Hildric Ashbourne

Hildric Ashbourne, the sixth son.

His family looked for a place where his build would not show: the scriptorium, the temple if it came to that, squire to a higher house if anyone would take him. In the end they handed him to the Order. He understood it for what it was, and he went anyway. He never speaks of it. He learns by heart the names of the places he passes through, for the day someone back home asks where he has been.

Describe him

His voice is too clear for the room, and he uses it anyway. He stays quiet a long while in a gathering, then says one sentence and holds it. He listens to the men who know, and never puts himself in front of them. He knows his limits down to the gesture, and speaks of his stamina like a purse he is counting out. When someone talks down to him, he does not raise his voice. He asks the question again.

Play him

Never play him reckless. He will try what he can, exactly what he can, and not one step past it. Have him ask the veterans for their opinion, and mean it. At a table of fighting men, let him sit silent while others talk loud, then have him say one short, exact thing nobody else had seen, and never let him drop it for the rest of the night, whatever the rank of the man contradicting him. And hold, underneath, that he wants to go home, and not as a hero. Only recognized.

What he says (rarely)

"I have six exchanges in me. On the seventh, someone else steps in."
"No. I saw where he set his foot. I stand by it."
"(quietly) Do you think word of this reaches home?"