Petra Arkanian

Petra Arkanian is a main character of the books Shadow of the Hegemon and Shadow Puppets by Orson Scott Card. She is also a major character in Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow and Shadow of the Giant. Petra is an Armenian.

Ender's Game

In Ender's Game, Petra is one of the few female students at the Battle School. As something of an outcast herself, she acts as an older sister towards Ender Wiggin and teaches him how to shoot. In fact she may, in the beginning, have identified with Bean because in many ways he was so similar to Ender (small size, amazing genius). In Shadow of the Hegemon, it's mentioned that one of her teachers found her so aggressive that he actually had her genome scanned to make sure she wasn't a boy. Petra becomes a member of Ender's "jeesh," or informal team and as such she rejoins him in Command School, where she serves as one of his most capable lieutenants during the campaigns against the Buggers. He relies on her so heavily, in fact, that he pushes her too hard and she finally breaks during combat, dozing off from exhaustion and causing a number of casualties. Although she recovers, she loses her aggressive edge and she never quite trusts herself again, believing herself to be weak and unreliable, a judgment that later events prove wrong. It is shown at the end of the book that Petra might have some attraction to Dink Meeker, and vice versa.

Shadow series

Throughout the Shadow series, Petra serves as a point of insecurity and necessity for Bean. He feels compelled to protect her, due to his failings to protect other important people in his life. In his early life he left his friend Poke alone, and she was murdered by Bean's continual nemesis Achilles de Flandres. When Petra is later captured by Achilles, Bean strives to rescue her. The subsequent death of his long-time friend and caretaker Sister Carlotta drives him even more to rescue Petra. While believing she was a weak link in Ender's team, Petra continually fights Achilles when in captivity, and she is able to use his insecurities to both keep herself alive, and expose Achilles to danger. In fact, Achilles has a short "romance" with Petra. Her actions also end up preparing and aiding several other captives of Achilles, once Bean finally comes to rescue her. She was married to Bean and conceived his first child in the book Shadow Puppets. In Shadow of the Giant, Petra and Bean engage in a worldwide search for eight of their children, whom Achilles stole as embryos and implanted into the wombs of various women. Andrew Arkanian Delphiki was the baby born through Petra's womb and fathered by Bean. Bean and Petra manage to recover all but one of their remaining children. Four of them, including the one that was never found, shared Bean's genetic alteration. Bean decides to leave Earth and go into space with the knowledge that his genetic defect will one day likely kill him and his three genetically defective children. Though heartbroken, Petra has no choice but to accept his decision. After divorcing Petra, Bean and those three children leave earth to wait in lightspeed for a cure, leaving Petra to raise the remaining five. Her children of course come from the same genius stock that Petra and Bean did and so are intelligent years beyond their age. Peter becomes a father figure to her children, and later Peter and Petra marry and have five children of their own. In all, Petra has fourteen biological children, six of which she personally gave birth to.