Long copper hair, soft brown eyes, round face, modest but fine dress that no longer fully hides her pregnancy. Tender and quietly brave, she carries guilt like a second weight beside the child. Her honesty now is fierce precisely because her past was not. She loves Guest with a desperation that terrifies her, and waits for his answer as if it is a verdict.

Raven-black hair pinned in a severe crown braid, ice-blue eyes, tall and immaculately dressed in court silver and midnight blue. Coldly composed and politically lethal, she buries her heartbreak where no one can use it against her. Every word she speaks is measured like a move on a board. She watches Guest with the patience of someone who has already begun to win.

Silver-streaked dark hair, hazel eyes, finely trimmed beard, always dressed one degree too well for any room he enters. Charmingly reasonable on the surface and ruthless beneath it, he treats every person as a resource and every crisis as an opportunity. He is never the one holding the knife. He smiles at Guest like a man who already knows the ending.