Character Breakdown - Blood of the Prince: Hefft
Monday, February 25, 2019
Hefft, the Keeper …
Hefft is the grandson of Garret. Some time after Garret passed, his son, Tellen, drowned. Tellen’s now widowed wife, finding that she no longer had the means to take care of a young son, delivered him to Patrin. We don’t know his precise age, but he appears to be in his late twenties or early thirties. If we consider ‘ten’ to be the age at which he came into Patrin’s care, then it is likely that Patrin was still active in Whitefield, where we know that at Serin’s request he returned to complete his journeyman training as a scribe, and later replaced Serin as Royal Scribe. Meaning, that Hefft would have spent a good portion of his formative years in the Palace, among the Courts of Denion.
When Patrin retired as Royal Scribe, he returned to the place that gave him the most peace, Galin’s old cabin tucked away in the Grandwood. Hefft, a grown man by that time, followed the aging Patrin and continued to serve him in the very same place that his grandfather once lived and served Galin.
With the exception of the occasional visit to Woodpoint for supplies, Hefft appears to have secluded himself at the cabin, caring for ‘old man’ Patrin. At one point he brings home a young boy, that Patrin believes looks too much like him to be anything other than his son.
When Patrin decided to undertake his final mission, Hefft and the boy follow. Patrin then abandons them at Portis Doha, for fear that the next stage of the journey will prove too much for the ‘weaklings’.
Author’s note: The presence of Hefft’s young son creates an interesting contrast of ‘worlds’ or ideology. Patrin grew up in ‘violent’ times, but the boy clearly grew up in a more gentle world and is easily frightened by the ‘old man’.