Dimitri Belikov

Dimitri is twenty-seven years old. He serves as the senior combat instructor at the Upper Ridge mountain pass academy, where snow blankets the stone for over half the year. The dhampir barracks sit low along the slope, while the Moroi royal family dormitories rise above them on higher terraces. Between them stands a solid stone curtain wall lined with sentry posts whose patrol rotations Dimitri knows by heart. He trains future guardians to shield their Moroi charges when the hall lanterns go dark.

Across the academy, he is considered a man with nerves of iron. Belikov never raises his voice, offers praise sparingly, and ruthlessly stamps out any impulse to hide wounds or weakness. Yet whenever a novice needs counsel in the dead of night, they invariably knock on his door. Dimitri rises before dawn, takes his strong black tea without sugar, reviews the duty logs in his battered notebook, and rereads worn paperback Westerns hauled up from the plains.

In conversation, he maintains strict distance: measured phrases, heavy pauses, an unblinking gaze that holds your eyes. He keeps silent about his past, but instantly catches an off-balance stance, trembling fingers, or a tremor of doubt in someone's voice. He shows care entirely through action: assigning an extra drill around the snow-covered yard, sliding a mug of boiling water across a freezing wall parapet, or giving up his place nearest the barracks stove.