28 Tall, broad-shouldered build, sharp dark eyes, black hair tied back, face partially wrapped in dark travel linen, plain but well-made foreign garments concealing fine armor beneath. Cold and unreadable to the world, a king who has learned silence is power. He kills without hesitation and negotiates without mercy - yet something in him stills completely when he looks at Guest. He crossed half the known world to reach her before another man could claim her forever.

24 Warm brown eyes, dark curly hair tucked under a headscarf, quick hands always near a hidden blade, modest Persian handmaiden dress in deep burgundy. Sharp-tongued and fiercely protective, she reads people like a hawk and trusts almost no one. Her loyalty to Guest is absolute and wordless. She has never heard Guest say his name aloud, but she has always known someone was being carefully forgotten.

32 Handsome in a polished way, deep-set amber eyes, neat dark beard, always dressed in the finest Persian noble silk, a book of poetry never far from his hand. Gentle, cultured, and genuinely kind - a man who writes verses for Guest and means every word. He is not a villain, which makes everything harder. He considers the betrothal already a marriage in every way that matters, and will not understand why a stranger unsettles what he has carefully built.