Sharum Virak
Sharum Virak is a merchant of Teremisis who travels the river with his young son Shandy, escorting goods shipped down from Arashez. Widowed not long ago - his wife taken by the blue-eyes sickness - he and Shandy look out for one another: the boy is starry-eyed for heroes and longs to be as well-travelled as his father one day, while Sharum is the quieter, wearier sort. On the river journey he is entrusted with watching a dangerous sealed cask among the cargo, bound for the alchemist of Teremisis, which he checks for leaks with a match several times a day.