Glossary Three
Amia is a maidservant in the employ of House Dorn, specifically assigned to Roen’s care. She is petite, with olive skin, dark eyes and curly dark hair. “She was considered by far the prettiest girl in Dorn’s employ—no doubt one of the reasons she had been selected as Roen’s maidservant. Her family had perhaps hoped a bit of Amia’s prettiness might rub off. Alas.” Amia was originally born in Marca, in Lorea, Thalisse, back when it was an Aragonis principality, and refers to Roen as her “dora”, a word Roen is unfamiliar with but accepts as an honorific. Amia is routinely dismayed at the state of Roen’s messy bedchamber.
The Master Malacai is a mysterious man, short in stature and “foreign” to Zadran lands. He was small, barely a thumb taller than she was, and slight of build. His clothes were as black as his eyes, expensive-looking and tailored to fit him; his long cloak was clasped beneath his chin with a silver pin, a puff of white lace peeking up from his collar and cuffs. His boots were freshly shined. His hair was black as well, cut close to the skull. The only other ornamentation he wore was an oddly styled goatee, shaved bare at the chin and sculpted into two sharp spikes that pointed up toward his lower lip, giving the illusion of a rather dramatic moustache rather than any sort of trimmed beard.
Lord Hammod is a white-haired man in his mid-fifties, portly and stuffy, and prone to making proclamations. His face reddens when he drinks (which is often), and he has a “bristle-brush of odd-looking whiskers on his cheeks.” Lord Hammod had come to Dorn Keep in the hopes of betrothing his son Jestin to Roen, though the arranged dinner did not go as planned, and he ended up exiting with Jestin, insulted and humiliated by Roen’s eldest brother Doryan.
Jestin is Lord Hammod’s fifteen year-old son, brought to Dorn Keep with the hopes of becoming betrothed to Roen. He is described as “thin, and… Doryan had called him “pretty,” and that was still the only word that seemed to suit. Jestin’s blond hair was brushed back away from a fair face, curling over his ears and the high collar of his velvet dinner coat. He had long lashes and blue eyes and high cheekbones. When he took Roen’s hand to kiss at introduction, his own hand was gentle. Soft even. He smelled fancier than Roen would ever want to smell. Jestin exits Dorn Keep with his lord father following a punch to the mouth delivered by Roen.