Ritualist Iskra Vael

Iskra Vael shares a surname with the Soulbinder of the Soulbind, a more famous member of the same clan. She does not mention it. She apprenticed in another branch, under Eden Vael, whose specialty was timing: the hour a rite is performed, the length of each phase, the moment it is sealed. Eden taught her that a rite at the wrong hour is not a rite.

The Hour of Lead is that doctrine made into a ship. Synchronized volleys, scheduled retreats, a ritual of disengagement. The crew sets a lead-weighted clock at the start of an action and resets it at the end. She left the family compound when Eden died, because the family wanted her cousin's branch to absorb her practice, and she did not want to be absorbed. The cousin, on the rare occasions they have spoken, has been respectful. The elders have not.