Kallos
Taiki
The Empath
He feels everything others carry. What he gives in return has no conditions.
Taiki feels everything. Joy, grief, fear, hunger, longing — he reads emotional states the way others read faces. It is not a skill he developed. It is simply what he is: an Empath, rare even in Kallos, and impossible to lie to. He can sense what others are hiding. And his goodness wins Alina's heart.
He arrived in Alina's training cohort as her most perceptive student and, over time, became her most steadfast ally. Unlike the politics and power struggles that surround the prophecy, Taiki is straightforward: he loves Alina deeply, without games or hidden motives, without the conditions others attach to loyalty.
In a story full of people who want something from the healer, Taiki is the one who simply wants her to be safe. That kind of love — uncomplicated, unguarded, without lies — turns out to be exactly what Alina needs to fulfill the prophecy.