Aki

Aki was a potential Faction Paradox recruit during the War.

She was born to a nomadic tribe in Australia, but they rejected her as a child after a dispute concerning a piece of meat and some markings made in white urine trails on a flat black rock. Abandoned, Aki survived on the berries and bark of trees, water from the moonpools, and sometimes the meat of wild dogs and lizards. Her only companion was "Lizard", who walked with her and changed shape every day.

Aki had a dream that if she sat at the foot of a certain tree by a certain pool, the bone people would come for her, begging for her (and Lizard) to join them in the sunless lands. Aki knew that their world in the earth was going to be threatened by a witch-woman whose stomach bred grubs bigger than men, and Aki would have to become the Grandfather's hand to stand against her and save the bone people.

Aki walked to the end of the world searching for the tree and the pool from her dream, and upon finding them, she sat above the tree's roots and waited. Lizard entertained her until he became too hungry and slow. However, despite waiting for many many days, the bone people did not come.

Mother Sphinx's cell considered recruiting Aki, but they instead chose Alice Piper, since she was close to Nathaniel Silver; Alice took Aki's place in the cabal. (PROSE: Newtons Sleep)