Inanis.

In Phantom Blade Zero, Inanis serves the Order as a Shadow Edict and is the Wulin's greatest master of Phantom Arts, watching over the path Soul travels.

Well before Soul's troubles started, she was in charge of the Gilded Lotus, an immense ship veiled in illusion, and afterward she managed the Order's spy network and everything connected to the Discordance. Those two roles account for most of her conduct in the game: she has knowledge others lack, and she acts through intermediaries.

Forge is the first of her agents whom Soul encounters. On Inanis's instructions the blacksmith is stationed in Weeping Creek Valley, where she cautions him that his death has been ordered by a writ, and offers copies of his own blade. When asked why her mistress goes to this trouble, she replies only that Inanis has her reasons.

Whenever Soul deals with Inanis in person, what he faces is typically an illusion, hence the quest log's name for her, the Illusion of Inanis. She never fights him, travels with him or can be played. Instead she assigns him errands, describes how his weakened abilities might be recovered, and scatters Memory Flowers along his route that hold voices of the past. For the player she opens up a healing Phantom Edge, assistance against Bai Chilian and the path into a new cycle.

Stage Performer to the Gilded Lotus

Performing was Inanis's childhood. She once told her daughter that she had stood on stage as a girl through wind, cold and bleeding fingers, and that having a child of her own made her vow never to perform again. The pipa was her instrument, and the strings in the talisman she kept were cut from the very one she had played.

She was already running the Gilded Lotus when the Order located her. According to a Memory Flower, the ship's mistress collects secrets and toys with hearts devoured by rage and fixation, yet wants only for her daughter to be safe. In a conversation from the past, the vessel is said to be made of illusion and to take in the unruly Sha-Chi that people's indulgences give off.

The Place Mu Tianmiao Held Out

Mu Tianmiao, who founded the Order, boarded her vessel by walking directly through the illusion draped across its bow, and it left him unharmed. He invited her to join the Shadow Edicts. She declined, telling the Sovereign that she had nothing to offer him and he had nothing she desired.

Next he told her what he could offer. Day and night Inanis had been poring over the Soul Displacement Scroll, hoping to rescue her daughter, but the version kept by the Thread-Binding Sect had always been missing parts. When the Lóng Clan fell, the full scroll passed to the Order, and membership would give her access. He also named the foe he wanted her against, Meng Hua, the wicked Empress of the Eleven, whom in his words only a person native to the same world as Inanis could judge accurately. She accepted the position, and the Order's spy network was hers to run.

The Chord's Fracture

Inanis's daughter is the Chord, who in the game's present occupies a puppet body. One memory shows the pair together: a weary young girl is excused from pipa practice for the day, asks about the family ship and why she may not approach it, and is told that her pipa now belongs to her alone.

In a second conversation from the past, Inanis speaks to an unseen man as her master and refers to Meng Hua as her master's wife. She states that Meng Hua put a crack in the Chord linked to the Discordance, that the girl has forgotten everything preceding that day, and that whatever sits behind the crack devours the memories she has formed afterward. Playing the pipa only just keeps her memory intact and does nothing to halt the erosion of her body. According to the man, the girl will not see past eighteen. This is only what the two say to each other, and the scene gives no separate confirmation.

Major story spoiler: Inanis offers the bleakest assessment of herself. "Long ago my daughter passed away. Letting go was something I would not do."

The Conflict With the Eleven

In the war fought against the Eleven, Inanis and Meng Hua brought about each other's ruin. Inanis lost her body, and the minds of both women broke apart into the Discordance. The Order's own file on its Shadow Edicts agrees: fighting the Eleven wrecked her body, leaving behind just a projection of her mind.

Their fates were not the same. Xuan Li says that the scattered mind of Meng Hua merged with the Blight and turned into the Lady of the Veil. Whatever is left of Inanis can keep a form only for a short time, through illusion.

