Nella

Nella was a scalekin and the daughter of a True Dragon who mated with an influential B-grade member of the Order of the Malefic Viper.^[1] She wore her heritage like a crown, flaunting the fact that both her parents were B-grade, believing that alone made her superior. Born at D-grade, she had every advantage and her path to C-grade was already paved by her lineage provided she could stay alive long enough to reach C-grade.

Despite her many advantages, she was already over half a century into the process of naturally growing strong enough to undergo the Evolution Awakening and step into C-grade. She saw no reason to struggle or strive when her status could easily get her what she wanted.

Nella was a blunt instrument of entitlement—loud, condescending, and prone to pushing others around to mask her lack of actual ability. Unfortunately, her strength wasn’t hers; it was inherited. And her status meant nothing when she found herself in conflict with someone with much greater status.

Nella is introduced as a Mean Girl who is taking advantage of a much more naive Meira. Nella, Utmal, and Izil are invited over several times to use Jake's library as a resource for their coursework. Each time Nella and Utmal grow more brazen in their verbal abuse of Meira. In their final visit, Izil discreetly warns Jake of their escalating behavior. Concerned, Jake covertly observes the group and witnesses their bullying first hand. Angered, he immediately moves to confront Nella.^[2]

Unaccustomed to being treated so irreverently, Nella switches between attempting to namedrop her influential connections and unsuccessfully trying to intimidate Jake into being more respectful. Irritated by Jake's candid dislike of her and outright insults, Nella switches to the offensive, insulting him for being a new comer to the Order and asserting that even if he's a black token with potential and a backer, he would probably just squander his potential and have his feeble ego broken when he finally failed.^[2] She also repeatedly calls Meira a whore and implies that Meira is sleeping with Jake, then implies Jake is impotent and possibly homosexual (which her tone implies she believes is a negative trait.)

Confident in her safety because of the Order's "No Violence" rule, she continues to escalate her rant against Jake and anyone associated with him. She even implies that Jake's backer is a moron for having selected him. Having well and truly established that Nella and Utmal are garbage people who have been abusing his friend, Jake decides to skip to the punishment stage. He punches both women in the face. When Utmal moves to defend moves to defend Nella, Jake stabs her in the arm, slices her chest open, and then stabs her through the chin and out the top of her skull, killing the half-ogre.^[2]

Nella panics in the face of violence, but momentarily settles when high level Enforcers teleport into the room. She gleefully reports Jake's violation of the rules, expecting him to be severely punished. Her glee is shattered when Viridia, the Hall Master, steps forward and speaks the fateful words: "I greet the Chosen." The remainder of her interaction with Jake is feeble attempts to walk back all the insults she has unknowingly thrown at the Malefic Viper and his Chosen.^[3] At one point, she even offers to be Jake's slave in recompense. Jake leaves Nella's fate up to Meira who in turn decides to leave Nella's punishment up to Viridia.

Ultimately, Nella is killed and her family is told that she and Utmal died bringing a valuable resource back to the Order. The family received a small bit of compensation and honor for their "sacrifice" on behalf of the Order.^[3]

"I guess you could argue it is my fault for not being more observant of the trash I allow [Meira] to drag home," Jake said in a cold voice.

"While I don't want to question my seniors, I am beginning to question what error in judgment one must have made to pick you. I also find it laughable how you think you are some bigshot who is in charge here. If you truly try to start shit, it won't just be your ass, but your backer's on the line, as I am certain my ancestors will happily raise hell. So go ahead, make my day even better."

"The level of delusion you people have is astonishing. I hope your backer comes to their senses and gets rid of you, because anything else would truly make them a moron."

"It was in that moment that Nella knew she'd fucked up."