This is the image of a black girl's face. She's perhaps sixteen with big eyes and loose curly dark hair. She's looking to the left, perhaps at something frightening, and her lips are slightly pursed. Looks like a main character!

Cast Out

Zisha's deaf. It's not a problem. Her parents love her, and she's steadily painting everything that matters to her. Or at least, it wasn't a problem until she turned sixteen and failed her revelations. The justry orders her thrown out into the wastelands beyond the Plenary Cities, like all the other imperfectas. It's the only way to keep the plague from returning. But plagues come back, no matter how many people you throw away.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Maybe what happened was our own faults. With Grandmother here, and the automas standing guard, we dared leave the gate open. The herdsmen...

Cast Out: Chapter Twenty-Three

A few days later, as the sun turned the desert dust to gold, the gate guard announced with sweeping hand gestures that someone was...