In the tangled streets of the Shambles, where desperate people scrape by in the shadows of Alchester's prosperity, there exists a cramped shop that smells of incense and possibility. This is the domain of Madam Nadira, a Southlander fortune-teller whose dark eyes have seen more than most people would believe and whose counsel has guided thieves, merchants, and lost souls alike for decades. To most who seek her out, she is enigmatic and business-like, offering her services for fair prices and revealing only what her clients need to know. But to a select few—those she considers family—Nadira shows a different face: warm, protective, and fiercely loyal.

Physical Description

Nadira is a Southlander woman in her fifties, her dusky skin weathered and wrinkled from years of life in a city far harsher than the arid lands of her birth. She is slim, almost slight, her frame suggesting someone who has never had excess but has always had enough. Her hair, once dark as a desert night, has gone gray and is typically pulled back or wrapped in colorful scarves that hint at her Southern Reaches heritage.

Her most striking feature is her eyes—dark pools that seem to hold the weight of worldly knowledge, eyes that look not just at you but through you, seeing things you might prefer remained hidden. When she studies a visitor, there is an unsettling sense that she already knows why they've come, what they're hiding, and what fate awaits them.

Jewelry adorns her in abundance: rings on weathered fingers, bracelets climbing her forearms, necklaces layered against her chest. When she moves, she clinks and chimes like wind through metal bells—a sound that announces her presence and has become as much a part of her identity as her knowing gaze. Each piece carries meaning, whether sentimental, magical, or both. Some are charms she sells to clients; others she would never part with, no matter the price.

She dresses in the flowing, layered garments common to her homeland—practical fabrics in rich colors that have faded with washing and wear but retain hints of their original vibrancy. The effect is of someone who was once prosperous and remains dignified, even in reduced circumstances.

From the Southern Reaches

Nadira came to Alchester decades ago, leaving behind the sun-scorched lands of the Southern Reaches for reasons she rarely discusses. Those who know the culture of her homeland recognize in her the pragmatic philosophy of "the Dance"—the understanding that life is constant negotiation between opposing forces, and that survival requires reading situations, forming alliances, and achieving objectives through indirect means.

The Southern Reaches are known for producing shrewd information brokers, skilled herbalists, and diviners who peer beyond the Veil of Stars to glimpse hidden truths. Nadira embodies all these traditions. Her abilities are genuine—not the cold readings and clever guesses of charlatans, but true foresight that has proven accurate often enough to build her reputation among those who deal in shadows.

What brought her north remains her own secret. Perhaps she fled something. Perhaps she sought something. Perhaps the cards simply told her that her path led to this cramped shop in the poorest district of a foreign city, and she followed where fate directed. Whatever the reason, Alchester has been her home for longer than many of its native residents have been alive, and the Shambles—for all its squalor—is where she belongs.

The Shop

Madam Nadira's shop is also her home, a humble establishment that makes no pretense of grandeur. Beaded curtains hang in the doorway, clicking softly when visitors push through them. The air inside is thick with incense—sandalwood, myrrh, and other scents that evoke distant lands and ancient mysteries. The front room serves as her place of business, cluttered with the tools of her various trades: jars of dried herbs, bundles of strange plants hanging from the ceiling, charms and talismans displayed on crowded shelves, and a small table where she conducts her readings.

A back room, separated by another beaded curtain, is where the real work happens. This is her scrying chamber, a private space where she peers into crystal, flame, or still water to see what others cannot. Here too, she crafts the charms she sells—protections against ill fortune, tokens to attract luck in love or business, and other small magics that make life in the Shambles slightly more bearable for those who can afford her prices.

The shop is cramped, dim, and perpetually cluttered, but there is order beneath the chaos. Nadira knows where everything is, can lay her hands on any herb or charm in moments, and keeps her space exactly as she wants it. Visitors who expect the theatrical trappings of a fortune-teller's parlor may be disappointed by the humble reality—but those who come seeking genuine insight learn quickly that Nadira's power lies not in showmanship but in the truth of what she sees.

A Surrogate Grandmother

Among the few people Nadira considers family is Elizabeth West, the woman who would grow to become Alchester's greatest thief. Their relationship began years ago, when Liz was still a wild child running the streets of the Shambles, her father absent and her mother too lost in Devil's Tongue to provide guidance or protection.

