Characters
The people you meet in the first chapters of Jys-Ti-Yan. No spoilers past Chapter 2.

Amriella Firstspirit
A village laundress with strong hands, a stubborn jaw, and nothing left to lose. When the games take her sister, she walks into a wizard’s throne hall and asks for the one job nobody sane applies for. She is not here to be polite.
Wizard Sorin
One of the 213 immortals who rule the world, and he looks about thirty, which is somehow worse. Pale, still, and very hard to read, he receives petitioners from a throne that has outlasted everyone who ever stood before it. Whether he is amused by Amriella is an open question.


Varet
House Sorin’s trainer. He keeps his hood up and his face to himself, and nobody seems inclined to ask why. If you want to be a champion, you go through Varet first, usually more than once.
Elara Firstspirit
Amriella’s sister, and the reason any of this is happening. The games took her. Amriella intends to have a word with the games about that.


Jonin Firstspirit
Amriella’s father: weathered, knotted knuckles, a man who has already lost one daughter to the wizards. He walks her to the palace doors anyway. His best advice is that she can still turn around.
Felspin
The steward of House Sorin, immaculate in ivory and silver. He announces every visitor at the great doors with the same perfect composure. It has clearly been a while since anyone surprised him.


Garrick
A guard built roughly along the lines of a city wall. He expects a laundress to be a short conversation. It is a short conversation, just not the one he planned.