Dain Aetos

Dain wears the black uniform of the Riders Quadrant. A year apart has left him older and physically harder than Violet remembers, with a new beard and a more commanding manner.

After bonding Cath, Dain carries a red dragon relic on his shoulder.

As Fourth Wing wingleader, Dain wears wingleader insignia.

Dain keeps his closeness with Violet hidden in public and acts as her squad leader when others are watching. In private he still seeks her out, worries over her safety, and warns her that visible attachment gives enemies a vulnerability to use.

His protective instincts are strongly rule-bound. Dain will not break the no-interference rules to save Violet at Threshing, accepts Amber Mavis’s word over Violet’s about the Gauntlet because Amber outranks her, and initially refuses to believe a wingleader could have attacked Violet.

Dain is politically careful and ambitious within the rider hierarchy. He considers chain-of-command issues when discussing any physical relationship with Violet, wants to become wingleader, and receives praise from Devera for an answer suited to that role.

Dain’s loyalty to the Codex and formal limits continues after his promotion. He objects to retaliatory violence against civilians in Battle Brief and later refuses Varrish’s order to search an injured Violet’s memories, leaving the interrogation chamber rather than violating her refusal.

Violet still doubts Dain’s ethical judgment even after he begins helping her. She trusts his translation skill, but worries that he will choose what rules allow over what is right.

Dain tries to contain the post-return courtyard standoff through Codex procedure and de-escalation before using force. He refuses to raise a blade against Aura, argues that the Aretian riders left for truth and returned to defend the helpless, and physically disarms Aura only when the standoff continues.

Dain carries heavy overlapping duties as wingleader, student, and researcher during Violet’s search. The strain leaves him visibly exhausted while he continues helping with language work and squad discipline.

Dain is not included among the people told Xaden’s secret because Violet and Ridoc believe he is not ready for that degree of rule-breaking and might try to kill Xaden.

Dain has known Violet since childhood, when they moved through military postings together. He supported her through Mira’s entry into the Riders Quadrant and Brennan’s death, and Violet thinks of him as one of the people she has deeply missed.

Dain places Violet under his command because he believes it is the only way to keep her safe, but his protection quickly becomes a push to remove her from the Riders Quadrant. After her sparring injury, he tries to slow her treatment so the injury can justify a late transfer to the Scribe Quadrant, and Violet refuses.

The old romantic tension between Dain and Violet fades after Threshing. Dain kisses her and says he would do anything to save her, but Violet feels no chemistry, and their later conversation leaves them naming each other best friends rather than becoming a couple.

Amber’s accusation damages Dain and Violet’s trust. Dain apologizes for reaching for Violet’s memory as if he were entitled to it and admits he should have believed her, while Violet tells him his protection cannot keep turning into a glass cage.

Violet’s friendship with Dain has grown strained enough for Mira to notice. Violet explains that she had to change to survive, while Dain would not let her, and that Amber’s death and Xaden have pushed the friendship farther apart.

Dain recognizes during War Games that Violet has chosen Xaden. The realization hurts him, but he says he will have to accept the choice even while warning that Xaden will get her killed.

When Violet returns to Basgiath, Dain’s relief does not restore trust between them. Violet recoils before he can touch her and threatens to cut off his hands if he reaches for her, while Xaden publicly warns him to remember Athebyne before touching her face again.

Dain tries to force a conversation with Violet by challenging her while she is injured. He says he gave his father only a flash of Xaden going to Athebyne, claims he did not know gryphons would be waiting, and admits the information came from a memory he saw when he touched Violet.

After refusing to search Violet’s memories during Varrish’s interrogation, Dain and Violet remain silent with each other for several days. Violet does not thank him because she cannot treat basic respect for her privacy as enough to repair the breach.

Dain’s place among Violet’s allies remains uneasy in Aretia. He still recognizes how Violet thinks through problems, but Sloane stays openly hostile over his earlier theft of Violet’s memories.

Dain apologizes to Violet for his part in Liam’s and Soleil’s deaths and admits he trusted his father when he should have trusted her judgment. He says not every touch was a memory theft, but Violet tells him it is not all right and that she cannot discuss Liam and Soleil with him again until she has more distance.

After the battle at Basgiath, Dain still checks whether Violet is all right but stops himself before touching her. The restraint keeps the danger around his touch visible even after his defection.

Dain’s trust with Violet visibly improves after the courtyard standoff. He thanks her for stepping in when Aura nearly attacked him and promises he will always come when Violet says they need him.

Colonel Aetos publicly cuts Dain off when Dain objects to Violet’s arrest as her wingleader. Aetos says he has no son, leaving Dain hurt before he regains control.

Dain helps Violet steal Asher Sorrengail’s hidden research from the warded commanding general’s quarters despite the risk of betraying his father. He scouts the quarters, asks Violet to trust him enough to go in alone, and routes the recovered material through Jesinia and Sloane to avoid suspicion.

Dain helps Sloane save Mira by offering his own power and coaching her siphon through the transfer to Brennan. He tells Sloane to pull from his excess and push into Brennan’s deficit, framing her signet as life rather than destruction or venin-like theft.

Dain’s signet lets him read a person’s recent memories by touching them, usually by placing his hands on their temples. He sees what the person saw, is still learning the ability, performs better near Cath, and expects the military may use him for intelligence.