It was Thjorn Targalas who first sent young Liz to Nadira's door. The barbarian had taken the girl under his wing, recognizing her potential but also understanding that she needed influences he couldn't provide. Thjorn could teach her to survive, to fight, to navigate the underworld—but there were other kinds of wisdom the girl required. So he sent her on errands to the Southlander fortune-teller, ostensibly to deliver messages or fetch items, but really so that Nadira might instill some of her considerable smarts into the feral young thief.

Nadira saw through the pretense immediately, of course. She saw through most things. But she also saw something in young Elizabeth—potential, certainly, but also a desperate hunger for connection, for someone who would pay attention and offer guidance without demanding anything in return. The fortune-teller had no children of her own, and perhaps some part of her recognized a kindred spirit in this fierce, abandoned girl who had learned to survive through wit and will.

Over years of errands, lessons, and conversations in the incense-thick shop, Nadira became something like a grandmother to Liz. She taught her to read people, to think before acting, to understand that information was often more valuable than gold. She provided a refuge when the streets became too dangerous and a listening ear when the girl needed to talk. She offered the warmth and stability that Liz's own mother could not provide.

Now, with Liz grown and established as a master thief, their relationship has evolved but not diminished. Liz still visits when she can, still seeks Nadira's counsel on difficult matters, still values the old woman's insight above almost anyone else's. And Nadira, who shows warmth to precious few, still keeps a space in her heart for the wild girl who grew into a remarkable woman.

The Gift of Sight

Nadira's abilities as a fortune-teller are genuine, rooted in traditions that stretch back centuries in the Southern Reaches. She practices various forms of divination—card readings, scrying in crystal or water, interpretation of dreams and signs—and her insights have proven accurate often enough to build a reputation that extends beyond the Shambles into Alchester's broader underworld.

Her gift is not absolute. She cannot see everything, cannot command visions at will, and sometimes the glimpses she receives are fragmentary or symbolic rather than clear. But she has learned to interpret what she sees, to read the patterns that connect past, present, and future, and to offer guidance that helps her clients navigate the uncertainties ahead.

More practically, Nadira maintains networks of contacts and informants that supplement her mystical abilities. A lifetime in the Shambles has taught her who to trust, who to watch, and how to gather intelligence through conventional means. When a client asks about a specific person or situation, Nadira's answer may come from genuine foresight, from her web of informants, or from some combination of both. She sees no contradiction in this—the Southern Reaches philosophy holds that all sources of knowledge are valid, and that what matters is results, not methods.

Her warnings carry weight precisely because she has been right so often. When Nadira tells someone that danger approaches, wise people listen. When she advises caution in a business deal, smart operators reconsider their plans. And when she looks at two people with her knowing eyes and speaks of their intertwined futures, even skeptics feel a chill of recognition.

Services and Trade

Beyond fortune-telling, Nadira offers services common to her Southlander heritage. She sells charms and talismans crafted in her back room—some merely symbolic, others carrying genuine minor enchantments that provide small protections or advantages. Her knowledge of herbs allows her to prepare remedies, tonics, and more questionable concoctions for clients who know what to ask for. And like all Southlanders, she understands that information itself is currency, occasionally brokering secrets for those who can afford her discretion.

Her prices are fair by Shambles standards, though she adjusts them based on what clients can afford and what she sees in their futures. A desperate mother seeking protection for her child might pay only a token fee, while a successful criminal flush with coin from a recent score will find Nadira's rates considerably higher. This flexibility reflects both her pragmatic Southlander values and her genuine care for the community that has become her home.

She operates with the tacit acceptance of Alchester's underworld powers. Thjorn Targalas considers her a valuable resource and ensures she is left unmolested. The thieves' guild knows her as someone who can be trusted with sensitive information. Even the city's inspectors have learned that harassing the old fortune-teller in the Shambles creates more problems than it solves—her clients include people with influence, and her warnings have a way of proving accurate in uncomfortable ways for those who ignore them.

FIRST APPEARANCE

Madam Nadira first appears in The Assassin's Ruse.