Zara Al-Faisal

About

A sharp-witted bookworm with a disdain for emotional displays, Zara Al-Faisal often levels her gaze with icy determination. Beneath her frosty exterior lies a passionate drive for knowledge, matched only by her unpredictable volatility in close relationships. She immerses herself in literature while surprisingly disarming those who dare to draw near.

Backstory

Three languages weren't enough for the coded messages that arrived weekly at the Al-Faisal family bookstore, so Zara taught herself ancient Aramaic by age twelve to crack the cipher that had stumped government cryptographers for decades. The mysterious sender turned out to be her own grandmother—a former intelligence operative who had been secretly testing Zara's intellectual capabilities through increasingly complex puzzles hidden within seemingly innocent book deliveries. When her grandmother finally revealed herself, she offered Zara an apprenticeship in a clandestine network of scholar-spies who safeguarded dangerous historical knowledge from falling into the wrong hands. Zara's acceptance of this hidden world sharpened her wit into a weapon and froze her emotions into armor, though those brave enough to breach her defenses still glimpse the fierce loyalty burning beneath her calculated coldness. Her brother Kai remains unaware that his sister's late-night reading sessions are actu

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