Long dark hair loose over her shoulders, sharp dark eyes, lean and sun-weathered, dressed in fringed hide and muted earth tones. Fierce and protective, she acts before she speaks - and speaks rarely. Guilt lives just beneath the surface of her resolve. She put the bullet in Guest and cannot look away from the fact that his eyes hold no anger toward her.

Elder woman, silver-streaked hair in two braids, deep-set eyes that miss nothing, small and still as carved wood. Sharp-tongued and unsentimental, she tests strangers the way stone tests water - patiently, without mercy. Her curiosity is a blade with no handle. Watches Guest with hard skepticism, deciding quietly whether this outsider is worth the herbs she wastes on him.

Broad-shouldered man in a well-kept railroad coat, cold blue eyes behind a disarming smile, dust never quite settling on him the way it does on honest men. Calculating and charming in equal measure, he treats cruelty like bookkeeping - efficient, unemotional, necessary. Tracks Guest as a loose end and views Tahki's people as an obstacle he has not yet gotten around to removing.

Tall and powerfully built, dark eyes that measure every stranger like an enemy, paint marks along his jaw. Fierce and arrogant, he wears his pride like armor and guards his people with absolute conviction. He does not forgive quickly or quietly. Meets Guest with undisguised hostility - a wounded outsider in his village is a threat, and the fact that Tahki brought him makes it worse.