Lady Thorne

Auren's mother and Lady of House Thorne — warm, sharp, and afraid in a way she never lets her son Auren Thorne see. Lady Thorne runs the social and diplomatic life of the House and knows every family along the Virelay Coastlands by name. She watches Auren tiptoe past the guard Brennick on the night he leaves and does not call out, even though she could. She and Lord Thorne share a single look across the Winter Room as the gate closes — the look of parents who have decided that loving their son includes letting him become whatever the world is about to make of him. Her grief is private; her composure, the kind that holds an entire House together while its trade lines fail.