight. She didn't care, as long as it kept her world safe. It doesn't happen, and it doesn't work, and the mark even seems more real for it.

Kosika is able to think of nothing else. She is certain of imminent disaster, seeing it everywhere she looked. She recalls Lastos' words of the walls falling and needing to know their enemies. At dinner, Kosika realizes they she has unconsciously drawn the shape of the door to Holland's room, and immediately gets up to leave. Serak asks after her wellness and Nasi tries to follow her, but Kosika murmurs an unintelligible excuse and shakes her head at her friend. On her way to Holland's room, she expects him to join her, but he has been absent since they saw the mark. Even as she takes up the token box, she expects to hear is voice, though there is nothing. Turning and catching her reflection, Kosika pulls the crown from her hair and tugs out the braids. She takes Holland's cloak from the wall and pulls it on. Token box in hand, she uses As Tascen to bring her out to the courtyard, where she had previously marked a tree for such travel. Sitting with the open box, she then waits for Holland to appear.

When questioned about his abscence, he says that he knew her mind and did not want to push her. However, Holland keeps her from taking the Red London token, instead asking if she trusts him. When Kosika says of course, he tells her to take him to Black London, as he is bound to her cannot go where she does not. She hesitates, remembering the horrible dread of that place; she had desired to never go back. But she complies.

Now in Black London, Holland signals to Kosika to keep quiet and acts as if he is listening for something. Observing the ruined wreckage around them, they both find it hard to believe that this London had been the source of power. He kneels, pressing his hand to the ground, and asks if she feels it. When Kosika copies, she feels nothing, but the kind of nothing that comes with the severance of magic from person, empty and hollow. When asked again, she tells him she feels nothing. Holland says that that is how he knows, now, that Osaron is truly gone.

Holland says that now they can rekindle the fire of Black London and Kosika recoils from the notion. Holland's logic is that if you raze a forest, the rot goes with it. Besides, he confirms Kosika's worst fear: they do not have enough power of their own left. Though Kosika feels defeated, Holland is the opposite, assuring her that if they light the fire here, their London will burn brighter than it ever has. On the matter of the walls, Hollands says to let them crumble, but also suggests the wall between Black and White be torn down and the one between White and Red reinforced. To clear away any remaining hesitancy in Kosika, Holland kneels before her as he never has prior and tells her that it is possible, with her help. She wants it, badly, just as she can see he does. Kosika asks how they would even go about such a thing. Holland seems to have an idea, responding that it is the same you would do for any hearth, kindling and a well-placed spark.

Holland is full of hope, and it affects Kosika in turn. Had he asked her to let all her blood then and there, she would have. She tells him to show her how.

Skills and abilities

• Magic: As an Antari, Kosika has control over all elements and can use blood commands. She can also grow trees, which has always been said to be a skill Antari are incapable of and is unique to those who hold the elements in balance. Feeling the current and balance of magic is also a trait of priestly magic while also being applicable to Kosika. In addition, As Hasari is a spell that takes time and doesn't work if someone is dying faster than the spell can heal. However, Kosika fixes Lark's mortal wound, saving his life, nigh instantaneously.

Relationships

Her mother

Kosika thinks she remembers her mother running her fingers through the roots of her hair, a feeling Kosika loves, when she was very young. However, it is such a gentle memory that it very well could have been a dream.

Kosika learned that she had to look out for herself from her mother, as she had certainly never been able to rely on her. Though her mother let Kosika stay under her roof and sleep in her bed (though having to curl up in the open spaces between her mother's limbs), she treats her like a burden and a thief. For years, Kosika desperately wished for her mother's attention. She only got it when children began getting magic, and then she wished she hadn't, as the interest was only in what Kosika could earn her.

After returning home from her thieving job with Lark, Kosika finds one man outside the house and another at the kitchen table with her mother. Her mother calls for her to come near, and Kosika is shocked by the kindness in her voice. She is torn between her unease and her desire not to make her mother mad, and takes only a few small steps toward the table. Her mother snaps at her, then, before reassuring the man of Kosika's strength, despite her lack of magic. Her mother so rarely says nice things to or about her, Kosika smiles. But she quickly realizes her mother's attention is not really on her, but on the coins on the table, and she struggles out of the grip the man has on her and flees. She does not go home that night. When Lark gives her half the profit from their job the next morning, Kosika considers the rations it will get her and her mother before she remembers.

Sometime after becoming queen, Kosika's mother shows up at the castle. Kosika thinks for a moment that maybe it was because she missed her, but no - she had only wanted to be paid. The Vir kept her away if she ever tried to return. The sound of the clinking coins haunts Kosika and makes her ill.

