Ayesha Tanaka

Ayesha Tanaka was the armorer of Tetsuo Umezawa and the teacher of Kei Takahashi, whom she had taken from his abusive foster family. She knew blue and white magic and had been born with the ability to destroy artifacts and enchantments with only her willpower.

When Xira Arien had infected Kei with her brood, Ayesha traveled along with Tetsuo to capture the insect and get her to reveal a cure for Kei. In the end, Ayesha and Tetsuo managed to stop Xira's spawn from growing any further, but Kei had to live the rest of his life with the insectoid mutations it had caused while residing in his body.

A few weeks later Tetsuo was punished by Emperor Nicol Bolas for his role in the failure of Ramses Overdark's attack on the Edemi Islands. Tetsuo had to accompany the brutal kentsu on their attack on the islands and follow any command General Marhault Elsdragon gave him. Ayesha, Kei, and Tetsuo's second, Tor Wauki, were also put under kentsu control.

While she served under Jorgan Hage on Kusho, Ayesha was kidnapped by the island's defenders. Gosta Dirk wanted Kasimir the Lone Wolf and Tetsuo to decide the fate of the island in a formal duel, but Ayesha knew it was too late for that, for General Elsdragon would never allow it.

She escaped from the rebels with the help of Ramirez DePietro, but soon afterward she began to feel sick as if she was addicted to Kusho's blue mana. This was caused by black mana crystals Ramirez had used to poison Kusho's mana lines. Ramirez was in fact the shapeshifter Halfdane, a minion of Ramses Overdark.

Ayesha was ordered to Argenti by General Elsdragon. There she led a group of soldiers to attack the Sylvan Library. She got approval for this plan by convincing the general that such an attack would draw the attention of the island's druids away from the main battle. In truth, she wanted to use the Library to find a cure for her addiction and Kei's mutations.

The moment she took the place of Lord Magnus in the Library, however, she was overwhelmed by the forest. She fought against the kentsu, and her cunning was just what the forest needed to get an edge over them. She animated the leather in the armor of the soldiers on Argenti—smothering them in their own clothes—and enhanced the corals around Kusho so they grew onto the shore and over the kentsu ships in minutes.

After this the forest let Ayesha go and Magnus took her place as the forest's avatar again. In exchange for what she had done, Magnus gave her a cure for her own poisoning and a way to restore the mana lines of Kusho. Helping Kei was beyond him however, for during the time Ayesha had been away Halfdane had murdered the boy. Ayesha met Tor Wauki, who had been with Kei in his final fight, and the two of them journeyed deeper into the island to exact vengeance. The battle against the shapeshifter was fierce, for his powers had been vastly improved by Lord Overdark. In the end, Ayesha managed to freeze the water around him, startling the shapeshifter with his many reflections, which gave Tor the time he needed to kill it with a black spell.

Shortly afterward, Tetsuo sent two of Wasitora's kittens to retrieve Ayesha and Tor from Kusho. Reunited with their master, they convinced him to take up the role of imperial champion once more in order to return Madara to its former glory.