Orren

Story so far

In his damaged office, Orren asks Carl point-blank whether he helped break The AI containment and whether he did it deliberately. Carl only stares at him, and Orren concludes the answer is irrelevant now. Running a gloved hand along the crack in his desk, he says history will remember him as the one who let this happen — he left the Knot to make a difference and to remain pure, never relying on someone else's death to make his mark, and never imagined he would stand at the forefront of a potential apocalypse.

Snapping out of the reverie, he tells Carl and Donut their presence is inappropriate and implores them not to discuss the conversation outside the room, warning that the mass panic already spreading will hurt the weak and innocent long before it touches the powers Carl claims to hate. Buried in his own message backlog, he cuts the meeting short, teleports Carl and Donut back to base with a crack, and vanishes.

Appearance

A gloved, formally dressed official, distracted and grim, tracing the crack running through his ruined desk.

Role

Syndicate figure who interrogates Carl about the AI breakout and warns him about the coming panic.

Relationships

Earlier in this series

Also appears in books you've already read — spoiler-safe to their endings:

• The Gate of the Feral GodsBook 4
• The Butcher's MasqueradeBook 5
• The Eye of the Bedlam BrideBook 6