Darric Stonevein

Darric gives language to coercion without pretending the people caught in it freely chose their burden.

In The Highlander

Darric Stonevein is a miner found possessed in the corridors of the Ink Hollow, his joints bending wrongly and ink dripping from his eyes as he whispered the leash-words "stand, guide, return". When Eira demanded his name, the ink thinned long enough for him to give it and to say that he had never sworn: someone had put the words in the dark and told the miners that speaking them would keep the roof up. Yrsa pinned the possession with a red ore spike, Eira burned the leather strip of words, and he collapsed alive and sobbing. He was taken into Yrsa's care, and his name was later found among others on the mine's work platform.

After the books

His testimony helps turn hidden coercion into something that can be named. His testimony contributes to the public record of how fear was used.