Pele

A boy from Brod, a ford town at a river crossing in Mezhkraya. He grew up in the markets there, raised by his mother and his grandmother alongside each other. What his grandmother taught him, she called instructions, not stories. In Book Four, he travels east on a road no one his age has any business traveling. The man riding ahead of him does not give his name. The boy talks anyway.

Small for his age. Built by running. Blonde hair, often dirty at the temples. Blue eyes that miss very little. A face that does not hold attention, which has been useful. Oversized boots stuffed with cloth at the toes.

Quick, bright, lighthearted. Talks too much, and is right often enough that the talking earns its space. Says what others would not. Asks what they want answered. Humor from honesty and bad timing, never wit deployed as armor.

Carries his grandmother's knowledge of the old systems. Folk protocols, crossroads, wells, what bread the forest will accept. Pattern recognition through stories. Reads people the way market children learn to read marks.