The Dust Vultures

Raiders of the Scorchveil • The Desert's Teeth

Not just thieves but a moving city of cutthroats, illusionists, and scavengers. Under Maeve Callahan's command, the Dust Vultures have transformed from scattered raiders into a confederacy that strikes like sandstorms and vanishes like mirages. They claim the Scorchveil Desert as their kingdom, appearing from dust devils and disappearing into shimmering horizons.

Maeve Callahan

The Desert Siren • Flight-Queen • Maeve of the Mirage

Appearance: Late twenties, sun-darkened skin, eyes like amber in firelight. Wears mismatched armor pieces from defeated rivals—a Consortium officer's breastplate, an Ironbrand captain's pauldrons, a Redeemer's iron cross worn as mockery. Hair braided with small bones and stolen jewelry.

Personality: Flirtatious, cunning, mercurial. Plays with lives like cards in a hand, but every gamble has purpose. Can switch from charming to lethal in a heartbeat. Laughs easily but means it rarely. Respects Duncan but doesn't hesitate to cross him when her plans demand it.

Background: Raised by raiders in the Scorchveil after her settler parents were killed by Ironbrands. Became flight-lieutenant at nineteen by killing her predecessor in fair duel. United the scattered raider bands by proving she could hit harder, plan better, and profit more than any rival. Survived three assassination attempts and turned each assassin into a cautionary tale.

Combat Style: Unmatched marksman and horsewoman. No psionics but doesn't need them. Shoots from horseback at full gallop with terrifying accuracy. Carries twin revolvers (one taken from an Ironbrand captain, one from a Consortium enforcer). Has survived ambushes that killed entire companies.

"Glass-Eye" Torvik

Master Illusionist • The Mirage-Maker

Appearance: One natural eye, one eye made of polished glass—said to see through the Veil itself. Wears desert robes covered in mirrors and reflective metal that make him hard to look at directly. Age unknown—could be thirty, could be sixty.

Abilities: Most powerful Mindweaver on the frontier. Creates illusions so real victims swear they're touching solid objects. Can project false horizons visible from miles away. Allegedly bargained with desert spirits for his power—the glass eye was payment.

Personality: Quiet, cryptic, speaks in riddles and half-truths. More loyal to his craft than to Maeve, but their partnership benefits both. Other Vultures fear him—even Maeve treads carefully around him.

Kessa "Red Knife" Marrow

Tracker & Ambush Specialist

Background: Former Ironbrand scout who deserted after refusing orders to burn a Hollowborn settlement. Joined the Vultures, proved her worth tracking a Consortium convoy through three days of sandstorm.

Specialty: Can read terrain like a book, predict enemy movements with uncanny accuracy. Her ambushes have killed five times her number. Carries a red-handled knife taken from her old commander—she slit his throat with it when he came hunting her.

Seline Varro

Quartermaster & Black Market Queen

Role: Manages the Vultures' stolen goods, fences loot through networks spanning five territories. Has contacts in every major settlement, owns smugglers who don't even know they work for her.

Secret: She's been selling information to the Consortium through intermediaries. Not enough to truly betray the Vultures, just enough to pad her retirement fund. If Maeve discovers this, Seline's dead. She knows it. She does it anyway.

The History

They met five years ago when Duncan was hunting a killer through the Scorchveil. Maeve's Vultures had the target. Instead of fighting, they made a deal—he got his target, she got the bounty money. They spent three days together waiting for the target to make his move. Talked. Laughed. Bedded down under desert stars.

Since then: two more partnerships, three violent disagreements, one near-fatal duel, and countless nights neither will talk about. She offers him freedom without chains. He reminds her that freedom paid for with other people's blood isn't really freedom.

What She Offers

"Ride with us, Duncan. No masters, no laws, no ledgers of blood. Just wind and dust and coin when we need it. You could be free."

Maeve tempts Duncan with the outlaw's path—power, freedom, passion. She sees in him what he could be: feared, loved, unchained. But she doesn't understand his need to count the cost, to remember the names.

The Consortium Problem

Maeve suspects some of her lieutenants are taking Consortium bribes. She's right—three of them have secret agreements with Vorren Haldane. When she finds proof, the purge will be bloody. The question is whether the purge will tear the Vultures apart or make them stronger.

The Hollowborn Sanctuary

The Vultures have been quietly sheltering Hollowborn refugees fleeing Redeemer persecution. Partly out of sympathy (many Vultures are outcasts themselves), partly because Hollowborn make excellent scouts and night-guards. This puts them in Stroud's crosshairs.

The Rival Threat

A new raider band—the Iron Jackals—is moving into Vulture territory. Their leader, a brutal man called "Chain-Tongue," doesn't use illusions or surgical strikes. He just burns everything. Maeve will have to eliminate them or absorb them. Neither option is easy.