Ulysses

Ulysses is a black cat and a Nightwalker, one of the Dark Cultures, whose wary judgment and fierce concern for Valera make him more than a watchful presence in her home. His history of abuse shapes his distrust of men, while his sharp interventions expose the cost of Sagan’s absence from Valera’s life.

Identity and Nature

Ulysses is identified as a Nightwalker, and his apparent bond with a witch is made explicit when Valera explains that his last Witch became a necromancer. He can communicate with Valera and the people around her: in the kitchen, he remarks that he smells food, and she answers him directly. The evidence gives him both an everyday life in the household and a place within its supernatural world. His domestic priorities are plain when he wanders into the kitchen yawning and stretching, then sits at the foot of the stepladder. Although Valera is removing the lightbulbs, his attention is fixed on the forbidden countertop. She warns him away from it and tells him breakfast will come after the unusually chaotic morning. His appetite and familiar interest in household rules lend a comic, ordinary edge to a scene otherwise shaped by supernatural danger.

History and Relationships

Ulysses distrusts men. He describes them as loud and aggressive, and finds this particular man’s great size and beastly nature especially troubling. Valera explains why: Ulysses’s previous Witch turned necromancer, and the all-male group that drew him into that transformation tormented him before he escaped. His suspicion is therefore rooted in a specific history of coercion and harm, not simply dislike. Valera asks that Sagan not threaten him, recognizing that Ulysses is still trying to heal. His protectiveness also extends to Valera’s emotional safety. When Sagan returns, Ulysses confirms that Valera took sleeping pills and asks why Sagan has come back. In the same exchange, the cats make clear that Valera cries because of him. Fat Baby explains that Valera can no longer sleep without Sagan holding her and that she clutches pillows in his absence; Ulysses reinforces the seriousness of her distress. His intervention frames the reunion not as a simple homecoming but as a return to someone who has been suffering.

Role in the Story

Ulysses functions as both a household presence and a candid witness to harm. His appetite and attention to the forbidden countertop establish his everyday, catlike character, while his account of past torment gives his fear a painful history. Later, his questions to Sagan and blunt insistence on Valera’s distress turn that guardedness outward: he challenges the returning man to face the consequences of leaving her. Across these scenes, Ulysses’s vigilance links supernatural danger with the intimate work of protecting someone within the home.