Steris Harms
Lord Harms's daughter, stern and golden-haired with a tight bun. Treats her own engagement as a managerial problem, brings a multi-section written contract to her first meeting with Wax, and has no patience for small talk. MB2:AoL:Ch 2
Known facts
- courtship-contract-with-waxOpened her courtship with Wax by handing him a roughly twenty-page written contract — courtship phase, public-debut timing, marital frequency, and mistress protocols all enumerated, with the Yomen-Ostlin wedding dinner pencilled in as their first public appearance as a couple.MB2:AoL:Ch 2
- engagement-confirmedConfirms the engagement at the precinct after her rescue. She tells Wax she accepts him in full, including his new constabulary work — which she is content to call his "hobby" — and admits, with unusual frankness, that she comes to the union with a measure of desperation after three prior suitors broke things off in writing.MB2:AoL:Ch 20
- secretly-reads-anatomy-manualHides an anatomy manual on human reproduction behind a cloth dust-jacket marked *History of New Seran* and reads it intently on the train south, on the grounds that she has been unable to get a straight answer about the mechanics from her sister, her friends, or even a trio of prostitutes she invited for tea, and she has an heir to provide.MB2:BoM:Ch 5
- manages-ladrian-house-financesNow keeps Waxillium's house ledgers and prepares the quarterly accountability report for the lenders. House Ladrian has, by her management, recovered for the most part from Edwarn's spending. The accountants are sloppy by three clips out of five million, which she finds intolerable.MB2:BoM:Ch 5
- carries-steel-vials-and-earplugsSteris has been carrying three metal vials in her purse for the past six months — steel flakes suspended in cod-liver oil, on the grounds that whiskey is bad for Wax and *a wife must look out for her husband's health*. She also carries wax earplugs for herself and, as it turns out, a spare pair for Marasi. Her sister begins to suspect she has been planning around her fiancé's hobbies for a long time.MB2:BoM:Ch 7
- rooftop-rescue-with-shotgunDuring the train robbery, Steris climbs to the roof of a moving train car in a long dress, braces Ranette's shotgun to her shoulder, and fires on the Coinshot brute who is killing Wax. The shot only clips the man's arm; the gun's engineered kick, intended for someone with their weight Allomantically increased, hurls her off the side of the train into the gorge below — where Wax catches her in midair. She climbs back onto the tracks afterwards grinning.MB2:BoM:Ch 8
- needlework-as-distress-signalAccording to Marasi, Steris only takes up needlepoint when she has an overwhelming desire to appear normal. She had read somewhere that it was an appropriate hobby for a woman of means; she hates it but will not admit it. Needlework in Steris's hands is a reliable sign that something has shaken her.MB2:BoM:Ch 9
- catalogues-wax-incident-statisticsSteris has begun keeping running statistics on incidents in Wax's vicinity and tells Aunt Gin she has accounted for *seventeen* explosions involving him to date — a *huge statistical anomaly even considering his profession*. Wax looks proud of it.MB2:BoM:Ch 10
- loves-waxSteris admits to Marasi in the temple vestibule that she loves Wax — that she came with him on this *primarily political enterprise* because beside him the world feels upended, the rules flexible, the spheres bound to fall, and she gets to be the flame in the bargain. The most unguarded thing she has said in the books to date, and the first time she has said it aloud.MB2:BoM:Ch 24
- hid-emergency-medallion-in-notebookDuring the skimmer flight south, while Marasi was up front talking to Allik and the others slept, Steris used Wax's knife to hollow out the rear pages of her notebook and nest an extra warming medallion from the skimmer's emergency store inside — the one preparation that ends up saving the captives outside the temple. *I do have my uses.*MB2:BoM:Ch 28
- marries-waxSteris marries Wax in the penthouse of Ahlstrom Tower on their return from New Seran, before a Survivorist priest — accepting his second, off-the-contract proposal. She notes, sniffling, that the moment was not on any of her lists.MB2:BoM:Ch 31
- political-partner-to-waxFunctions as Wax's full political partner — drafts his bills, runs his evidence checklists, keeps spare copies of every document he might forget, and works the persuasion campaigns alongside him from her observation balcony in the Senate.MB2:TLM:Ch 2
- cross-denominationalIs technically a Survivorist — a religion distinct from the Path of Harmony but felt complementary to it — though after everything she has seen with Wax her own view of God has grown comfortably cross-denominational.MB2:TLM:Ch 5
- emergencies-bookKeeps a book of home emergencies — protocols for fires, gas, intruders, explosions in the lab — to which she adds new entries as she catalogues new fears. Writing the fear down, she has found, drains its power: once a thing is named and catalogued, it stops haunting her.MB2:TLM:Ch 17
