Karen White
Soon-to-be divorced mother of a fifteen year old Michael and sister to Laura and Tim. Karen spends years trying to lead a normal life in Toronto, but sudden return of the Grey Man forces her to finally confront her fears and look for some answers.
- Big Brother Instinct: Well, Big Sister Instinct: Invoked by Willis. He always charged Karen with duty of protecting and keeping her younger siblings in line.
- Dimensional Traveler: Like the rest of her family she too can move between worlds, even if she hardly uses her abilities.
- Fatal Flaw: Love for her son. Which is later used to lure her into a trap and imprison her behind powerful binding spells. But it’s also this love that helps her overcome her fears and use her powers to protect Michael.
- Flashback Nightmare: Karen often dreams about the first time she met the Gray Men as a young girl.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Karen spends years trying to forget she has powers and represses any memories of her childhood adventures. She later grows out of this attitude, when she understands she can’t run away from her heritage much longer.
- Mama Bear: She will do anything to protect her son. Novus Ordo uses this to lure her into a trap. But this love also lets her later overcome her fears and use her abilities to protect Michael.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Karen finally realizes that places she lived in for many years (her parent’s house, her apartment in Toronto) no longer feel like home (or have never been home in the first place). At the end of the story it’s also hinted she can’t stay in our universe since her ex-husband will try to find her and take Michael back.
Michael White
Karen’s fifteen year old son. For many years he lived with his family in Toronto, but sudden manifestation of his talent and reappearance of the Grey Man forces him to go on the run with his mother and aunt.
- Dimensional Traveler: He inherited an ability to move between worlds from his mother. Since he lacks fear instilled in Karen and her siblings by Willis he can open more doors than anyone else in his family.
- Home Sweet Home: When he discovers that his old house no longer feels like a place where he belongs, he starts wondering if one of many parallel worlds may become his new home. He briefly considers Walker’s home world, as the one his real grandparents come from, but finally decides to try his luck in a strange new world he often dreams about.
- How Do I Shot Web?: He spends a few days in Turquoise Beach experimenting with his powers.
- Teen Genius: He is much more powerful than anyone else in his family. That’s why Novus Ordo wants him so desperately.
- You Can't Go Home Again: After a few months on the run from the Gray Man he discovers that he no longer thinks about Toronto as his home. At the end of the story it’s also hinted that he can’t remain in our world, because his father will hire detectives to try to find him and bring him back.
Laura Fauve
Karen’s and Tim’s free-spirited sister. As a young woman she decided to find her perfect world. She travelled for a while before finally settling in a more peaceful world, in bohemian town called Turquoise Beach, and spending there next twenty years. She takes in Karen and Michael, and finally goes on the run with them, looking for the answers.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: She spent her younger years as a hippie looking for a meaning in life and later decided to go on a journey across the multiverse to find her ideal world.
- Dimensional Traveler: Like the rest of her family.
- The Drifter: There is an indication that she traveled for a while around the multiverse until she finally found Turquoise Beach.
- Fatal Flaw: Her vanity. It’s how Novus Ordo manages to lure her into a trap and imprison using powerful binding spells.
- Hippie Aunt
- Middle Child Syndrome: Strangely inverted. Between Karen being the oldest (always charged with responibility for her younger siblings) and Tim being a boy (burdened with his father's expectations) Laura always got off easy.
- Stranger in a Familiar Land: She feels like a stranger when she returns to our world after twenty years. Her parents’ house also no longer feels like home (or has never been one in the first place).
Timothy Fauve
Karen’s and Laura’s rebellious brother. He ran away from home when he was seventeen years old and disappeared for twenty years.
- Abusive Parents: He hates his abusive father for beating him. Laura suggests that his lust for power may stream from the same source: he wants to be “bigger than his daddy”.
- The Alcoholic: Like his adoptive father. He started drinking in the years following his escape from his parents’ house.
- Ambition Is Evil: His hunger for power drives him to betray his family and later gets him killed.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Like his older sister, Laura.
- Dimensional Traveler: Like the rest of his family. Most worlds he visits are miserable and dark, possibly reflecting his own soul (since it’s world-walker’s imagination that helps open the door).
- The Drifter: Tim spent years wandering around the multiverse looking for a “better world”. Sadly all places he ever entered were dark and miserable. Finally he came to the conclusion that our universe is the best there can be.
- Fatal Flaw: He has two: his longing for a family and his hunger for power. Both are used by the Gray Man to persuade him to betray his sisters and nephew. And both make him blind to the truth that his life doesn’t matter to anyone in the Defense Research Institute, which finally gets him killed.
- Heel Face Turn
- Home Sweet Home: The house he grew up in never felt like home to him, because of his abusive father. He spent years wandering between worlds looking for a place he could call his own. He finally decides that the universe his real grandparents come from is where he belongs.
- In the Blood: At the end it turns out he is just as violent and prone to fear of what he doesn't understand as his father. He also ends up addicted to alcohol. Subverted. Willis is not his real father. Tim still ends up very much like him, probably because he was raised in his household.
- Lust: For power. He betrays his family when he is promised a future empire to rule.
- Rebellious Spirit
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: He is killed by Walker after his family escapes from the Institute.
- The Runaway: He runs away as a teenager in order to get away from his abusive father.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: For the Gray Man.
- You Are Not Alone: Walker helps him when he hits rock bottom and believes everyone else has forgotten him. He tries to pull the same thing with Michael and his family. Whether he believes in his own propaganda or only tries to lure them to Novus Ordo is left unclear.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Neumann orders him killed when he is no longer useful.
The Grey Man
A mysterious figure constantly following Karen’s family and appearing in their dreams. He seems to posses the same talent as the main characters. We later learn that his real name is Walker.
- Dimensional Traveler: He can move between worlds, but only following the trail left behind by others with the same power.
- The Dreaded: Most members of Fauve family are terrified of him. He hunts their dreams and stalks them when they are awake.
- Emotion Suppression: His emotions were removed by Novus Ordo via operation. He himself admits there is practically nothing left in him but obedience and childlike longing for a thing he lost long time ago.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: He has ugly scars on his head from the operation that removed his emotions.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Possibly. He admits he may have been jealous of love between Julia and William, but it’s hard for him to remember.
- Hunter of His Own Kind: He posses the same abilities as the rest of the main cast and spends a good portion of the book hunting them down.
- "Not So Different" Remark: When he first speaks to Michael he tries to lure the boy away by saying he knows how different he feels from other people and that he and Walker are similar. He pulls the same tick on Tim, this time with more success.
- Parental Substitute: He becomes one for Tim. Too bad it’s mostly one-sided.
- Perception Filter: It's strongly suggested that he uses magic to stop people around him from noticing his presence.
- Psychopathic Manchild: What is left of his emotions is very basic and childlike, especially his longing for a thing that was taken from him long time ago. Many of his gestures and expressions are also described as resembling these of a child.
- Would Hurt a Child: He kills a girl in Turquoise Beach, when she distracts him from Michael for a moment.
