Character Analysis
Maude is a fortune-teller in Limòri whom Sadima befriends upon her arrival. She is "a loud-voiced woman with her lips and fingernails painted black—and a stack of intricately inked fortune cards in her embroidered bag" (17.3). She directs Sadima to the house where Somiss and Franklin rent a room, suggesting that Sadima try to flirt with Somiss because he's "the handsome one" (17.4). Um, okay lady—clearly you haven't spent much time actually talking to him.
Maude is always friendly to Sadima, and she lets Franklin set up a chair in her booth so that he can bring in a little extra money from fortune telling. Still, she makes Sadima a little uncomfortable: "Maude was the kind of magician her father and Micah had hated so much—someone who took money pretending to have magical skill" (29.51). She's a kinder, gentler reminder that magicians are tricky in this book.