Nakka

Nakka is a middle-aged attendant at the Echo Master’s cavern refuge whose practical welcome helps Van and Yuna enter the healing community—and whose sudden absence turns that refuge into the starting point of Yuna’s disappearance. He first appears as a guide, familiar with the cave’s passages and amenities; later, Van finds that Nakka is gone along with Yuna and follows tracks that lead away from the entrance.

Identity and First Appearance

Nakka emerges from one of the cavern’s tunnels after footsteps sound to Van’s right. He is middle-aged and short, and his left shoulder sags slightly as he walks, perhaps because of an old injury to his leg or hip. He bows to Van, then turns to welcome Assenomi. His bearing is courteous and matter-of-fact, and his southern accent distinguishes his speech from Assenomi’s.

When Assenomi asks whether the master is present, Nakka explains that the Echo Master has just crossed over and that their guests will have to rest for a while. His answer presents him as someone who knows the refuge’s routines and can speak on its behalf, though the passage does not specify his formal position or what the master’s crossing entails.

Guide to the Refuge

Nakka takes responsibility for showing Van where to settle. After Van asks about the baths, Assenomi confirms that the waters are good and encourages him to take his time. Nakka then invites Van to follow him and leads the way with a lantern taken from a small hook driven into the rock wall. Van carries Yuna in his left arm as they enter a narrow tunnel that twists deeper into the cavern. The lantern swings with Nakka’s rolling gait, throwing large shadows across the walls.

The first chamber is roughly the size of a tent. It has a small hearth with the red of a banked fire visible in the ashes, two smoke holes admitting sunlight, reindeer hides spread over the floor and stacked along a wall, and a basin of water. Nakka points out the toilet and offers to show Van where it is. Van asks Yuna whether she needs to go; she shakes her head, and he judges that she will probably be all right because she has become more aware of her needs than she was earlier. Nakka’s guidance therefore takes in both the cave’s facilities and the practical care Van is providing for the child.

After Van puts his luggage on a reindeer hide, Nakka leads him onward toward the baths, with the toilet along the way. The cave has no door, and Van feels anxious about leaving his belongings where anyone could enter. Nakka appears to recognize his concern and reassures him that there are no thieves: those who come to the refuge are desperate for healing and beg the gods for help. Van’s observation that the Echo Master is like the Master of the Dance reinforces the refuge’s role as a place where people bring afflicted loved ones for treatment.

Disappearance and Pursuit

Later, when Van notices that Yuna is missing, he is told she is fine and is right behind the others with Nakka. But Nakka is not among the group. Assenomi turns around, blinks at his absence, and remarks that he had been there only a moment earlier. The discrepancy changes the scene’s meaning: the guide who had moved confidently through the refuge is now missing at precisely the moment Van cannot find the child in his care.

Van rushes into the stone tunnel, calling Yuna’s name and expecting her to answer with the name she uses for him. He receives no reply. He runs through the empty passages and out into the snowy night, where the wind strikes his face and falling snow begins to cover the ground. Headache, thirst, and blurred vision hamper him, and he wonders whether something had been smeared on the arrow that struck him.

Outside, Van examines the tracks between the cave entrance and the forest. Most run from the forest toward the cavern and are already partly buried in new snow. One set goes the other way. Its prints remain fresher, more distinct, and deeper than the others. Van concludes that Nakka must have carried Yuna away, then runs after the tracks. As he enters the forest, darkness prevents him from seeing them, while his injury dulls his senses until he can make out only vague scents and sounds.

Narrative Significance and Limits

Nakka’s role turns on a sharp contrast between welcome and suspicion. He escorts Van into a refuge whose open entrance initially makes Van uneasy, then reassures him that its visitors seek healing rather than theft. When Yuna disappears, however, the evidence at the cave mouth points away from the refuge along a set of tracks Van identifies as Nakka’s, with Yuna being carried. The episode leaves the guidance Nakka offered and the apparent safety of the cavern in tension with Van’s urgent pursuit.

The passage gives no explanation for Nakka’s disappearance, his relationship to the Echo Master, or his purpose in taking Yuna. Van’s conclusion rests on the direction and depth of the footprints, not on witnessing Nakka leave. Nakka is therefore associated both with the healing community’s hospitality and with the unresolved threat that propels Van from the cave into the dark forest.