Character guide

Sir Felix

major

Also known as Felix, Aurora Thyma, Aurora, Baron Aquila Felix, The Baron, Aquila, the Baron Aquila, Aurora Felix, IX Superstitions Felix

Felix moves through the Baron's halls as a hearth-friend's son — entitled to a seat, denied the one he wants — while his father's fallen fortunes make him a suitor no one will name aloud. He broods on slights both real and imagined, yet his eye for the wild is unmatched: a snapped willow branch tells him Bushmen have passed. That mix of wounded pride and patient woodcraft is what will carry him out of the castle and into the forest's deeper dangers.

Sir Oliver

supporting

Also known as Oliver

Oliver is the family's glittering surface — handsome, quick-tongued, trailed by young nobles eager to swell his train — while Felix carries its shabbier name. He chafes at poverty with theatrical rage, flinging his spear down and vowing to rob roads rather than lose at cards with copper. Yet he is generous and loyal, and his companionship on the forest track gives Felix both a foil and a witness to the journey's first signs of danger.

Lady Aurora

major

Also known as the Lady Aurora, Aurora

Aurora sits at the centre of her father's court, courted by Lord Durand and watched by a Baron who looks higher for her than a landless hearth-friend's son. She dares not meet Felix's eyes lest her father take it as cause to forbid him the castle, so she laughs at another man's jokes and keeps her glances down. Her mother knows the truth of her heart; her father chooses not to. That enforced stillness makes her the quiet pressure behind every risk Felix takes.

Lord Durand

supporting

Also known as the young Lord Durand, Durand, The Lord Durand

Durand arrives at the Baron's table as an instrument of Earls and alliances, placed next to Aurora as a hint to Felix and a compliment to her father. He came for the fine weather and his father's diplomacy, yet finds himself genuinely drawn to a girl stronger in mind than he is. He is no villain — merely the acceptable suitor whose presence sharpens Felix's sense of exclusion and pushes him toward the expedition he has long been preparing.

Pike

supporting

Pike belongs to the shadowed country beyond the castle walls, the world of Bushmen, throw-clubs, and whispered magic that Felix's book of Romany signs describes. He moves at the edge of the narrative as a reminder that the forest is not empty scenery but a place with its own inhabitants, customs, and cruelties. His presence helps turn Felix's romantic venture into something more like a crossing of frontiers.

Sir Constans

supporting

Also known as Constans

Constans Aquila was once the strongest arm and sharpest mind among the nobles, designing a stone-throwing engine that promised the old Prince a swift victory. The hereditary artillerymen, seeing their prestige threatened, caballed against him; the Prince's death sealed his disgrace, and fines and debts followed. Now he tends gardens and inventions in obscurity, beloved by common people and ignored by the palace — a living lesson in how the court devours its own, and the reason Felix has so little to offer Aurora but his name.

Lord John

minor

A nobleman with a role in the political or military events.

Baron Thyma

supporting

Also known as Thyma

Baron Thyma earned his name defending Thyma Castle against a gipsy invasion, and the privileges that followed drew him into a court life his modest estate could never fund. Mortgaged, outmaneuvered by jealous courtiers, and quietly opposed to Felix's suit for his daughter Aurora, he still strains every resource to appear at Court in hopes of the appointment he believes he deserves. His stubborn pride and the castle's frontier position make him both a cautionary figure and a gatekeeper in Felix's early world.

Baron Ingulph

minor

Also known as Ingulph, The Baron

A baron with a minor but notable role in the narrative.

Prince Louis

minor

Also known as Louis, The Prince

A prince involved in the larger political conflicts.

Silvester

minor

Also known as Sylvester

A minor character, possibly a servant or local figure.

Philip

minor

A named character with limited but distinct appearances.

Anker

minor

A minor character, possibly a craftsman or guide.

Felix Aquila

major

Felix Aquila rides an unremarkable horse beside his brother Oliver's splendid Night, carrying a yew bow while others carry lances, and the contrast quietly defines him. He loves Lady Aurora of Thyma Castle, an attachment her father refuses to acknowledge, and his sharp woodcraft—spotting a Bushman's throw-club marks on a willow—shows a mind better suited to the wild than to courtship or inheritance. As he prepares to leave home, his skill and his forbidden hope set him on the forest track where the story truly begins.