- understanding-others-differOnce assumed everyone shared the same hovering anxiety she did but hid it better. Has slowly come to accept that other people genuinely don't carry the constant background worry — a realisation that recasts both her relief at being understood by Wax and her wariness of those who plunge into danger without flinching.MB2:TLM:Ch 17
- takes-the-house-seatAccepts Wax's request that she represent House Ladrian in the Elendel Senate while he is in Bilming — speaking to the governor, preparing the body for a possible bomb threat from the Outer Cities. She protests she is bad with people; he counters that her meticulous planning is exactly what the moment needs. She agrees to try.MB2:TLM:Ch 19
- takes-husbands-senate-seatTakes Wax's Senate seat as acting senator for House Ladrian with proper authorisation while he is in Bilming — one of the reasons she and Wax originally explored a union, her fortune to his authority. Sends her children south with Kath to her father's estate first.MB2:TLM:Ch 31
- calls-emergency-select-councilFrom the floor of the Senate, Steris reads the law back to it and moves for a Governor's Select Council with a twenty-four-hour emergency remit — the first such use of the mechanism in Elendel's memory — explicitly so the governor can authorise an evacuation without a full Senate vote.MB2:TLM:Ch 31
- carries-emetic-in-handbagKeeps medication in her handbag for the deliberate purpose of inducing vomiting — useful, she notes drily after threatening to barf on the governor's council table to be heard, with surprising frequency.MB2:TLM:Ch 38
- lists-method-worksWatching Constable Reddi go numb at the table and the governor and the senators tip toward personal flight, Steris realises with quiet shock that her notebooks are doing the job she designed them for. She is not afraid. She is not anxious. She can function. She has seven detailed evacuation plans for Elendel already thumbed open in her thickest book, and she sets about choosing one.MB2:TLM:Ch 43
- evacuation-plan-on-the-shelfSteris has, in her notebooks, a complete citywide emergency evacuation plan for Elendel — drafted in idle hours one summer after the house taxes for the year were already done. With the Bands gone and the senators bolting, she turns it on the table in front of Governor Varlance and asks for his authority to enact it. He agrees to stay and help.MB2:TLM:Ch 48
- faith-in-waxAt the central evacuation station, with the warship already steaming for Elendel and Governor Varlance ready to flee, Steris tells him the ship will not reach the city because her husband Wax will prevent it. Pressed on how she knows, she answers — softly, surprising herself — that some things can't be planned for, but no matter what else happens Wax will somehow get wherever he needs to be. It is the closest she has yet come to articulating, out loud and to a stranger, what she now believes about him.MB2:TLM:Ch 67
- uses-varlance-as-figureheadRealising that the simple presence of an authority figure is calming an evacuating city to the tune of thousands of lives saved, Steris keeps Governor Varlance at her elbow at the central station, feeds him coffee, makes him visible, and quietly handles the actual scheduling herself. When he panics at the news of the warship she takes him by the arm and tells him to stay and be a hero — and he does.MB2:TLM:Ch 67
- disaster-plans-catalogPressed by Governor Varlance on whether she has more plans like the tsunami one tucked away, Steris lists, without affect, that she has equivalent contingencies for fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, sudden invasions, dust storms, droughts, food shortages, and mass pipe breakings — and that there are seven more she still wants to get to. The detail establishes the size and shape of the private contingency library she has been maintaining for years as anxiety management.MB2:TLM:Ch 70
- felt-proudOn the Elendel docks, as foremen and the governor and remaining officials accept her tsunami plans without argument and Governor Varlance tells her her talents have been wasted, Steris notices, with surprise, that she is feeling something new: not appreciated by Wax or Marasi (which she has felt before) but appreciated by strangers — overplanning seen as a talent rather than a flaw. It is the closest she has come in the book to naming pride in herself rather than the protective bubble she has built around the way the world usually treats her.MB2:TLM:Ch 70
Events
- MB2:AoL:Ch 2 Hands Wax a twenty-page courtship contract she has drafted herself, including a mistress clause; arranges their public debut at the Yomen-Ostlin wedding dinner
- MB2:AoL:Ch 4 Wax's escort to the wedding dinner; coaches him on etiquette in the carriage, drafts a list of approved conversational topics at the table, then excuses herself to the women's washroom in frustration
- MB2:AoL:Ch 5 Swept up from the women's washroom by Vanishers searching for stragglers and selected as the boss's first chosen hostage of the night
- MB2:AoL:Ch 19 Found in a windowless room at the top of the wooden hideout, captive but unharmed; afterwards launched up to safety on a Pushed shotgun and sent toward the precinct.
