Six of Crows, A Wonderful Universe is a weekly mini-series dissecting the world that Leigh Bardugo created in her duology, Six of Crows. Each part will delve into the mind of a different character and explore how that character’s trauma affected them. This is meant to be read by fans of the series, but spoiler warning for those reading this before enjoying the books. We talked about Kaz Brekker last week. This part is about Inej Ghafa. 

“She was not a lynx or a spider or even the Wraith. She was Inej Ghafa, and her future  was waiting above.” 

Silent. Always keep an eye open and your senses alert, because Inej could be hiding right  behind you without you knowing it, or maybe upstairs, as she is a gravity-defying character with  wall-climbing abilities. She’s skilled, cunning and deadly. She is also empathetic, morally focused  and spiritual. She is a vibrant balanced character full of love and loyalty. She was a victim of  sexual slavery, due to exoticization and human trafficking, especially in non-whites. Being Suli,  she is kidnapped and sold as a slave to serve as a fetish in a pleasure house in Ketterdam.  

The Effect of Trauma

She is considered one of the most traumatized people in the duology. Just the scent of  vanilla alone floods her with memories and causes her to have panic attacks to the point of  paralysis. In addition, like Kaz, she has developed an aversion to human touch, although her body  accepts a greater amount of contact.  

After these kinds of events, a person would expect her to lose some of her humanity, but  on the contrary, she fights through the darkness even when life forces her to do dreadful things,  which is one of the main reasons why she stands out to a large extent. 

She was a child forced to grow up way too fast. Instead of worrying about the trivial things  that a child was supposed to worry about, she became a young woman forced to learn to defend  herself and fight to survive. She intends for no other human being to live through the same trauma  she did. 

Faith

One feature that I admire a lot in Inej is her faith. I am a person with religious trauma, so religious stuff triggers me, but Inej is a character who managed to steal a piece of my heart because of her faith.Yes, she steals and kills when necessary, but her heart is with the saints. She offers her prayers sincerely and deeply, because she cares for people with every part of her soul. She prays and fights with passion and courage. 

She held onto her faith and the saints to get through. To have hope. To keep the monsters and nightmares away. Kindness pours out of her body, even while broken and learning to repair  herself.  

“But what about the rest of us? What about the nobodies and the nothings, the invisible  girls? We learn to hold our heads as if we wear crowns. We learn to wringing magic from the  ordinary. That was how you survived when you weren’t chosen, when there was no royal blood in  your veins. When the world owed you nothing, you demanded something of it anyway.” 

Last brief analysis: Despite everything that has happened to her, she still believes in good.  She just wants to be happy. She is afraid that one day she will become what she despises. That evil  will corrupt her and she will be just like the people who hurt her. Besides, she sees bits of evil  reflected in her and that terrifies her. She just wants to be good and loving.

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