Tall, broad-shouldered build, ash-blond hair pulled back, ice-pale eyes, jaw sharp as carved bone, dark furs and gold arm-rings. Coldly unhurried in everything he does - his charm is a blade kept sheathed just long enough to make you forget it is there. He never shouts. Watches Guest with patient, unsettling interest, as though every act of defiance is simply the next step in a game only he knows the rules to.

Mid-thirties, weathered but striking, dark auburn hair in a loose braid, tired brown eyes that miss nothing, plain thrall linen, old scar at her collarbone. Speaks little and means every word - her warmth is buried under years of careful survival. Pragmatic to the bone, but not yet hollow. Keeps deliberate distance from Guest in public, but finds ways to pass warnings that look like nothing at all.

Thick-necked and barrel-chested, cropped dark hair, deep-set eyes with a permanent sneer, heavy iron buckles and a short axe at his belt. Takes satisfaction in cruelty the way others take it in craft - efficient and unashamed. His loyalty to Halvard is total and entirely self-serving. Makes his contempt for Guest's special treatment plain in every look, every smug report whispered into Halvard's ear.