- MB2:AoL:Ch 20 Emerges from the captain's office after giving her statement, sits down across from Wax, formally thanks him, and confirms that they will proceed with their engagement contract.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 1 Paces the foyer of the Survivorist Church in a sleek white dress, snaps at Wax for being late but *not very late*, makes a wry confession that she ordered six copies of the wedding pendants in case of disasters, and — at the dais — quietly tells him she would not blame him for backing out before clinging to his hand in a way that means the opposite.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 2 Sits soaked on the edge of the dais, dress plastered to her, hair in failing wedding braids. Sets aside the practiced contract voice long enough to thank Wax for not making her feel as others have, and to admit she had reserved a backup wedding date *in case this church exploded*.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 4 Invites herself on the New Seran expedition on the grounds that her sister is going, then asks faintly how she is supposed to send for all the maids in four hours.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 5 Sits opposite Wax in the compartment for the whole leg south, working through a stack of household ledgers, deflecting his questions about her cloth-wrapped reading, and finally — when caught — confessing that her secret reading is an anatomy primer for the wedding night she still intends to have.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 6 Working the ledgers across from Wax, swears at him in delight when he finds the missing clip — then catches herself and resumes her usual reserved register when Marasi appears in the doorway.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 7 Sits remarkably composed on the compartment bench through the firefight, hands Wax three of her own steel vials when his break, hands Marasi a pair of wax earplugs unprompted, and then — at the end of the chapter — climbs the train's roof ladder with Ranette's shotgun in her hands.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 8 Plunges off the train into the gorge and is caught in midair; rides with Wax back across the river to the engine cab, where she watches him drop a bandit who had a gun to the engineer's head.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 9 Sits alone on the platform with a blanket and a steaming cup, working at needlepoint that Marasi reads as the unmistakable sign of distress; Wax joins her on the bench and they talk through her dislocation and his Roughs-bred bluntness until she dozes off on his shoulder.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 10 Writes in her notebook on the suite couch while Wax cracks the windows open, then hands Aunt Gin a sorted-by-property-damage catalogue of contingencies for the party's stay — fires, shootouts, koloss attacks, cattle stampedes, and the seventeen explosions she has so far attributed to Wax.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 11 Arrives at the Shores reception on Wax's arm in a gauzy and cloudlike gown, hands him a notebook of pre-indexed conversation openers indexed by target.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 12 At the Shores reception in her gauzy out-of-fashion gown, fielding Gave Entrone's insult on Wax's behalf, taking blows about her wardrobe and her social authenticity in stride, drinking the better part of seven cups of sugar in a fizzy lemon soda, and dryly pointing Wax at Devlin Airs as his next target.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 13 Produces and drinks a vial of syrup of ipecac and saltroot she had brought in case of poisoning, manufactures Wax an excuse to leave the party by vomiting all over the table — a deliberate exercise in not caring what others think of her.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 14 Recovers theatrically in a Shores mansion guest room, asks Wax about his sister, then produces from her thigh — under two pairs of shorts and seven rolls of tape — one of his own small Riotings she had smuggled past the door inspection.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 16 Crawls out of a shrub in the atrium for Wax to scoop up, then grins as he flings them through the skylight and up into the mists.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 16 Already packed; calls out the window to Aunt Gin that being framed for murder was on page seventeen of the list she had left her.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 17 Asleep on Wax's shoulder until Marasi's accidental speed bubble flings them into a jumble on the floor.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 17 Rides bareback in a full skirt without complaint and agrees at once to stay out of sight with the horses while the others infiltrate the warehouse.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 21 Already mounted with the horses in the forest north of the camp when Wax drops to fetch her; she hands over packs without question, lets him grab her around the waist, and is Pushed up into the flier with him.