Madame Aldith Fenmar

Madame Aldith Fenmar is Elias's grandmother — and one of the richest women in the Alpha Centauri charter. She built Domaine Fenmar on Proxima Libre herself: terraces, syndicate shares, export seals, and a reputation for LV-1 wine and champagne that Concord boards treat as the price ceiling for the whole arm.

She looks thirty-something — sun-brown skin that should not match her eyes, auburn hair pinned for vineyard work, river-green eyes with a faint gold ring, hands calloused from vine knife and chalk. She speaks French at home and Concord trade English in export salons without seeming to switch languages — only temper.

Spacers know the label. Family knows the lesson plans: hide the spoon in the Stillfall cellar — find Aldith's enchanted silver spoon with magic, return it without touching it (Jarvis can't cheat either). Elias's crew still tease him as the spoon-wall wizard. Aldith insists that is a compliment filed incorrectly.

She has been governor of Proxima Libre more than once — and considers herself retired from that now. She says she has nine children and more than thirty grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and that she does not play favorites. Elias still gets homework.