A tall, rangy sixteen-year-old with a relaxed, rugged handsomeness he seems unaware of. His sun-browned skin pales sharply through winter, and his short wheat-blond hair catches gold in direct light. Bright blue eyes watch the treeline more readily than a speaker's face. He walks with an easy, long-striding lope, but stops so abruptly that he can seem to have been planted there. A little leather-covered Bible is always tucked inside his coat; its lower corner is polished nearly smooth from his thumb worrying it. His casual lack of noble posture makes him look more like a young farmhand than the son of a powerful father.

Alfred is generous with food, labor, and practical help, yet guarded about affection and quick to judge anyone he thinks is putting on airs. He can be loud and competitive among familiar people, but physically distant and watchful in European company. His religious devotion sits uneasily beside his readiness to ignore rules. He wants to be brave and can act decisively for others, but the supernatural strips away his swagger and leaves him terrified. He longs for quiet farm days while chasing the acclaim that might prove he matters.

Arthur, the English place-born patriarch, named him Alfred and raised him among the thirteen colonies, though no one can say with certainty who fathered him. The tolerated guesses include Berwald of Sweden, Nils of the Netherlands, and Allister of Scotland; less welcome rumors name Rhys of Wales, Reilly of Ireland, or even Lalli of Finland. Alfred privately thinks of Arthur as his father regardless, by blood or by creed, but the uncertainty still bites. He grew faster than expected for a place-born child and outgrew the northern brother he had assumed would always be older. As a younger boy he knew a quieter life of farm work and woods, and he misses it even when he pretends not to hear anyone mention it. A disastrous night on a trapping run changed that: something unseen moved through the trees, his companion vanished, and Alfred could hear breathing where no one stood. He fled, ashamed of his terror, and since then the thought of the supernatural can leave him shaking or frozen. He is now a trapper and farmer, renowned locally for shooting and tracking, and Arthur has sent him to spend time with Ludwig, a German place-born young man, hoping to teach him European manners. Alfred dislikes European pretension and keeps most place-born people at arm's length, though Native American traditions draw his curiosity and an unexpected comfort. His fondness for Allister is genuine, as are his efforts to treat ordinary people kindly; neither prevents him from being blunt or ruthless when he believes it necessary.