I didn't create these characters so much as discover them. And honestly? Some of them surprised me more than they'll surprise you.

A woman with shoulder-length brown hair wearing a cream-colored, loose top and dark blue, high-waisted leather pants, smiling with her hand on her hip in a warmly lit indoor setting.

Rae

Forty years old.

Mother of two.

Chronic overthinker.

Accidental hero.

Rae has spent her whole life functioning best in chaos — five things at once, problem-solving at full speed, never enough time to sit alone with her thoughts. She has a star she watches from her porch, a marriage that has quietly become something else, and a feeling she has never been able to name that something is missing. She is nobody's chosen one.

Except she is. She just doesn't know it yet.

Smiling woman with red hair wearing colorful earrings embracing two young boys outdoors in a park with green trees.
A woman in a red off-shoulder dress holding a glass of rosé wine at a party with colorful lights and other people in the background.
A woman with red hair smiling while holding a white mug on a wooden deck at night, with string lights and a starry sky in the background.
A man with blond hair and blue eyes wearing a brown, worn leather shirt, standing outdoors during sunset. The background shows a rustic stone wall and wooden structures.

Aldric

Sunlight in human form. Warm, steady, devastatingly capable, and carrying a grief so old it has become part of his bones. He has been searching for someone for a very long time. He believes Rae is the key to finding her. He is not entirely wrong.

A woman with long red hair standing outdoors in a natural landscape with mountains and rocks in the background, dressed in a dark blue outfit, carrying a quiver and bow.

Lyra

The woman who holds them all together without anyone fully noticing she's doing it. Warm, precise, ancient in her kindness. She asked for everything on Day One and she meant it.

A man with dark hair and blue eyes, wearing a dark shirt, is in a medieval-style tavern with wooden beams and a stone wall background. He has two swords strapped to his back and looks directly at the camera with a serious expression.
A woman in a traditional Bavarian dress with a blue bodice decorated with gold star patterns, cream puffed sleeves, and a green skirt, smiling in a rustic wooden interior.

Vaughn

Difficult. Dangerous. Quietly devastating. Vaughn speaks in as few words as possible and means every single one of them. He calls her Chaos. It is not an insult.

Sienna

Warm, steady, and quietly dangerous in the way still water is dangerous. She runs the Ember and Stone inn in Vespera, makes stew that tastes like a warm hug, and knows more than she says. She always has. She is the kind of woman who holds everything together without anyone fully noticing she's doing it — and she has been doing it for a very long time.

A fantasy creature with the body of a fox, large eagle wings, and bright green eyes, sitting on a log in a forest.

Edna

Part fox, part crow, entirely chaotic, completely Rae's. She adopted Rae within twenty minutes of meeting her and has shown no signs of reconsidering. Forest green eyes, silky orange fur fading to deep black wings, and a soft white snout that makes her look far less dangerous than she actually is. She churrs when she's content and has strong opinions about where she sleeps. Equal parts terrifying and unbearably cute. Mostly unbearably cute. Don't tell Vaughn.