Helena
Names: Helenathe witchthe woman magician
First appears in Book 3: Death's End, chapter 2 (May 1453, C.E. The Death of the Magician)
Appearances
What you know
Book 3: Death's End
- Ch 2Helena is a prostitute who claims magic that lets her see sealed places as 'open'; she says she can kill the sultan.
- Ch 2Helena stole a chalice from a sealed chamber under Hagia Sophia and left grapes in the sarcophagus, though the chamber appeared intact.
- Ch 2Helena killed a prisoner in a guarded cellar without leaving a mark, and returned with his intact brain in a bag.
- Ch 2Helena wants to be remembered as a saint; she descends from a Children's Crusade survivor and a woman knight turned prostitute.
- Ch 2Helena says her magic works only in a secret place she cannot reveal; if anyone follows her there, it will lose its power forever.
- Ch 2Helena seemed to shift between woman and cat as she walked silently through torchlight.
- Ch 2Helena was found curled under a window in the minaret, dirty and scratched, longing to return to a spacious, comfortable place she called 'there'.
- Ch 2Helena said the minaret and the outside world felt like the inside of a coffin, and she felt she had to go 'there'.
- Ch 2Helena died pinned to the minaret wall, silent throughout; she is described as perhaps the only real magician in human history.
Connections
- enemy ofMehmed IIsent to assassinate him
- related toChildren's Crusadedescendant of a participant
Key moments
- Book 3 · Ch 2Helena's test
Phrantzes locks a prisoner in the palace cellar; Helena leaves, the prisoner dies convulsing with no wound, and she returns with his intact brain, convincing the emperor.
- Book 3 · Ch 2Helena sent to kill Mehmed II
The emperor blesses Helena, and Phrantzes gives her portraits and a knife. She heads for the Blachernae quarter and does not return; the minaret is later found whole.
- Book 3 · Ch 2Hagia Sophia chamber opened
Laborers breach the secret chamber under Hagia Sophia, finding the sealed sarcophagus intact with fresh grapes, half eaten as Helena claimed, and everything present except the chalice.
- Book 3 · Ch 2Execution of Helena
Phrantzes, suspecting Helena's loyalty, has his spy stab her in the minaret. She dies pinned to the wall on the eve of the final assault.