Lark

Lark was Kosika's best friend when she was little. He would scope out jobs and ask for her help with them, always giving her half the earnings. When elemental magic returned to the children of White London, Lark received fire. It was proceded by a fever that made Kosika sick to her stomach and unable to sleep, certain her friend was going to die.

Kosika and Lark have their own language of signals to communicate with one another, and never plan where to meet next when they part. Kosika knows they will always find each other again. He has a smile that makes her smile, too, and it still has that effect even years later.

Kosika thinks of him as a brother and enjoys the affection he shows her, patting off the soot on her clothes or ruffling her hair, and the closeness they have.

Her first spell was to save Lark's life, and he was the first to see the change of her eye. These days, however, he struggles to hold her gaze and is the one to look away first.

Their relationship has changed over the years. Kosika doesn't care for the way her attraction to him affects her, now, both not wanting and wanting him in that way. She finds herself looking at him often, denying anything when called out on it.

While Kosika wishes she could stop being queen at times, and be herself (though she does not know who that would be, now) Lark doesn't, because she is changing the world.

His lighthearted, mischievous nature always tends to raise Kosika's spirits. She has an intense love for him, as she does for Nasi. Lark was the only part of her old life she wanted to keep.

Nasi

Nasi was the first person Kosika met when she first woke up in the castle and the one to honestly explain the situation to her. During her first months as queen, not yet having grown accustomed to the castle and finding the bed far too large with only her in it, Nasi would sleep with and comfort her. Contrarily, she would also tell the young queen scary stories, some true and some not. She continued to sleep with her for the next six years, only separating when Holland began appearing to Kosika in her dreams.

She and Nasi are incredibly close. If she allows anyone to be with her or tells anyone anything, it's Nasi. However, the introduction of Holland's ghost in her life has brought about unshared secrets and a desire to be alone so as to speak with him. Kosika has Nasi on one side at dinners, with Serak on the other.

Nasi is the only one Kosika meets resistance with anymore. She doesn't let Kosika's behavior or treatment of others go unaddressed, but is still aware of and cares about Kosika's feelings. Nasi has a harder time understanding her worries, however, and offers strange reassurances that don't help much.

Nasi is the one who taught Kosika how to play kol-kot, though it took some time for Kosika to become good enough to occasionally beat her. It's a game they play together in their free time or to wind down at the end of the day.

As with her relationship with Lark, Kosika's dynamic with Nasi has also changed, though Nasi is much more forward. They currently operate much the same has they have, Nasi caring for and looking out for Kosika when she can, and Kosika holding an immense amount of love for Nasi and wanting her close.

Serak

Serak is Kosika's closest Vir, fully supporting her right to rule as Holland's heir. She trusts him the most, though still maybe not entirely in suspicious situations, and he sits at her side at the table like Nasi.

He began telling her stories at her request when she was eight, about Holland and all the tales and history integral to White London. Kosika would meet him at the altar in front of Holland's room many nights over the years.

The small arrow-point knife she keeps on her was a gift from him. Its handle is carved from a branch from the Silver Wood.

Holland Vosijk

Despite having never really known him, Holland has defined Kosika's life ever since she found his body in the Silver Wood.

She had not felt grief for him, then, had not felt anything much more than interest in the grass growing beneath him (and in possibly taking his cloak). But the next morning, when Lark tells her of the king's death and magic starts seeping into her veins, she knows Holland for who he was and is surprised to find herself aching with sadness, unable to keep it out of her voice or her eyes from tearing up. Though that lessens, there remains an odd connection between them. When she says his name, she tastes sugar melting on her tongue and grass brushing her fingertips.

Kosika believes Holland's Antari power to now be hers, as do others, though it can't be possible, not that that they would know - Kosika's power is of a different nature than Holland's, and besides, his is in the Inheritor in Grey London. But she is queen because she is his heir, and at times that seems to be the only reason she has not been overthrown by the Vir. Kosika uses his name and image for things like the tithe, which was originally her idea as a way to feed the city.

Holland's ghost first appears to Kosika after she returns from Black London. Whatever he is or isn't, his behavior is volatile and manipulative. He takes his emotions out on her or questions her in ways that make her frightened, and he leaves her desperate to prove the strength of her faith in him. He taps into Kosika's yearning for validation from an adult and her desire to be treated as seriously as one herself. She likes the fact he chose her, especially, and the attention and affectionate gestures she receives from him. Holland leads her on with these things to get her to do what he wants and has Kosika scared to displease or doubt him.

Appearances

• The Fragile Threads of Power (first appearance)

Trivia

• She likes eating sugar cubes.
• "Kosika" is both her given name and a title meaning "Little Queen."