Sela

Bren's thirteen-year-old sister, in his care since the plague took their parents. Small and quick, with a storm of dark hair from her mother and sharp black eyes that see too much and too fast; where her brother weighs things and stays silent, she feels and acts first. She is at the age where she is beginning to have secrets and opinions of her own, and she wants to be taken seriously, not treated like a child.

It is Sela who knows where and why Maris fled — Maris confided in her and she promised to keep silent. Her loyalty delays the rescue while her friend is out in the deadly wilds; torn between the promise and Maris's life, she finally breaks and gives the knowledge to her brother, feeling as she does that she has betrayed someone. Without that knowledge there would have been no rescue. It is the emotional peak of her bond with Bren.