Chaz Willis

Chaz Willis is Sasha Willis’s father, godfather to George’s daughterly circle, and a Regent whose authority is shaped by both institutional loyalty and fierce parental protection. He regards Sasha as highly capable, yet fears that her assignment in Seattle will expose her to the unresolved consequences of Kincade’s mismanagement. His decisive movement through the story is from interference and suspicion toward a guarded acceptance of Sasha’s judgment, Larem’s honor, and the Seattle Paladins’ claim that Larem belongs among them.

Identity and Institutional Position

Chaz is presented as both a father and a member of the Board of Regents, and he treats those roles as inseparable. In private, he tells George that Sasha’s position gives him reason to interfere whenever he believes intervention serves her best interests. George counters that Sasha is his goddaughter, is qualified for the assignment, and must be allowed to prove herself. Chaz’s protectiveness therefore has a political dimension: he is not merely worried about his daughter’s safety, but about the consequences of placing a Regent’s daughter inside a damaged and potentially compromised Paladin sector.

His concern is grounded in the condition of Seattle. Chaz knows that Kincade made a mess of the region and suspects that the damage may not have been the work of one person. He is unwilling to send Sasha into the aftermath without understanding who else may be involved. At the same time, he supports the idea of removing the alleged ringleaders and scattering them across the globe, while Sasha persuades the Board that dispersal would only spread the danger and that containment is the better policy. Their disagreement places Chaz on the side of institutional containment through separation, whereas Sasha seeks a more controlled investigation and reform.

Fatherhood and Conflict with Sasha

Chaz’s relationship with Sasha is affectionate but controlling. He wants her to return home after completing a review of Seattle, yet she intends to remain if she can help it. Even when discussing practical safety, he adopts the tone of a parent issuing a warning: he tells her to obtain a security system and choose a good neighborhood. Sasha answers that Dr. Laurel Young has offered to rent her a condo and that she trusts Young’s judgment. The exchange shows that Chaz’s authority still reaches into Sasha’s daily decisions, but it also shows its limits: Sasha accepts the concern without surrendering her professional independence.

His doubts are sharpened by the assignment itself. Sasha has been charged with restoring the Seattle Paladins to compliance with Regent regulations, and Chaz fears that she may be caught in whatever remains of Kincade’s network. He is especially troubled because Sasha’s orders come from the entire Board, yet she is the person who must confront the local organization directly. His resistance to the assignment is thus simultaneously paternal caution, political anxiety, and a reluctance to see his daughter assume risks that he cannot control.

The Seattle Investigation

Chaz’s fears prove justified when Sasha uncovers irregularities in Paladin finances. Three additional salaries have been authorized for individuals who appear on no duty rosters and have no discoverable personal information, suggesting that the supposedly phantom employees are actually Kalith who crossed into the human world. Sasha believes the Seattle Paladins are sheltering them and using Regent funds to support them, a revelation that makes her furious because Paladin deaths have already occurred in the conflict.

The investigation later traces Kincade’s offshore accounts and reveals that he was stealing not only from the Kalith but directly from the Regents. Deposits lead back to St. Louis, indicating that Kincade had collaborators. Sasha eventually explains to Chaz that Kincade had funneled money from every account he could access, manipulated the numbers to conceal the theft, and accumulated hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years. He also encouraged hostility and competition among departments, leaving the Paladins under-resourced, divided, and close to rebellion. The evidence transforms Chaz’s general suspicion into a concrete institutional crisis.

When Sasha tells him that money was sent to offshore accounts connected to the Midwest Region, Chaz reacts with immediate disbelief and asks whether she suspects him. The response exposes the personal cost of the investigation: because Chaz is both Sasha’s father and a Regent, her search for the conspirators threatens not only distant officials but also the family relationship through which she entered political life. His alarm does not establish guilt; it shows how quickly corruption within the Regents can turn ordinary oversight into a question of familial trust.

Larem and the Question of Belonging

Chaz’s position also bears directly on Larem. Larem is a Kalith exile who once served honorably as a Blademate to a Sworn Guardian and now survives in Seattle by accepting a Paladin paycheck for teaching weapons practice. He distrusts promises from former enemies because he has been betrayed repeatedly by his own people, and he remains tempted to return to Kalithia despite his death sentence. Chaz’s institutional skepticism therefore confronts Larem’s already fragile attempt to build a new life.

Larem’s conduct in the tunnels gives that conflict a moral rather than merely administrative shape. When the Others call him a traitor for living in the light and threaten Sasha because she is human, Larem refuses to abandon her. He has sworn to serve his people, but he also insists that the woman has done nothing to deserve harm. After the encounter costs him the lives of the Others and another portion of his soul, he continues his duty by getting Sasha to safety. Later, when Duke is unarmed, Larem offers him Lonzo Jones’s sword so that he can explain Duke’s death to Devlin Bane by saying that he gave the man a chance to defend himself. These actions provide the evidence of honor that Chaz eventually weighs against his doubts about Kalith-human coexistence.

Chaz does not immediately welcome Larem. He states that allowing Larem and the others to live in the human world may still be a major mistake because the Paladins’ mission was once clear and their presence has muddied it. Nevertheless, he concedes that the situation is now established and that overturning it could provoke rebellion. His recommendation to the Board will therefore be that the existing arrangement remain rather than be destroyed by force. That is a political compromise, but it is also an acknowledgment that the old boundary between worlds cannot simply be restored.

Reluctant Acceptance and Ending

The decisive change in Chaz comes through his recognition of Sasha’s agency. He tells Larem that Sasha has worked hard and has a genuine chance to become the first Regent of her generation, but that her association with Larem could threaten that future. He wants Larem to understand what Sasha may be giving up, framing their relationship as a sacrifice with political consequences rather than dismissing it as an infatuation.

Yet Chaz finally admits that if Larem is the person who makes his daughter happy, there is little he can do. He believes that forcing Sasha to choose would leave him the loser, and his lifelong work with Paladins has taught him to trust their judgment in matters of honor and duty. Because the Seattle contingent claims Larem as one of its own, Chaz grants that claim provisional weight, even while insisting that the Regents’ judgment remains unresolved. His acceptance is explicitly reluctant, but it is no longer purely paternal opposition.

Larem then declares that he plans to marry Sasha if she will have him. Chaz’s response gives the character’s arc its final shape: he does not erase his doubts about Larem, the Kalith, or the political danger surrounding Sasha, but he places those doubts beneath a developing respect for choice, duty, and demonstrated honor. In a story structured by competing authorities—the Regents, the Paladins, Kalith obligations, and family loyalty—Chaz learns that protection cannot mean indefinite control. His final position preserves institutional caution while allowing Sasha and Larem to define their own allegiance.