Ennina is a major character in Mirrored Sky.  She is a young pilot who is in charge of advanced fighting aircraft and is in battle with the ‘Drag’ race.  They are currently winning the war but is shot down over Sigel-3 after the enemy rams her ship.

She is saved by her rescuer Weiko, but is confused why he can’t speak her language.  Given that he is much older than her, expect it is his final ‘age act’.  In her society those who are old enough have to commit one final sacrificial act to serve the populace as older people are viewed negatively.

Ennina is almost killed by a creature on the ice planet when Weiko kills it bravely with a magnetic rifle.  They are running from errant shots in the air battle above them when the find a small thermal oasis underground.  Weiko is hit by a ricocheting rock and knocked unconscious in the water. Ennina has to save him and thus begins their long survival journey.  It is compounded by the fact they cannot speak each others language.

Past:

Ennina comes from a noble genetic line.  No one is born, everyone is AGEd, but her genes still form a familial-like lineage of warriors and clans.  She comes from what is a upper class of nobles and military officers.  Her intelligence and skills propel her to upper ranks.  She is one of the higher combat-deployable officers.

For only being the equivalent of around 16 this might sound extreme but her culture has an upper age limit which the person then terminates themselves in their final ‘age act’ this tends to be around the equivalent of 25-30 years old.

Ennina does not have much arrogance but has a strong undercurrent of pride running through her.  Most of this is a result of her heritage, and her skills.  She particularly hates the Drag’s swarm tactics and her way of being taken down was extremely shameful to her.

 

Growth:

Ennina grows tremendously under the tutelage of Weiko.  For a large part of the story believed he was her rescuer that also was shot down and takes his experience and wisdom to heart.  He hides most of his personal failings and she sees an ideal virtue she should hold herself to.  Given her pride it fits with her personality of trying to improve herself and takes his concepts of letting hate go and truly believes them.  Due to Ennina’s age she does not realize that most of this, especially early, is mostly Weiko’s own coping and him trying to believe it himself.

She comes to see the war as vastly wasteful and vows to do anything she can to stop it.  A major problem happens later when she realizes Weiko was an enemy pilot, and slowly peices together that he wasn’t just a pilot, he was the one that took her down.

 

Trivia:

Ennina’s culture is based loosely on the concept in the book ‘Logan’s Run’ where older adults are killed.

Her and Weiko’s hybrid language uses hers the most when it is words similar to: honor/shame/conflict/victory as they are a very martial type society.

Ennina never correctly pronounces Weiko’s name during the story, this becomes a form of endearment after a while.

 

 

Spoilers for the end of the story:

 

 

Major spoilers, only read if finished the story as it spoils major plot points.

 

Ennina had from the beginning to the end of the Sigel-3 vowed to do what she could to bring Weiko (and eventually her) dream to reality.  She was hurt when Weiko turned down her sexual advances which he thought was why she was cold.  It hurt her, but was loosely rationalized away as she believed him whole heartedly.

It is a fitting irony that all of Weiko’s instruction actually found such fertile ground and she became an ideal he himself could never live up to.

The entire attack on him, and knowing he would be in jail was planned from the beginning by her and knew she had to ‘betray’ Weiko to be accepted into her society long enough to put her plan into action.

It is important to understand Ennina was only capable of this dedication and wanting to do the right thing due to her years of living with Weiko and listening to his ideals he preached that she came to accept.  It is never directly stately but heavily implied the biggest risk in all of this was that she hoped Weiko would not crack, die or anything else bad in jail.  In her mind though she held unwavering faith in him.

It took her the equivalent of around 3-4 years to get everything into place, of which Weiko was in jail the whole time.  Having actually survived the battle of Sigel-3 Ennina returned as a hero, especially after capturing an alive enemy, of which him being Solarian was kept secret.

At the end of Mirrored Sky Ennina is around 21-22 years old and Weiko is mid 30s.  One thing to note is that at the end of the story, Weiko had been in jail longer than the two of them had been together on the planet, but the survival situation had bonded them deeply.  She has long white hair now, a sign of Axl poisoning from their time living next to a Line Spring.