Nolon

Nolon is elderly and leans heavily on a cane, but he still wears rider black and carries weapons.

By Violet’s second year, months of secret work leave him visibly wasted: his uniform hangs loose, his skin sags from weight loss, and the usual spark is gone.

Nolon openly objects to the forced conscription of executed rebel officers’ children into the Riders Quadrant, noting that such a measure had not been used before and suspecting the casualty rate may have been intended. His objection does not stop him from doing his work as a mender, and he rejects Dain’s attempt to use Violet’s injury as an excuse to withhold treatment.

During Varrish’s interrogation of Violet, Nolon shows enough conscience to warn her privately about Varrish’s plan to heal and break her repeatedly. He also admits he may have ignored too much while occupied with other matters and creates a chance for escape by leaving a window unlocked and drawing Varrish away.

Nolon also acts in defense of Navarre’s security as he understands it, even when that means betraying Violet. After drugging her, he says he cannot shield her from consequences when he believes she has risked Navarrian civilians, and he helps question her about Lyra’s journal.

Winifred is Nolon’s wife and the healer whose care has accompanied his mending of Violet.

Nolon has a long-standing healer-patient relationship with Violet, having mended her for five years by the time she enters the Riders Quadrant. After treating her shoulder and arm, he promises that he will always mend her.

Nolon spends months trying to save Jack Barlowe’s life after Jack is crushed under a mountain.

Nolon betrays Violet’s trust by drugging her with lemonade that disrupts her bonds and senses, then participating in her imprisonment and questioning. He is repeatedly called in to mend her so Varrish can continue the torture, but both his strength and the quality of the mending visibly fail during the ordeal.

After Violet’s rescue, she reacts to Nolon’s voice with nausea because of his role in holding her prisoner. Xaden threatens to kill him if he approaches her again and spares him only because the war may still need a mender.

When Jack’s venin crisis erupts, Nolon reveals that he had expected it, argues that Jack can still choose, and doses him with serum after Xaden knocks him unconscious.

Brennan later uses Nolon’s early work with Jack as the comparison point for his own failed attempts to help Xaden, saying Xaden must be further along than Jack was when Nolon first began trying to help him.

Nolon is a rider-mender capable of repairing serious injuries despite the pain the process causes. He treats Violet’s shoulder and arm after Dain brings her to him, cutting away her shirt to examine the damage and mending the injuries directly.

When Violet is gravely injured away from Basgiath, her companions identify Nolon as the mender most likely to help if they can get her back to him.

Nolon describes mending a soul as hard work that has taken months, linking his skill set to an unusually difficult form of mending rather than ordinary battlefield injuries alone.

He still functions as a battlefield mender during the Basgiath crisis, treating General Sorrengail and Ridoc’s burned hands. He cannot help Dain’s gray handprint wounds from Jack’s draining, leaving the exact limit of the injury or Nolon’s depleted strength unclear.

Nolon’s written conclusion to Lilith states that he has tried every known method to cure the venin condition and found none; in his assessment, it can only be controlled.

During Violet’s second year, Nolon becomes unusually unavailable despite the infirmary’s need for a mender. Cadets report long waits, restricted access through a guarded back infirmary door, and repeated signs that he is physically depleted by secret work.

When Varrish dislocates Violet’s shoulder and injures her face, Nolon heals her and warns that he has been ordered to stay nearby so she can be healed and broken again. His unlocked window and diversion of Varrish give Violet an opening to escape.

The reason for Nolon’s exhaustion and secrecy begins to emerge when it is learned that he has spent months mending Jack Barlowe after Jack was crushed under a mountain.

Nolon later helps capture Violet for interrogation by drugging her and joining Varrish in the brig. His repeated mending during the torture cycle leaves her incompletely healed, and Xaden names him as one of the people who will answer for the injuries and betrayal.

During the Basgiath crisis, Nolon reveals that he had expected Jack’s venin crisis and had been trying to mend him since May, then doses Jack with serum after Xaden knocks him unconscious.

After Jack is imprisoned, Nolon and Markham are expected to arrive each morning to question or examine him, extending Nolon’s involvement from treatment into information extraction.