Instructions Awaiting at Weeping Creek

Inanis is involved in the plot before Soul is aware of it. Following her instructions, Forge waits at Weeping Creek to inform him that the Left Sovereign has put out a writ and that every leading fighter of the Wulin is meant to kill him. Artisans answering to Inanis made the copies of Sanguine that Soul collects in the valley, the long Sanguine Reach and the matched Sanguine Twin. Forge declines to account for the kindness. She says only that the sisters follow orders, and that Inanis has her reasons.

Within the Fog at Parting Mists

Soul passes the Burial Grounds in the Crimson Forest and enters the fog-shrouded woods of the Mirrorwood, where a cutscene has him meet the Illusion of Inanis right above the Parting Mists bell. Deep within these woods lies a spot so steeped in Phantom Arts that her apparition can stay there for longer than elsewhere.

She explains that the illusion over these woods arose when a pipa she had crafted herself blew apart, and asks him to rescue the Chord-Wielder. Bai Chilian, who is stuck in the same woods, was caught in that explosion: the pipa burst during a fight a year before, and the illusion it let loose flooded the forest and locked her in.

The Realm of Mirage and the Shattered Pipa

Inanis further tells Soul of the Realm of Mirage, which she created in between the Waking Realm and the Discordance. According to her, Zuo Shang's forces cannot locate it and she is unable to send Soul there personally, but the pipa might be of use.

She made the Illusory Pipa by hand for her daughter; it is now broken apart, its head, strings and backplate strewn across the land. Jewel instantly knows it as the instrument Inanis crafted for the Chord. Only Myst, besides Inanis, can reassemble it, so Soul devotes a long portion of the game to retrieving the parts from Dusk, Yan Qiansui and the far end of the Mandate Encampment.

The Secret Under the Lady's Shrine

The sobbing that Soul keeps hearing from the early game is traced to one location. Jewel suspects the Chord wants to convey something to him, and the mended pipa breaks the barrier at the north of Meigu Lake, which opens the way to the Mountain of Imprisonment. At its peak Huangxing guards the Lady's Shrine, below which the Chord had been held. Spoiler: Zuo Shang had ordered Huangxing to overpower the Chord-Wielder and take her prisoner, labelling her a peerless puppet-creation. With Huangxing defeated, Soul proceeds further into the shrine and talks to Inanis, who hands over Inanis' Radiant Fan as a step of Whence the Weeping.

Final Caution at Mount Soulrend

Even at the journey's close, Inanis continues to lead Soul. As he steps into Mirage Estate she drops a hint about a point where there is no turning back, and she stays close to The Last Chance, the bell ahead of the closing boss encounters at Mount Soulrend. When all is complete, she tells him she can do nothing further. After the credits roll, her final duty is to begin a new cycle when you talk to her.

Saying No, Then Naming Terms

Inanis has no interest in belonging for its own sake. When the Order's founder first approached, she said no, giving a blunt reason: neither side possessed anything the other wanted. Only after he laid the complete Soul Displacement Scroll before her did she reconsider. She collects secrets and manages everything connected to the Discordance, while the Memory Flower dedicated to her says her real desire is for her daughter to be safe.

A Mother Unable to Release Her Child

Her devotion is visible at close range in the scenes involving the Chord. She excuses an exhausted child from practice, remembers her years performing and her promise to quit once she had a daughter, and assures the girl that the pipa belongs only to her.

Her talisman conveys the same thing on a smaller scale. Instrument strings run through hairs from her daughter's head in the ivory pick, whose sole inscription wishes the girl a life of lasting calm and joy. Her handling of the violet blossom beside the window, a favourite of her daughter's, came from much the same feeling: once it began to wilt in late autumn, she preserved it at its fullest bloom using Phantom Arts and some drops of medicine. Afterward no weather could harm its color, though its roots could never grow again.

Aid With a Goal Behind It

Inanis is generous, but she never explains why she helps. Forge delivers warnings and blades and states only that the sisters follow orders. She presents the Memory Flowers she leaves as possibly useful on his journey, adding that not every memory is supposed to be forgotten. The one thing she actually requests of Soul is to rescue the Chord-Wielder, suggesting that assisting him also benefits her daughter.

