The other children called her cursed.

Monte is a hybrid, half-human and half-Valdeján (a fading race of star-explorers). Monte, though she grew up among the Valdéjans, looks mostly human. So the other children called her cursed.

Spitefully, Monte leaned into this label. Growing up she would deliberately act as odd as possible, and was unafraid to take up hobbies or interests that others found strange. “Claim the rock,” as her mom would say, “so they can’t throw it at you.”

Her uncle Selbek taught her how to fix starships, which Monte gleefully applied herself to. “Machines make sense,” she’d say. “People don’t.” Monte fixed up her mother’s old ship and used it to explore the moons and asteroid fields around her home world.

Monte’s life is full of surprises, as her friends discover. The young mechanic spent her teenage years fighting desert marauders and catching dragons, once got possessed by an evil spirit, and now has a secret mission from the Dark Lord’s brother.

Today she works as a mechanic at Port Elorim, where she pesters sailors for their stories. It helps her make sense of her own...

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Relationships

Blythe - Best friend, terrible influence, partner in (sometimes literal) crime

Junior - Monte's older kinda-cousin and co-protagonist. Monte does the spooky magic stuff and Junior does the shooty lazer stuff.

Iona - fellow chaos gremlin and mad scientist, muahaha! Monte + Iona = Junior's worst nightmare lol.

Anisa - Monte's mom. The two are very similar, so Monte had a rocky relationship with her as a teenager. As she gets older though, she's come to really appreciate her mom.

Tezca - Monte's dad. He taught Monte everything she knows: desert camping, dragon taming, sword fighting...

Selbek - the old Wireman in Monte's hometown; surrogate grandfather.