Tess Cross
Warden of Boreal-Stay and one of the Wastes' most capable fighters — a young woman who has traded sentiment for a clinical survival calculus that costs her more than she shows.
Affiliation: Arroyo Colony / Boreal-Stay / Cross family
Role: Warden of Boreal-Stay; marksman and tactical commander
Tess became the Warden of Boreal-Stay younger than anyone should have to and made herself equal to what that required. She is a precise marksman, a disciplined commander, and the kind of person who has thought through every decision she might need to make before the situation demands it — not because she is cold, but because hesitation in the Wastes has a price she has already paid. The hardness she projects is functional and real. She was taught to feel what she needed to feel and then move. She is still learning when the moving ends.
"We recognized what they were. Monsters who would hurt people again." — Tess