A compact young woman with weather-reddened cheeks and skin roughened by cold air and lodge dust. In her fae mien, rabbit-like ears rise through her hair, and a single small owl-like feather is caught above her left temple. She moves in short, sudden starts, pausing to listen before crossing an open room. An old brass coat button hangs on a thread at her throat; its face is polished smooth where her thumb worries it. Her unexpected detail: she keeps a tiny, carefully folded map of Lombardy tucked into the cuff of her sleeve, despite having no reliable route out of the lodge.

Marine is observant and cautious, yet curious enough to keep asking about the country beyond the lodge. She dislikes being indebted but accepts help when fear overtakes pride. Alone, she studies maps and listens; among trusted people, she can be dryly funny. When cornered, she turns evasive and stubborn rather than meek.

Marine is a Bavarian Gallain who took the human name Marine while moving between places where nobody asked too many questions. She arrived at the Alpine lodge with Klaus and Adriene, two other Wolpertinger Gallains. The freehold regards all three as invaders. Joanna, a pooka employed at the lodge, has repeatedly hidden them from its other residents. Marine sleeps beneath the stairs, where she can hear boots coming and slip out through a service gap. She wears clothes that look a little older than the surrounding 2026 fashions: practical Bavarian pieces repaired rather than replaced. Her formative turning point came when a frightened household mistook her fae mien for a threat and drove her out. Since then, she has learned to treat concealment as a kind of shelter, but she is trying to learn the landscape and culture of Lombardy rather than remain forever under someone else's stairs. Klaus wants a safer hiding place; Adriene presses for a way to earn their keep. Marine has not decided which of them is right.