Her mother offered to keep El out of the Scholomance, but El realized that she and her mother would never survive as independent wizards. By the time she turned fourteen, mals were coming at a rate of five a night. El used the only spell she knew-a cooking spell her mother used often-and melted it. When El saw lights on in a nearby building, she realized no one was coming to save her. El screamed for help, but no one in the commune came to her aid. When she was nine, El's mother was hospitalized and El was left alone in their yurt when a mal called a scratcher made it through the wards and tried to eat her. Several men of the Enclave wanted Gwen to give them El, to kill her, but Gwen wrapped her up in a blanket and left hitchhiked to the nearest airport where they were given a ride back to Wales on a private jet by a tech investor. When her great grandmother touched El, she fell into a fit and prophesized that El would be the destruction of every enclave.

When El arrived, she was introduced to the entire family, including her great grandmother. Gwen was willing to join the family because they were an enclave of strict Hindus' that never used malia. The Sharma family were all excited for Gwen and El to join them, seeing it as a way to get a piece of Arjun back, even though he died. El's father died getting Gwen out of the Scholomance, and the two did not exchange contact information. When El was about five, her mother tracked down El's father's family, the Sharmas, in India and contacted them. Aadhya described this effect as the feeling a storm is approaching when you are far away from shelter. While El can be abrasive, the reason most people stay away is because she has a dark presence due to her affinity. Įl struggles over the fact that she has no friends and most people barely tolerate her presence. After storming off El only sat with the bird until it died, making her mother deeply proud. When El was twelve they had a massive fight over malia use when El found a dying bird. When El was old enough that Gwen couldn't have stopped her taking the life force of living creatures, she had taught El how wrong and dangerous malia use is. She stopped El from pulling malia from animals by taking the animals El found away and then buying her ice cream to make up for it. Gwen spent El's early childhood teaching El how to manage her anger and her power. Galadriel, also known as El, was raised by her mother Gwen Higgins in the Radiant Mind commune in Wales. Biography Early Years My anger’s a bad guest, my mother likes to say: comes without warning and stays a long time.

The last graduate series