Reader-Justiciar Maelis Crain is an Orderborne Human in her sixties, the senior Codex Excisor whose authority is felt in every Aurenhold scene. She is calm and measured, never raising her voice, and she apologizes with unsettling sincerity.

The party will encounter her at the Codex Bastion and, at least once mid-campaign, across a formal table — perhaps over tea and biscuits — where she offers an end to the chase. She is not a fight to be won so much as an argument to be answered.