Eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow is the female protagonist. She is described as petite in stature with wide-set hazel eyes, wavy chestnut hair, and a freckled nose. Her elder brother by five years, Forest Winnow, is twinlike in appearance, with the same coloring and features, yet tall and lean. Forest is a former horologist’s apprentice who enlists in the war on Enva’s behalf after hearing her song as a call to arms. Iris is nicknamed Little Flower by both Forest and their mother, Aster.

Flowers are often seen as beautiful and delicate, and this accurately reflects Iris’s initial attributes when she works as a journalist at the Gazette and allows her boss, Zeb Autry, to treat her “like a doormat” and “walk all over her” (90). When she finally reunites with her brother at the end of the novel, Forest drags her away from Avalon Bluff and Roman in an effort to protect her, indicating that he still does not think that his Little Flower can protect herself. In Chapter 6, Aster reinforces this view that Forest has of Iris by mentioning that Forest would defend her against Roman’s harsh words at the office because he has always been so protective of her.