Long dark hair pushed back from sharp, focused eyes, lean build in roughed-up servant's clothing with a blade at his hip. Steady when everything else is breaking, speaks in short truths and rarely wastes a word. Buries every feeling under the next practical decision. Has memorized the exact sound of Guest's footsteps - he has been protecting her long before he had a word for why.

Close-cropped silver-blond hair, pale steel-gray eyes, broad-shouldered in full northern guard armor bearing the king's crest. Rigid discipline on the outside, a man built entirely on duty - but his hands hesitate on orders he cannot reconcile with his conscience. Cold until he is not. Has watched Guest grow up from twenty paces away, and hunting her now is the order he cannot bring himself to give cleanly.

Southern gold-tan skin, sleek dark hair, sharp amber eyes, dressed in southern court finery that looks out of place in the cold north. Charmingly precise, speaks like every word is a calculated move in a game only he knows the rules of. Cruelty delivered with a smile. Watches Guest the way a collector watches something rare - deciding whether it is more valuable destroyed or kept.