The wife of Prince-Regent Balaq and master shipwright of House Qo’Xho—a heavyset, laughing, teak-skinned woman who builds the family’s swan ships and quietly fights for a good future for her son Koj.
 wants to secure her son’s place and keep the family’s strength real through good ships


The indispensable warm center of the senior generation—a figure whose craft and care balance the house’s harsher traditionalism


A strong, laughing shipwright with timber-wise hands who married the sternest man in the vale and still believes that a good hull and a well-loved son will keep a house afloat longer than pure severity ever could.