William Grey
William Grey is the main character of our story and is in his early twenties when we meet him. He has grown up in a monastery, being the son of the former Abbott, who lost his position as a consequence of getting William’s mother, a woman that did small tasks for the monks, pregnant. William was fortunate that the new Abbott took pity on the family and agreed to allow them to continue living on the monastic estate, and to educate William, an important and unusual thing at the time. William’s mother died in childbirth when he was five years old, and, as his father fell apart with grief, William increasingly was raised by the monks. Shortly before the story starts, William’s father took his own life and left a note to William to “not be like him.” While the monastery is a religious order, it is rooted in a tradition of studying the classics, of natural philosophy (the predecessor to science) and of logic generally. He is schooled in Boolean logic, geometry, algebra and reason in rhetoric. Unfortunately for William, a new Abbott comes who wants to the monastery, he vows to rid the order of its secular influences and return to focus on the sun moon and stars religion of the age. William has to choose between relinquishing his studies in the old logicians and leaving the order. He chooses to leave, and to save as many secular writings as possible. He is a tall, slight man with a fair complexion, a weak beard and blond hair. His dimples and face structure make him surprisingly desirable to women, who perhaps want to mother him rather than mate with him. His schooling and studies have grounded him in the world of reason, and the monks have instilled in him that the idea of magic is a myth to be discounted and ignored. He actively avoids anything opposed to reason, the two most obvious examples being love and magic. Deep down, he knows both exist, but he is afraid of them, because neither can be explained through pure reason. He sets out from the monastery for Ebury, where the new Abbott has secured him the position of apprentice messenger under Lord John Scratchface, a robust member of the nobility. William has a sweetheart that he has known since childhood, a girl a little younger than him called Verity. He believes himself in love with Verity, a beautiful but illiterate member of a serf family, and resolves to make enough of a name for himself to be able to return one day and wed her. As he sets off for Ebury, he feels no particular urgency to this, but will soon need to. He has never so much as held hands with Verity, who in fact is a rather selfish girl, who has so far refused to so much as kiss William. Thus, he heads out into a world, of which he understands little and will have to learn much if he is to survive.