Through Cath’s channeling, Dain can use lesser magic for basic rider functions such as opening doors, increasing his speed, and powering ink pens.

A requested memory can reveal more than the target fact. When Dain wants Violet’s memory of Amber’s attack, the same memory would expose Andarna’s time-stopping, which makes his touch a threat to secrets Violet cannot share.

Dain keeps the exact nature of his signet restricted, calling it above Quinn’s pay grade when asked. Violet later names the power as retrocognition in front of others, and Dain reacts sharply to having it said aloud.

Command treats Dain’s retrocognition as useful because it is limited and controllable. Tairn distinguishes it from an inntinnsic’s unrestricted mind access because Dain must touch someone to use it.

Violet concludes after the Athebyne trap that Dain can read her memories by touching her face without her necessarily knowing. Xaden later says she will need to learn how to hide the revolution’s secrets from Aetos if she is to keep them.

Dain is skilled enough in rider maneuvers to demonstrate a running landing from Cath before the assembled riders. Kaori praises the clean execution and uses it as an example of why Dain is a wingleader.

Varrish exposes Dain’s classified signet to Violet’s squad and orders him to use it for interrogation. Varrish also wants him to practice reaching beyond recent events, suggesting that the known limits of Dain’s retrocognition may be extendable through training.

Dain knows Old Lucerish from childhood and specializes in Krovlish. Those language skills make him useful to Violet’s work on Warrick’s journal, where he challenges translations and helps check difficult phrasing.

Dain becomes Violet’s credited co-translator of Warrick’s journal. His correction of a disputed line toward political power rather than physical power helps produce the Aretian ward-raising attempt.

During the Basgiath crisis, Dain risks reading Jack Barlowe’s memories and learns that Jack planted lure boxes around Basgiath and the path to the Vale. The attempt injures Dain when Jack drains him, but the information gives the defenders urgent warning of the scale and timing of the attack.

Dain’s language work expands during Violet’s search through the isles. He helps confirm Krovlish evidence about feathertails, studies Unnbriel material for the route, and translates Unnbriel officials during the delegation, though Aaric proves more fluent in Unnbrish.

Dain has enough Zehylish to attempt an answer to Calixta, but his delivery is slow and painful compared with Aaric’s fluency.

Dain gives a strategic recommendation in Battle Brief to split Zehyllna’s troops between the new king’s southern defense and Krovla’s western line. He argues that holding the western line also keeps dark wielders away from Tyrrendor and Elsum while honoring the alliance with King Tecarus.

Dain still needs rune training after duty schedules and the failed mission keep him from the earlier course. During the Aretian rotation, he masters one of Trissa’s delayed-activation runes.

Dain goes to Colonel Markham behind Violet’s back and asks him to admit Violet into the Scribe Quadrant for her safety. He reports threats against her from Xaden, Jack Barlowe, Oren Seifert, and the mutilated violets left on her bed.

During squad exercises, Dain takes command when Mira removes herself and Xaden from the hierarchy, assigning riders according to their abilities. In War Games, he leads the flag-defense plan and appears to apply Mira’s lesson by using individual strengths and keeping First Wing from identifying the flag carrier.

After the Athebyne trap, Violet believes Dain read the memory of Xaden’s earlier trips there without permission and passed the information to his father. In the aftermath of Resson, she connects that breach to Liam’s death and to her own suffering.

On Conscription Day, Dain intervenes to move Sloane Mairi from First Wing into Violet’s squad despite Varrish’s reproachful stare.

Varrish brings Dain to the brig to use Violet’s memories against her, but Dain turns the interrogation against Varrish. After seeing enough to understand Violet’s secrets, he asks for her alloy dagger, pretends to threaten her, stabs Varrish instead, cuts Violet free, and helps her escape.

Dain openly breaks with Basgiath’s command after Violet’s rescue. As his last official act as wingleader, he calls formation and tells the quadrant that leadership is at the border trying to hide more than a dozen dead wyvern.

After Luella falls and Violet dislocates her shoulder, Dain lifts Violet carefully, resets the shoulder as he did when they were younger, and makes a temporary sling from his belt.

On the Medaro Pass, Dain helps the group survive traps and a wyvern attack. He warns climbers away from a pressure trigger, lends Ridoc his shortsword for Violet’s handhold plan, alerts the trail when wyvern appear, and coordinates instructions through Cath.

Dain returns to Basgiath with Violet’s squad because his father once showed him the way to the ward chamber. He leads the group to the hidden stairwell, finds the camouflaged door by reading the stone pattern, and helps flank Jack and Baide once the wardstone crisis begins.

In Unnbriel, the high priestess cuts Dain’s arm and selects him to fight beside Xaden against Palta. Dain accepts the danger but is knocked unconscious in the trial, left breathing with a shoulder wound that needs stitches.

During the deployment argument, Dain restrains Sloane when she charges an officer and calms her enough to return to formation. He also grants Bodhi permission to offer the cadet volunteers, using his authority as wingleader in the deployment decision.

On the northern wall at Draithus, Dain fights while half his face is drenched in blood. After Imogen takes his shield and blocks a dark wielder with stone, he throws an alloy-hilted dagger through the opening and kills the crimson-clad attacker.

During the Draithus battle, Dain and Cath are backed into a corner by a wyvern until Xaden’s shadows kill it and keep them from being overrun.