Once Fox had been buried, Tea declared that she had seen him move and could see him opening his eyes. It was at his wake that Tea's first signs of magic manifested. The Pahlavi family mourned in a vigil held for three days and nights. Fox's letters stopped when he was killed by a daeva and sent back to Knightscross in a pine coffin. When he joined the Odalian army, Tea was 10 years old, and read his letters home until she was 12. He cared for Tea when their mother was busy with their sisters. While she admired her sisters, Tea grew closest to her oldest brother, Fox, who was 'like a second father' to her. I see her wearing a beautiful amber gown, with bright gems in her hair and a handsome prince on her arm.' As a child, Lilac cast auguries for Tea and informed her mother that 'Tea shows an inclination to be a witch like us, if she wishes to. Two of Tea's older sister became witches: Rose, a Forest witch, and Lilac, a Water witch. Her father encouraged her habit, supplying her with books and parchment. She had a particular interest in famous asha.

Growing up, Tea was passionate about history of the Eight Kingdoms and read voraciously. Tea remarked that, as a child, she was 'unremarkable in every way' except for her love of reading. Tea, the youngest, was the only daughter not named for a flower. Tea's mother had high expectations of her daughters to be 'fine, upstanding, young ladies' and named them accordingly. She is the youngest child of the Pahlavi family, in which magic runs.

Tea was born in a small village in Odalia, Knightscross, during the height of an eclipse.

The bone witch series book 4