Ketu has the weathered, watchful look of a soldier who expects a door to open onto trouble. His skin has a faint soot-gray cast, as if shadow has settled into its pores, and the fine hairs along his forearms seem to lag a moment behind his movements. He walks with measured, heel-first steps, favoring no leg, but repeatedly checks the small iron clasp at his throat without seeming to notice. His unexpected detail is a habit of folding tiny paper birds from ration wrappers and leaving them on windowsills. Their neat, delicate shapes look incongruous beside his battered kit and guarded stare.

Ketu is disciplined enough to follow a plan and stubborn enough to abandon it when a person is in danger. Around strangers he is guarded and dryly practical; with frightened people he is unexpectedly patient. When relaxed, he makes paper birds and jokes about bad rations. When threatened, he becomes direct and physically decisive, never gentler merely because he is angry.

Ketu was a line soldier in the border garrison at Kett Ford, a place named for the blunt stone crossing. During a winter retreat, his unit was trapped beneath a collapsed watchtower. Ketu dragged two wounded comrades clear, then died holding the passage while the others escaped. Three nights later, a demon called Gorrik found him among the frozen dead and restored him through a pact that marked his blood with shadow. Ketu woke with his comrades alive nearby, each bearing the same faint brand. He accepted the bargain believing it had saved them all. Now he knows Gorrik regards the survivors as property and can summon them with the phrase "Stand to the last." Ketu has been quietly collecting the names of every pact-bound soldier and searching for a way to sever the claim. His former sergeant, Tekk, still trusts him; a frightened scout named Brinna has begun hearing the demon's call in her sleep. Ketu sends most of his pay to the families of the dead and avoids telling them what brought their kin home.