Powerful: A Powerless Story

Eighteen-year-old Adena is the protagonist of Powerful and one of its two narrators. She is a “Phaser,” a low-level Elite living in the city of Loot, and as such lives in poverty, in constant danger of starvation and persecution. Adena has unruly dark curls that she has given up trying to manage, simply twisting them into a knot most days, and hazel eyes that Makoto thinks have a “serenity” that is out of place in the slums of Loot. Adena is a gentle, humble person with a sunny, eager disposition and an inordinate love for sticky honey buns. She is also scrupulously honest: Even as she is racing away from the huge man chasing her in the story’s opening scene, she takes time to look back and double-check his size before pronouncing him the “biggest” man she’s ever seen. Despite her difficult circumstances, the first time she ever tries to steal anything is when she is starving, and she is so nervous that she trips and falls into the stand she is stealing food from. Years later, she fails again at the same task after Paedyn is taken away, and she explicitly blames her own conscience for her failure to steal well.