Nissa's ability to travel between realms makes her a much more important character than the amount of attention she gets might suggest. A fairy who can open a portal has somethi…

Nissa's ability to travel between realms makes her a much more important character than the amount of attention she gets might suggest. A fairy who can open a portal has something an entire army needs, and the Dark Horde understands that very well. She's one of the few fairies left after the persecution of her people. That already puts a lot behind her appearances. The danger to fairies is connected to what they can do. Their ability to cross those boundaries makes them useful to people who want access to places they shouldn't be able to reach. Nissa is often around Shang, and she belongs to that part of Sela's life where other people know far more about the realms than Sela initially does. When Sela is learning how Myst connects to her own history and to her book, Nissa helps make that world less abstract. There's someone there who can explain it, take her through it, and show her that these places have their own lives beyond the story Sela thought she understood. Her wings let her fly, and she has magic, but the portal ability is the part that becomes especially consequential. If you can't reach a world, you can't invade it. Getting control of someone who can open the way can accomplish something that brute force alone won't. That's what makes the attack involving the council so awful for her. The Dark One's forces capture and corrupt her. Her own ability becomes part of the danger facing the people she was helping. The problem for Sela is no longer just the enemy on the other side of the portal. It's also the person being used to keep that route available. Sela kills her to close it. That early story leaves her having to make a decision involving someone who had been an ally, and it happens while she's also dealing with the need to destroy the remaining routes between Myst and Earth, including her book. The fighting takes away people and the things she relied on to do her work. Nissa's part in that sequence deserves attention because the story makes her ability matter in a very specific way. Being able to open a door between worlds sounds incredible until somebody makes you open it for them. Her role in the conflict grows out of the same power that made her helpful in the first place, and Sela ends up dealing with the consequences at a terrible cost.