Steamwright-Baron Mikael Ferren

Mikael did not want the barony. He was apprenticed to the Ferren chief boilerwright at fourteen, and by twenty he was the most promising pressure-engineer the house had produced in two generations. Then his father died of a quiet stroke at breakfast, and Mikael, the only direct heir, was pulled off the floor and pinned with the brass before he could wash the soot off.

He has worn the soot under the formal collar ever since. The Foundry-Boy was his father's ship. He runs her competently and without enthusiasm. His real attention is in the engine bay, where he still tunes pressure by hand. He fights close, because his father did, and his volleys follow the boiler's pulse rather than a drum. He is grooming an unmarried younger sister for the chair. The day she takes the brass is the day he goes back to the floor. He has the bench picked out.