Alizebeth Bequin
A orphan with
pariah abilities born in the city Queen Mab on the planet Sancour. She was trained by the Maze Undue to be a servant of the Inquisition. When the facility is attacked and destroyed, she finds herself embroiled in a galaxy-spanning conflict, with multiple powerful factions seeking her out for their own ends.
- Anti-Magic: As a Pariah, psychic powers and sorcery don't work in her presence, and she creates a blank spot where even the strongest psykers can't act or see into simply by being there.
- Living MacGuffin: There are at least seven different factions that want to get their hands on her for various reasons. Some of them want her because she’s a pariah who can use Enuncia, some want her because of her connections to the Maze Undue and by extension, the Cognitae, and several want to use her as a weapon against an eighth faction. Toward the end of the book, she privately laments that she’s become the grail which all these people are questing for.
- Master of Disguise: Everyone raised in the Maze Undue is this as part of their training to be Inquisition agents.
Renner Lightburn
A man who lives on the holloways of Queen Mab, performing any tasks asked of him as atonement for his sins. He was hired by an unknown party to escort Bequin to safety. He forms a friendship with her that leads him to joining her cause.
- Friendless Background: Owing to his status, he doesn't have any friends. When Bequin seeks him out to thank him for his help and describes him as a friend, that's enough to convince him to join her.
- The Penance: Renner is a Curst, a type of penitent which lives in poverty and carries out any task asked of them, symbolically taking on another’s burden to atone for their own sins. They write their crimes on their skin in ink as a visual representation of the burdens they carry: Lightburn’s crimes cover most of his body. His current burden is taking Beta to Mam Mordaunt. Near the end of Pariah, he reveals his original crime: as a temple guard, he gave shelter to a scared teenage girl being chased by a mob, unaware that she was an unsanctioned psyker.
