Lord Thorne

Auren's father and Lord of House Thorne — a quiet, watchful man who runs the family's holdings from Thorne Manor with the unfussy competence of someone who has never needed to prove anything. He knows his son Auren Thorne is a brilliant heart wrapped around an exceptionally bad swordsman, and he knows it the way a parent knows the weather. He and Lady Thorne see Auren's "escape" from the Manor on the night the Fray reaches Virelay and let him go — not because they are willing to lose him, but because they recognise that a courage like Auren's cannot be kept indoors without being broken. House Thorne's trade lines with the Virelay Coastlands are crumbling under the Fray's pressure, and Lord Thorne carries that quiet weight without naming it.