Baghra

Baghra is the reclusive, sharp-tongued teacher hidden away in the Little Palace, feared even by the Darkling himself. She trains Alina in secret, contemptuous of weakness and impatient with excuses, offering cryptic wisdom instead of comfort. Blind, aged, and dismissive of ceremony, she seems to want nothing but to be left alone with her books and her disdain.

Wanamaker plays her with a brittle, mocking wit that makes every scene crackle — she refuses to soften Baghra into a cozy mentor archetype, letting the cruelty and the care sit uneasily together. The writing keeps her motives opaque just long enough that her barbed affection for Alina feels earned rather than assumed.