Steamwright-Baron Mikael Ferren

Mikael Ferren inherited a barony at twenty-two and discovered that a title could keep him farther from the foundry floor than any locked door. Advisers wanted him at ceremonies; workers hesitated to hand their new baron a tool. Mikael, who had spent his youth happiest among furnaces and molds, found both courtesies unbearable.

Foundry-Boy was his father’s ship. The name began as an uncle’s insult to the boy Mikael, who kept arriving at dinner with soot on his face, and his father liked it enough to paint it on the hull. The crew still likes it; the uncle eventually stopped offering advice in public.

Mikael still wears goggles in his untidy hair and a chain that marks his office. He tries to honor both. He listens when experienced workers challenge his ideas, although enthusiasm sometimes carries him ahead of their warnings. Working beside his crew has earned him a loyalty no ceremony could buy, and it has made his advisers’ arguments about dignity very short.