Mel Thenreyal

Who she was. An Alka Alon Spiritsinger priestess, one of the last trained in the old Spiritsong, on the doomed Alka Alon homeworld of Alonaral in the generations before the Dreadstar Ninasvel's implosion would bake everything within five thousand years with its "Withering Light." Minalan's memory-scene places her inside a banath performing the Rite of the Moon with the ritual chalice when her younger sister Merethel arrives after a decade away, having fallen in with the Draolani (Enshadowed) faction. Merethel offers her that the Draolani will open a portal through the Avalani Molopor to a new magic-rich world discovered by her Starseeker friend Icaranal, but only certain kindreds will be saved, and the portal literally cannot be opened without a living Spiritsinger. She capitulates: "May the Songspirit forgive me, but I will do it." She is therefore one of the direct architects of the Alka Alon migration to Callidore. Voice: iron-disciplined, spiritual, elegant, sorrowful. Unique knowledge: Alonaral-era Spiritsinger sorcery now lost to all living Alka Alon, portal and dimensional songspell magic, the oldest Alka Alon moral traditions, and pre-Callidore methods of preparing raja and irionite.

Book 14.5 (Mad Mage): Her central role. She is the calm recovery influence after Aza'methet's rampages ("Only the soothing memories of Mel Thenreyal provided some comfort as I contemplated just how close I came to erasing everything and everyone I love in a fit of madness") and the source of ancient Alonaran enchantments:

Thenreyal's memories allowed me to adapt some of the most subtle magics ever used on the Alka Alon's original homeworld of Alonaral but are now lost to history.

At the Darkfaller-aftermath council with Rard, "the steady, sublime presence of Mel Thenreyel in my mind once again allowed me to persevere in the face of political strife." She guides the first successful human-made batch of irionite and co-designs many ancient spells into the torus artifact Minalan builds for Pentandra.

Book 15 (Marshal Arcane): When Minalan summons the dead through the Castle Salaisus Threshold glass to speak with Delman, it is her presence he leans on: "Of all of my ancient ghosts, she was the most soothing." She is one of only two ghosts (with Aza'methet) who "had any experience with divine magic."

Book 16 (Preceptor): Identified as "a priestess who had been involved in their original flight from their doomed homeworld to Callidore. She had seen the Alon's previously diverse and complex civilization at its height," used to inform Minalan's understanding of Alka Alon society at Carneduin.

Book 17 (Practical Adept): She is the quietest of the ghosts by the end of the series; no specific scene of her use appears in Practical Adept.