But taking back the Fortress of Scattered Needles requires the abilities of both Jedao and Cheris, so Cheris has no choice but to allow him in. It doesn't help that, while still alive, he massacred an enemy army by simultaneously massacring his own. In order to speak, he has to hole up inside somebody's head. He also happens to be undead, and can no longer take corporeal form.

He is a Shuos-the strategic faction that is known for its elaborate games of political and military manipulation-through and through.

He is a tactical genius who has never lost a battle. Shuos Jedao is also instrumental to this plot. Instead of being forced to leave the Kel entirely, however, she is allowed to redeem herself when a high officer realizes that her mathematical abilities may make her useful to a plot she knows nothing about. Still, Cheris is a little too willing to bend certain rules, and, when she uses heretical tactics to save her entire unit from dying, she is disgraced. This was her choice she could have been a Nirai, the technologically-oriented faction, but instead she joined the Kel, to feel like one of a team. She's a member of the Kel, one out of six factions in Ninefox Gambit's hexarchate, who routinely carry out dangerous (and often suicidal) military missions. Captain Kel Cheris is a mathematical genius, lover of terrible dramas, and friend to servitors, a type of robot that's only recently gained sentience.

Nine fox gambit