To Catch a Falling Leaf characters

Appears from the start

An Ilirian archaeologist and copper cultivator who joins a Dragon's Right Eye expedition to study a Sill ruin. She carries a pulse rifle, recognizes the structure, and helps lead the surviving explorers inside when unfamiliar void beasts attack.

Also known as Berkowitz

Appears from the start

The bronze cultivator leading the Sill expedition on Ilirian. A strict disciplinarian, she raises a defensive barrier during the void-beast attack, but it cannot fully protect the party before the survivors retreat into the ruin.

Appears from the start

A Fyrion cultivator assigned to watch the expedition. She befriends Micaiah despite showing little interest in the historical importance of Sill remains, and becomes trapped with the other survivors after the ruin seals.

Appears from the start

A member of the Ilirian expedition who survives the first void-beast assault. Once the party is sealed inside the Sill ruin, he confirms that their attempt to contact the sect has failed.

Also known as Cal

First appears in chapter 2

A dark-Qi cultivator traveling aboard Lucy. He is learning to sustain a protective vac suit technique and to make light Qi from dark Qi, while Nick's recent death drives him to warn others about void-induced psychosis.

First appears in chapter 2

The sentient soul ship sheltering Cal, Charlotte, and Xavier. Lucy provides food, training facilities, cultivation support, and a soul space while helping the group seek a covert route into Ilirian.

Also known as Charlotte

First appears in chapter 2

Cal's politically adept crewmate and fellow cultivator. She constructs false companies and investigates air-traffic personnel for vulnerabilities as part of a plan to get Lucy into Ilirian.

First appears in chapter 2

Cal's frequent training partner and a practitioner of the Dragon's Fang fighting style aboard Lucy.

First appears in chapter 2

A deceased former associate whose loss shapes Cal's choices. Nick's death prompts Cal to document the danger of void-induced psychosis.

First appears in chapter 3

Lucy's absent former passenger. Cal wears clothing that once belonged to Cedric, but Lucy refuses to explain who Cedric was or what became of him.

First appears in chapter 4

Nick's unnamed sister, a promising junior cadet on Fyrion who regards Cal as responsible for her brother's death. She resolves to pursue Barustra's Cache to gain the power to seek him.

First appears in chapter 7

A member of the expedition trapped for months inside the Sill ruin. After a cave-in destroys another possible route, Edwin suffers a psychological collapse and repeatedly insists that the survivors are still alive inside a tomb.

First appears in chapter 7

One of the explorers trapped in the sealed Sill ruin. As the survivors' conditions worsen and Edwin loses stability, Elder Berkowitz assigns Leela to share quarters with Jack.

First appears in chapter 8

An unidentified woman of overwhelming cultivation encountered by Cal, Charlotte, and Xavier in a concealed, Qi-rich garden within Ilirian's jungle.

First appears in chapter 9

The powerful wandering master Charlotte identifies as the woman from the hidden garden. She cultivates privately on habitable worlds, collects native life, and binds the group to a bargain.

First appears in chapter 15

A newly hatched void beast sustained by Cal's dark Qi. It teleports, communicates simple concepts directly, and willingly accepts a reciprocal bond that lets it serve as a living component in Cal's focus and advancement to bronze.

First appears in chapter 18

The name Cal gives his bonded void-beast familiar. Ariel accepts the name and responds to it, while their living focus bond passes Qi in both directions and can return more power than Cal's bronze core can comfortably contain.

Also known as Lopez

First appears in chapter 20

A former Dragon's Right Eye elder who has deliberately broken her bronze core and abandoned her sect standing. Living in poverty with damaged meridians, she interprets a thread-sensitive beggar's words about the stargazer as a chance to rebuild her life.

First appears in chapter 20

An unnamed beggar who hears warnings through the threads and speaks of the stargazer. Maria Lopez chooses him as her first prospective disciple while beginning a new movement outside sect authority.

First appears in chapter 21

A nanite swarm presenting itself in human form within the underground Sill laboratory. Lesley wants a human-compatible body, sees Charlotte's advancement as proof that such integration can work, and captures her and Xavier while taking the gardener's bell.

First appears in chapter 27

An unidentified figure who appears on a white horse during the chapter 27 nanite attack. The armored rider destroys the escaping swarm with a star-pommeled sword and vanishes, leaving the rider's identity and nature unresolved.

First appears in chapter 30

The Arcadian gardener's identity. Liara Fintz is a celestial-stage cultivator pursuing Lesley over prohibited nanite research and an attempt at transcension, and she has enough power to contest the swarm across invoked threads.

First appears in chapter 30

Micaiah's mentor and the host of a brunch visit by Micaiah and Lucy's crew after the ruin rescue.

Also known as Jun

First appears in chapter 31

A senior Dragon's Left Eye authority who arrives at Jeremiah Lee's home to take custody of Micaiah. The visit confirms the immediate danger anticipated by Xavier and Jeremiah.

First appears in chapter 33

An unnamed senior cadet awarded Student Housing A at seventeen. Still intent on training, the cadet investigates reports crediting Cal with saving the Ilirian expedition and doubts Jack's version of events.