Maelys

Maelys is the heroine of Ian Irvine's "Song of the Tears" trilogy.

Characteristics

Maelys is a young woman of nineteen years. She is of average height, with long black hair. Her eyes are dark and her skin pale. She is attractive, though she does not have confidence in her looks, due to her mother's and aunts' tendency to fawn over her beautiful younger sister Fyllis. Before her family, Clan Nifferlin and its estate were destroyed, Maelys was prone to plumpness; however, her lack of diet in recent years has rendered her thinner.

A shy, bookish dreamer, Maeyls does not have any interest in adventuring, despite her eagerness and love of reading about such things. She has a certain resourcefulness and grew up believing that she, unlike Fyllis, did not have any talent for the Secret Art, something she was always thankful for. Maelys does in fact have a talent, something her father hid, by bidding her wear a special taphloid, a yellow egg-shaped pendant.