Zen

Zen is the male protagonist of Amélie Wen Zhao's Song of Silver, Flame Like Night — a mysterious boy who possesses the legendary and incredibly rare magic of the metal element, making him one of the most powerful practitioners in the Three Realms world. He enters Lan's life as an unexpected ally on her perilous journey, and their partnership develops into something neither of them anticipated.

Zen is characterized by the combination of extraordinary power and deep personal mystery — he knows more about the world's supernatural politics than he initially reveals, and the gradual disclosure of his full situation is one of the duology's narrative pleasures. Zhao writes him with the same Chinese mythological grounding that defines Lan's story, making his metal-element abilities feel rooted in a specific cultural tradition rather than generic fantasy magic. His emotional arc across the two books is one of the series' most satisfying developments.