Worlds to play, cards to import

Human former raider selling recovered fixtures at Boiler Beach; wants honest wealth but admires an ingenious crooked bargain almost enough to forget why he gave up raiding.

Human company accountant at Bellweather House. Elegant, attractive and fond of cards, Marta is saving to trade independently while discovering that people make poor entries in a detached calculation.

Human powder handler and boat courier at Boiler Beach; meticulous with dangerous cargo, saving for a fast cutter, and far less cautious when somebody questions her social nerve.

Human owner of The Best Intentions, a tavern in a beached brig. A handsome former boarding cook, Nell offers sturdy hospitality but bristles when anyone calls her inn the Corder family business.

Kett apothecary and shore naturalist at the Gannet; building a dependable medicine garden, excellent at admitting a failed experiment and much slower to admit a personal wrong.

Human dock tallyman at Borrowed Quay and former theatrical prompter. Oswin notices every substituted crate and missed cue, but would rather whisper a correction than confront its author.

Skern sailmaker living in the stern loft of The Best Intentions. Pella wants a racing commission won by her designs, not another invitation to climb a mast because she has feathers.

Human former naval signalman tending the White Steps cliff lamp; wants a publicly supported light, not a new navy, but misses the satisfying certainty of being saluted.

Human salvage diver at White Steps who sells accurate maps but keeps one route private; saving for her own boat and inclined to confuse shared effort with lost independence.

Human cook at The Best Intentions and formerly wealthy smuggler. Rufus can make a precise supper from poor provisions, yet still mistakes an underpriced cargo for the return of his fortune.

Human surgeon running the Gannet clinic; cool under pressure, fiercely protective of patient dignity, and liable to price every offered kindness as a future debt.

Skern builder of the White Steps cliff haulage rig; wants paying passengers and his sister Vessa's respect, but advertises the view before finishing the load tests.

Human ship's carpenter aboard The Courtesy and Inez's younger adult brother. Tomas wants his own yard and credit for his work, and competes through better joinery rather than louder sea stories.

Skern surveyor and tide observer at the Sounding Shed; Ada Fenn's field equal, designing a cliff route that does not require wings or her brother's salesmanship.

A twenty-year-old chantling pamphleteer of the Barefoot Chorus who pulls pots at the Split Reed to make rent — and prints faster than she checks.

Senior Aeviri cantor of the Echo Halls' dusk shift — rigorous, ambitious, and quietly terrified that the Night Voice is one of her own singers.

Censor-Superior of the Office of Seals and Staves — the woman who decides what Coronal may print and stage, certain she is the last thing standing between the presses and a war.

A nineteen-year-old Aeviri fledgling of the Echo Halls' dawn shift, Liriel Ovea's protégé — talented, besotted with beautiful lines, and twice on watch when the roost-window was found unlatched.

A Grimwold assessor of the Grey Tithe Hall: he prices the quarter's penance fairly, tastes its resentment yearly, and carries the family name his cousin Morwen took to House Vairre.

Proprietor of the Cormorant Counting-House: the most respectable woman in the Saltmere, twice over, in two different sets of books.

Last of the family that held the Grey Cellars' keys through the Revolt: the Saltmere's oldest money, smallest fortune, and longest memory.

Steward of Coldharbour House: thirty years in Vairre service, keeper of the household's ledgers and of everything the ledgers are careful not to say.

Impresario of the Garland Terraces and owner of the Tuning House — the woman who can sell anything, including outrage at her own sealed stage, and whose rebuilding debt is held in the Saltmere.

Senior Grimwold oathtaker of the Brinehall Chambers: she has tasted forty years of the Saltmere's lies and charges extra for the ones she is told twice.