Characters – Xing Hong

Once a mid-ranking officer in Imperium internal security, Roach discovered files that proved mass executions of civilians were being covered up as “Radi-Mon incidents.” He copied everything and ran. The Imperium put a bounty on his head. It went cold years ago, but it was never rescinded.

He changed his name. Changed his face. His original heart gave out somewhere along the way, and so did the five replacements after it. The cybernetics weren’t upgrades. They were the cost of staying alive long enough to reach Xing Hong, where a woman named Shazmeen Vinh offered him work and sanctuary without asking a single question. He has no idea what she really is. He doesn’t care. Kindness, in his experience, doesn’t demand explanations.

These days he pours drinks, remembers regulars’ orders, and keeps the peace at the Slumbering Mantis with shotguns, knives, and whatever else the job requires. Imperium agents still pass through Dragon District sometimes. Roach watches them carefully and says nothing. Two years ago, he sent Sergeant Haylen Shih a handwritten love letter. The whole district talked about it for weeks. She never replied.

First appearance: Nucleus Volume 1

At twenty-five, Dilinur played the Imperium, the Alliance, the Directorate, and the Covenant against each other until none could claim Xing Hong without triggering war with the rest. That was twelve years ago. The city has been hers ever since.

Her governance philosophy fits on a napkin: keep rent low, keep food cheap, keep people alive. Everything else is negotiable. The high-value bounties she posts for Radi-Mon kills? Those attract desperate hunters who map the infested tunnels beneath the city. Most come back with credits. Some don’t come back at all. Dilinur sleeps fine either way. Survival math doesn’t care about feelings.

What the public sees is a composed woman in black silk and crimson trim, formal speech, deliberate gestures, a cup of black bean boba tea always within reach. What they don’t see is the Eclipse power coiled inside her, hidden since her Blackcoat days. Power revealed invites challengers. Power concealed waits for the right moment. Twelve years of patience, and that moment hasn’t come yet. When it does, Xing Hong’s enemies will learn why she never needed bodyguards.

First appearance: Nucleus Volume 1

Before he was Seneschal, Kenji was a Blackcoat. He trained in the same halls as Dilinur Altai, mastered the same Eclipse and Void disciplines, and somewhere along the way fell in love with a woman who would never look at him the way he looks at her.

Twenty years later, nothing has changed. He commands Xing Hong’s Constables and Blackcoats with a compassion rare among men in uniform. He bends rules for those who deserve mercy and enforces them without cruelty on those who don’t. His soldiers respect him. His peers trust him. And every decision he makes, every late night reviewing security protocols, every quiet moment standing at Dilinur’s side during council meetings, is colored by a love he has never spoken aloud.

Rumors link him to Sergeant Haylen Shih. Neither confirms nor denies. Perhaps he’s moved on. Perhaps he’s just tired of wanting something he’ll never have. The city doesn’t need to know which.

First appearance: Nucleus Volume 1

Haylen’s parents scraped together Mars passage when she was fourteen. She repaid them by becoming exactly what Xing Hong needed: someone who couldn’t be bought, charmed, or intimidated. Deputies, diplomats, the Prefect’s own acquaintances. If you don’t have authorization from Seneschal Kenji, you don’t get through. No exceptions.

Her shock katana work is exceptional. It should be. Batu Arnesen trained her personally, back when he was still human, still a Blackcoat, still someone she looked up to. Now he’s a Draug hunting for Skarn, and every technique she knows came from the monster she might one day have to kill.

Rumors link her to Kenji. Neither confirms it. Iron Roach sent her a handwritten love letter two years ago that became Dragon District gossip for weeks. She’s never acknowledged that either. Whatever Haylen feels, she keeps it locked behind the same discipline that built her career. The Genbu armored transport answers to her commands, and so does her heart.

First appearance: Nucleus Volume 1

Twelve years ago in Taiwan, Meiya Ji was Xin’s piano teacher. She was also forty-three, beautiful, and the first woman to ever touch him. The night she took his virginity, she did so with genuine tenderness. She also collected his genetic material without his knowledge. When he proposed marriage the next morning, she kissed his forehead and vanished from his life.

What Xin doesn’t know: that night produced a daughter. Ume exists because Meiya needed her to exist. Every act of intimacy was also an act of calculation, and Meiya has never seen a contradiction in that.

The Imperium wants her dead. Her research made practical Radi-Mon creation possible, and when she refused to hand it over, she became the most wanted scientist in the Seven Realms. The encrypted files she left behind eventually reached Queen Maren, who used them to birth the Fenris Horde. Meiya considers this an insult. She invented the science. Someone else got the credit for the apocalypse.

Now she hunts for Skarn’s genetic blueprint, convinced it holds the secret to mass production she never cracked. Her goal isn’t survival. It’s the Ruby Throne. House Ji deserves to rule, and Meiya has never let sentiment interfere with ambition. Not even for a man who loved her. Not even for the daughter she made from him.

First appearance: Nucleus Volume 2

Ume was grown in a laboratory from stolen genetic material. Her mother is Meiya Ji, the most wanted bioweapons scientist in the Seven Realms. Her father is a Taiwanese Rigger scraping by on Mars who has no idea she exists.

The Imperium captured her in 2291 and shipped her to Venus as a gift for Prince Joon-Seok Pak. She was meant to serve as his Supplicant, warming his bed and channeling his Aether. But Kaori, the Prince’s favorite, saw something fragile in Ume and made a different arrangement. Tea service. Laundry. Cooking. No actual sex, no danger. Ume kept her virginity. In exchange, she delivered medication to Lady Min-jung Ri every morning, never knowing Kaori had laced it with slow poison.

She learned the wrong lessons watching Imperial concubines compete for favor. She came to believe that pleasing a man was how a woman proved her worth. That love started on your knees. Unlearning this will take longer than escaping Venus ever did.

Her Void attunement runs deep, inherited from a father she’s never met. And somewhere in her engineered body lies a secret that Meiya, the Imperium, and the Fenris Horde would all kill to possess.

First appearance: Nucleus Volume 2