Six Numbered Flowers Ahead of Bai Chilian

Across the Crimson Forest road to Bai Chilian lie Inanis' six numbered Memory Flowers: the first at the cave near Mirrorwood Entrance, then more through the Burial Grounds and the foggy woods, ending by the earliest mirrors of the Mirrorwood. Taking the first opens the Resonant Strings collection. Gather all six prior to the boss encounter, and the Chord will help Soul in its later stage. Beside the first Crimson Forest bell sits the Memory Flower Left by Inanis, which is a different item and is excluded from the set.

Remnant Dust and Forgotten Abilities

No character before the Illusion of Inanis gives a proper account of Remnant Dust. Ahead of the Realm of Mirage she says to Soul that it is able to bring back the abilities he lost when his heart was pierced, which explains why Ability Training consumes it for nodes already unlocked.

Confirming Your Ending at The Last Chance

Once you go beyond The Last Chance on Mount Soulrend, the final boss sequence cannot be exited before some ending plays, so speak to her beforehand. Hearing that she can do nothing more indicates you are prepared. A warning at the bell is weaker evidence, since it may show even if every requirement is done, so look at the Story menu too. Any purple quests still open at the Mirage Estate door are locked already.

Beginning a New Cycle

Once an ending has played, talking to Inanis launches New Game Plus and lets you alter the difficulty. You keep your Weapons and Phantom Edges. Anyone wishing to get the Annihilation ending deliberately should begin a new cycle by way of her and do just the gold main quests.

Inanis' Radiant Fan

A decorated Summoning Phantom Edge that she presents to Soul, said to be capable of conjuring a sanctuary in any place. It is mainly for recovering HP and Sha-Chi.

The Illusory Pipa

This pipa was crafted by her own hands for her daughter. After Myst mends it, it turns into a Phantom Edge able to dispel Phantom barriers, among them the barrier sealing the Mountain of Imprisonment.

Ivory Talisman Details

Pipa strings from the instrument she once played are wound around this ivory pick together with hairs from her daughter, and after all this time both remain pliable. For the wish inscribed on it, read Personality & Motivations.

She kept the Gilded Lotus, a ship so large that her daughter called it huge. She herself made the Realm of Mirage, which sits between the Waking Realm and the Discordance, and the description of the fan puts her gift within it. Parting Mists in the Mirrorwood is the spot where Soul finds her apparition, in woods containing a place steeped in Phantom Arts so deeply that it can persist longer there.

Turning Down the Order, Then Giving Everything to It

Inanis started out by saying no: no to performing once she had a child, no to the Sovereign's initial offer. Later she took the seat she had turned down, went after the enemy Mu Tianmiao identified, and came out of the war without a body.

Her methods shift with the loss of her body. Once a woman who used illusions, she is now one herself, holding her form for only brief periods, and today she works via three artisans, a handful of flowers and a runaway who once sat beside her.

Lines attributed to Inanis

“Whether living or dead, everyone leaves behind traces of memory drifting through the Discordance...”

Inanis speaking about what the Discordance holds on to.

“Not all memories are meant to be forgotten.”

Spoken in one of her Memory Flowers.

“You are remarkably well-informed. That is indeed the problem I face.”

Inanis admitting a difficulty she is facing.

“Whatever happens, from now on your pipa is for you alone.”

Said to her daughter, during a practice afternoon from the past.

“Not only will you live for decades more... your Sha-Chi and martial prowess would make you unrivaled in this world.”

Inanis depicting a lengthy life and incomparable power.

• One Violet Blossom is needed to craft Inanis' Radiant Fan by Soul Tempering, and that material shares a name with the flower she kept for her daughter.
• Inanis closes the recollection of her daughter's practice by saying that their pipa is able to stir up a strange power and communicates with another world.