Character Study: Riordan Veilwalker

Grief does odd things to people. But, then again, that’s why there are stages of grief; those stages, in case you were wondering, are not linear, nor do they flow seamlessly into each other.

When Dad died December 21, 2020, from Covid, I was on the West Coast in Los Angeles, and had been since 2003. I am the youngest child in the family by 8 years to my brother, and 10 years to my sister. To say they did not know me is a slight understatement. I was forever “The Baby.”

Two years prior, when my Uncle Jimmy (Dad’s older brother...by 16 years) passed away, I went back for the funeral and was met with hostility from my brother. I cherished my brother. Ever since I was a little kid, my brother was my protector, my knight, my hero, my Doctor! And here he was, acting as if I had no right to be at the funeral for the man who taught me how to draw and paint and do calligraphy. I was more than heartbroken.

I wasn’t able to attend Dad’s funeral, and I was largely out of the loop on what was happening with him, as well. Again, I was the Baby, and there wasn’t anything I could do from Los Angeles, anyway. So, when Mom was in the process of shuffling off her mortal coil, I was flown back East to attend the funeral and ended up being more involved in not just her end-of-life care, but also the planning for the funeral, and the aftermath of estate management. It was then that my brother reclaimed his position as protector and hero.

I felt like I was being pressured to move back to Pennsylvania to take care of Mom’s older sister because she was living in the house that I, for some reason, inherited. I stood in the kitchen, clearly upset, trying not to cry because I didn’t want to be the Baby. I wanted to be an adult. And that is when my brother walked over, wrapped his arms around me, hugged me tightly, and said, “You do not have to move back here. We would all love it if you did, but you have your own life to live. If you don’t want to move back, don’t. I love you.”

Riordan din Torin al’Vaelryn

With several near-death experiences, he was given the gift of Veilsight and became a Veiltouched. He is the Protector of Proprietor Asrin Moore.

My character Riordan is loosely based on my brother.

Riordan din Torin al’Vaelryn is not an easy man to know. He will tell you so himself, if you ask him directly enough, which Marleigh does in A World Reborn. He keeps people at arm’s length with a deliberateness that looks, from the outside, like self-sufficiency and reads, to anyone paying closer attention, as fear. Not of people, exactly. Of what happens to them when he lets himself care.

“I have always feared connection,” he tells her. “I try to keep people at arm’s length. Having ties to anyone could mean the difference between life and death. Mine or theirs.”

He means it. Riordan has earned that fear the hard way, in ways the book will show you. He is not cold; he is armoured. There is a significant difference, and it is one Marleigh understands better than he would like her to.

There are several men in the story. In fact, there are more named men who are primary characters than there are women. Of the primary men, Riordan would be identified as the manliest man. Not in a joking way, but in the rugged and rough, shove his feelings into a box and forget they exist kind of way. The way that GenX was taught men should be: Men do not show feelings; it is a sign of weakness, and men are not weak! My brother is from that generation (if you actually believe in generational delineations, which I do not, but that is a psychology discussion for another time). He learned to mask his emotions. In the story, Riordan masks his emotions; right up until Marleigh calls him out on it.

But it is important to remember, both for humans and for characters, that the way a person who has kept themselves closed off from their emotions can, in a single moment, choose differently. Not because they have resolved anything. Not because the grief is gone or the fear has quieted. But because someone they love is standing in a kitchen, trying not to cry, and the only thing that matters in that moment is crossing the room.

Riordan does not discuss flowers. He will make that abundantly clear. But he will, when it counts, cross the room.

That is my brother. That is Riordan. And that is, I think, the thing I most wanted to put into this series: that the people who seem least available to love are sometimes the ones who love the most fiercely, once they decide you are worth the risk.

He is not the hero of A World Reborn in any conventional sense. He is something better. He is the person who shows up.

A World Reborn, Book 1 of The Hearthlight Cycle, is available to read when it publishes, hopefully in November. If you want to be among the first to know when that is, you are already in the right place. Join my mailing list below or the Map’s Edge Media newsletter on Beehiiv.

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This post first appeared on Substack June 24, 2026.