When creating a story, one of the challenges is to portray how large and how small a world is. Think back on your past week and ask yourself how many people you’ve interacted with… at home and at work or school, at the grocery store or the gas station. Perhaps there was also an obnoxious driver on the freeway. If someone were to write your biography, how many of the ‘characters’ would appear in the book? How many of them would be ‘cut’? Trying to include them all would be an absurd endeavor, turning the book of your life into a colossally insurmountable obstacle that no one would touch. Yet they matter. Even that obnoxious driver who is in your life for only a few seconds. Being cut off in traffic might turn a good mood into a bad one that leads you to blurt out something to your boss. It may define a moment of personal fortitude or frailty as you resist or succumb to the urge to reciprocate.

The most dominant example of this challenge of character in “Tears from Iron” lies with the interrelationship of Vistus and his t’Okaedrin family. Vistus has almost twenty brothers in his family (ignoring, of course, the broader philosophical idea that all t’Okaedrin are brothers). Despite this, only four of them are named: Nalsuntha the leader, Bridionis the best friend, Arcomin the rival, and Hirnid.

**********WARNING! This article includes significant spoilers.  I strongly encourage that you only read this if you’ve finished “Tears from Iron.” This article doesn’t give away the heart of the story, but it includes several reveals that may diminish the pleasure of discovery as you make your way through the novel.**********

I could’ve chosen a different path and introduced Vistus’ entire massive family. You would’ve been flooded by a sea of names you couldn’t remember linked to a host of personalities you’ll never engage with. I might have expanded the book by another hundred pages to allow a detailed exploration of Vistus’ home life. But I’ve already asked you to remember a lot of names. “Tears from Iron” is already a large book at 589 pages (826 in the paperback version). Such detail is much more likely to make the story drag than add anything of value.

Thus, for the t’Okaedrin, Hirnid serves the role of ‘every-man.’ He is a general representation of the remainder of Vistus’ family. In this role, he acts as a foil, not just for Vistus, but for all the more dominant personalities. For each of them simultaneously, he is a milder form of Sherlock’s Watson, Batman’s Robin, or Frodo’s Sam.

The interesting thing for me is that, despite this, he develops a distinctive and sympathetic personality all his own.

A year or so after I finished “Tears from Iron,” I was thinking about the various characters in the piece. I realized, to some surprise, that Hirnid is probably the character I most identify with, though I never wrote him with that in mind. He’s hardly a hero and never intentionally a villain. He blends into the crowd though, from time to time in his own soft way, he adds wisdom or courage. Sometimes he doesn’t do as much as we’d like, but we hope that his better choices will matter in the end.

And he does matter. He’s a peacemaker between the brothers. Although he’s passive in Arcomin’s ill treatment of Chief Inban, perhaps even to the point of enabling, he steps in when his own family is in conflict. Similarly, he restrains Arcomin’s more violent tendencies towards Belarrin and the Kalilaer of the smelting camp. Later, Hirnid shows kindness to Belarrin and instills him with confidence when he’s punished on the Boards. Finally, Hirnid rescues Chostir. In the big picture, do these actions affect the plot of the story? Not really. The argument between the brothers over Chief Inban eventually cooled and Inban’s fate was likely unaffected by Hirnid’s choices. Untempered, Arcomin’s frenzied behavior with the smelters would’ve only escalated Belarrin’s responses increasing admiration for him in the eyes of the other Kalilaer more than it already did. Finally, the rescue of Chostir only affected the fates of Hirnid and Chostir though I hope it had an impact on you as well.

Yet this last and most heroic act symbolizes something critical. It is the message of “Tears from Iron” encapsulated into a few sentences and it represents an achievement not even Vistus attained. Despite the fact that he didn’t live among the Scions like Vistus, Hirnid possessed enough perspicacity to realize that he didn’t have all the answers. He had the wisdom to perceive those who were wiser than himself and the ability to trust when instincts might tell him otherwise. Finally, regardless of the beliefs he was inculcated with as a child and an adult, he was not driven by bias or hatred. Unlike Arcomin, for example, Hirnid had the capacity to see nobility and even find admiration in those he considered his enemies.

And this, I think, reaches to the bond between Chostir and Hirnid, though we see it more in Chostir. They are both dreamers. If Chostir had spat venom at her captors, Hirnid never would’ve respected her. But because she maintained a quieter more gallant defiance, he saw someone he admired. This brought him along the ‘short road’ to understanding. If someone like Chostir could be found among the Kalilaer and the Scions, then everything he’d been told in his life had to be a lie. That meant Chostir was a victim, not a villain, and had to be rescued at any cost. For Hirnid, it was as simple as that.