Worlds to play, cards to import

Elected reeve of Sheavebury — the careful, stubborn farmer's son who talked his town into sealing the Crown's grain, and now has to be right.

A Molded forge-hand of the Emberworks, made in the Longwar to drive bridge-rivets — one of the few workers in the quarter whose oath-magic bones remember what the wars actually cost.

Widowed master baker of Mollet's Ovenhouse — the honest loaf of Granton, holding her weight and her price while the flour cost climbs past what honesty can afford.

Brakka Coalseam's star human apprentice at the Emberworks — nineteen, gifted, and terrified of what his masterwork year has landed in the middle of.

Chief assayer of the Ingot Hall — the Chandlers' man who grades every bar of Reaches iron, and won't say aloud what the last run sounded like.

An aging Ondrel living crane who lifts Sheavebury's harvest into its tower granaries — the slowest voice in town and, twice now, the one worth waiting for.

Dvergani second hammer of the Emberworks — Brakka's seam-kin, who finishes the ceremonial work Brakka can no longer bear to touch.

House Draken-Sol's recruiting serjeant at the Slagged Standard — a hundred veterans to sign by midsummer, and a growing question about what for.

Ondrel living crane of the Ingot Hall — two generations of Coronal's iron lifted on his shoulders, and a decade-deep memory of exactly what each year's iron weighed.

Commander of Sheavebury's wall-watch — a Longwar-blooded soldier's son keeping a fortress town calm while his old comrades in Coronal write him worrying letters.

Maru ferry-keeper and toll-taker at the Sackford — a river-trader's daughter whose word given on water settles more carter disputes than the assessor's ledger.

A Granlands widow eight months in the petitioners' camp, came to contest a granary consortium's seizure of her farm, stayed to become the camp's unelected mother.

House Draken-Sol's liaison on the Liveried Row: a decorated ex-sergeant who does his politics in taverns and guardhouses, recruiting sympathy where Obol recruits debt.

The last living member of the crew that sealed the Deepworks' Ninth Gallery — pensioned in full coin, drinking in Drossfell, and silent as the door he closed.

Ondrel keeper of the Grey Shoulder waystation — kin to Berest of the High Pass, host to every soul crossing the spine road, and counting the ore-carts as they thin.

A Songspire student turned camp petition-scribe: writes the illiterate camp's grievances for coppers by day, and sends the best of them to a Chorus printer by night.

Draken-Sol veteran of the border legions holding Drossfell together with a captain's voice, a house pension, and no illusions — the town's unelected everything.

Brandhollow's sharpest wages-clerk — balances the Consolidation's books by day and copies the pages that don't balance by night.

Young corporal of the Firstpost gate watch: good-hearted, underpaid, and quietly bending the rules to keep the petitioners' camp from freezing or starving on his doorstep.

A Dvergani pit-delegate from the failing Deepworks, camped eight months to petition for shoring-timber and pensions — courted by Draken-Sol coin she hasn't yet taken.

A Molded records-construct made in the Longwar to carry field orders, now the Minutary's tireless retrieval clerk — a citizen who files the peace that freed it.

House Vairre's liaison on the Liveried Row: a contract-lawyer in envoy's silk who treats the interregnum as a closing eight months overdue.

Keeper of the Deepworks' keys and sealing records — the woman who locks what she's told to lock, files orders that give no reasons, and has started keeping a file of her own.

Brandhollow's company mine-master — a collier's son squeezed between Coronal's quotas and his own dead men's names, and running out of ways to serve both.