Worlds to play, cards to import

The junior Graftwarden who skims the Graftwater Basin at dawn — orthodox in daylight, and one of the Quiet Graft's youngest listeners before it.

An orthodox junior Graftwarden and Warden-Militant Stonebridge's most eager instrument — sure the order can be saved by discipline, and hunting the Quiet Graft to prove it.

The Council's retained Grimwold oathtaker at the Oath-stones: she tastes every sworn word at the Kneeling Ring, and has kept every secret except her own opinion of the swearers.

The retired Deepworks mine-master who signed the first sealing warrant — living out his pension in Drossfell, drinking on schedule, and carrying whatever the warrant didn't say.

Eldest of the Cradleseam's seam-elders — born of the stone in the Longwar's last winter, and keeper of a birthing-seam that has been silent for twenty-two years.

The Minutary's second clerk: keeper of the filing canon under Head Clerk Voss, who can find any precedent in the realm — and decide how fast.

Dvergani sergeant of the Ward wall watch: thirty years on the stones, keeper of the wall's oath-tradition, and dying slowly of shame over the Iron rot.

A soft-spoken Coronal surveyor valuing the Reaches' mines for House Vairre — pricing a country the way an undertaker measures a patient still breathing.

The seam's last child — youngest Dvergani of the Cradleseam, taking company wages at Brandhollow and carrying the weight of being possibly the end of a line.

Veskarn master bead-wright of the Pyre Quarter — the artisan who fires the city's dead into glass, and knows all its griefs.

Chief judge of the Bread Courts — the Oathseat's cousin, and the incorruptible half of the family.

An Ondrel living crane at the Nine Stairs — the Concord's biggest asset and slowest, surest counsel.

Dvergani forge-mistress of the Emberworks — the finest iron-hand in the realm, taking the graft's rot as a personal accusation.

Second heir: the soldiers' darling — half the Emberguard would follow him through a wall, which is the problem.

Songspire printer whose press turned a funeral song into a movement — public face of a faction that denies having one.

Commander of the Emberguard: sworn to the stones, courted by every faction, and holding the city with too few spears.

Serapha's heir and chief negotiator — charming where his mother is cold, and gambling in ways the audit hasn't found.

Halbren victualler of Granton: provisioner to the Emberguard and half the caravans, with a pantry-vault the banks envy.

Youngest heir: the family's conscience and its cartographer — she has begun asking who profits from the rot, and writing the answers down.

Meriel's under-steward and Edren's boyhood friend — the one retainer whose loyalty runs to the man, not the house, and Crane knows it.

Rootden's master apothecary: half the quarter owes her their health and the other half owes her money, and she prefers it that way.

Head of the Graftwardens: holds the Council's casting voice and will not use it — while her order splits beneath her.

Captain of the Ferruhm gate: a good officer being courted nightly by Draken-Sol coin and his own resentments.

Chair of the Table of Nine: mistress of weights and measures, and thereby of everything weighed or measured.