Garen Toll-Ward

The High Moot's rotating factor at the Windcut House in Highbridge: keeps the fjord-crossing tolls current, bonds guides for the Wind-Cut Pass, and decides which outlanders earn a letter of introduction to Windcut Hold.

Garen drew the Windcut posting the way every factor does, by the holds' turn-count, and has spent three winters in Highbridge's soft cold learning exactly how easy it is for a lowland contractor to shortchange a hired Korl back and how hard it is to prove after the fact. He keeps the toll-board current and the guide-bond ledger honest because those are the job, but the job he actually cares about is the one nobody wrote down: making sure a Korl who sells strength to a lowland captain gets what was promised, in coin and in word, or the factor's post hears about it. He does not raise his voice. He writes the contractor's name in the ledger instead, and the ledger travels back up the fjord with him when his turn ends.