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 21 Sits with hands in her lap as if flying machines were an everyday occurrence.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 23 Bent over a large notebook on the back bench, taking notes — to Wayne's bewilderment.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 23 Trades her uniform for a dress with trousers underneath inside the flier, hands Wax back his mistcoat, then lights a lantern and shepherds the group across the snow to the temple.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 24 On the stone shelf in proper-lady posture with her notebook open, working on the math of her own uselessness; admits to Marasi that she loves Wax.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 25 Hands Edwarn her lantern to light his pipe, then moves away from the shelf where he settles down.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 25 Files through the inner door with the others; says nothing.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 26 Frozen against the chamber wall through the firefight, herded into the captive group with Marasi and Allik; her notebook is batted from her hands.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 27 Frisked roughly; loses her notebook to a guard; sits resigned, eyes meeting Marasi's across Allik.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 28 Watches Marasi light up with the powers of creation from a few feet away on the snow.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 29 Stumbles into the tent behind Allik with an armful of stolen rifles, drops them on the floor and dusts off her hands.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 30 Interrupts Wax's salvage argument and brokers the deal — return the ship, give the relic to MeLaan, open trade — under Wax's arm.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 31 Wakes in her bunk to find Wax at the door; the two sit knee-to-knee in silence while the ship waits.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 31 On Wax's arm down the gangway; mentions the favourable initial treaties with the southerners to Aradel.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 31 In the penthouse hall, accepts Wax's second proposal — sniffling — and kisses him; the priest waits at the door.
- MB2:BoM:Epilogue Sleeps in the penthouse bed beside Wax, holding lightly to his arm as if afraid to let go.
- MB2:TLM:Ch 2 Runs the pre-Senate checklist with Wax in his chambers, hands him his spare evidence pages and his pistols one at a time, watches the proceedings from her reserved balcony seat, and walks home with him after the vote fails.
- MB2:TLM:Ch 5 Joins Wax in his chambers after the failed vote and tells him she has been picturing the building reduced to rubble by some convenient natural disaster.
- MB2:TLM:Ch 9 Finishes putting Tindwyl down for her nap, joins Wax behind the bar, and pulls Marasi's note from one of the skirt pockets she refuses to live without.
- MB2:TLM:Ch 18 Stocking-footed against Wax, notebook out, naming the new ambassador's arrival as the threat it is.
- MB2:TLM:Ch 19 On the floor of the penthouse working broadsheets with Wax; produces the laundered mistcoat from under the stacks when he agrees to go; accepts the Senate seat in his absence.
- MB2:SoS:Ch 2 Sits opposite Wax sorting wedding paperwork — including the threat-sorted catalogue of his old enemies — and farewells him to the chase with a request that he avoid being shot in the face before that evening's portrait sitting.
- MB2:SoS:Ch 7 Waiting in the sitting room with the next item of Wax's political calendar — Lady ZoBell's party — and the news, which he hasn't heard, of an assassination attempt on the governor.
- MB2:SoS:Ch 8 Has the eighty-percentile contingency for the carriage line already on page three of tonight's agenda — *Lord Waxillium carries us up to the top floor by Allomancy, which is completely inappropriate and at the same time breathtaking* — and wore dark undergarments and securely-fastening shoes accordingly.
- MB2:SoS:Ch 9 On Wax's arm in gauzy white with sequined cuffs, telling him his mistcoat makes him look like a ruffian, removing her metal bracelet on his cue, and steering him past the Lord Bookers conversation she has rated *dreadfully boring*.
- MB2:SoS:Ch 9 Politely steers the conversation with Innate toward Marasi and starts to invite her up, but is cut off in Wax's head by Bleeder's arrival on his earring.
- MB2:SoS:Ch 10 Beside Wax when he abruptly excuses himself from Innate and walks into the centre of the floor with steel lines blooming about him.
- MB2:SoS:Epilogue Manages the room around Wax — picks the chair, sets the broadsheets, deflects the guests, tells them they have delayed the wedding so Wax can take a short recuperation — and only later swaps his cold tea for a warm one.
- MB2:SoS:Epilogue Long after the guests have gone, sets a new log on the dying fire, scoots the footstool over beside Wax's chair, sits down with hands in her lap, and after a while rests her hand on top of his. The first warmth he has felt all night.
Backreferences
- summaryMB2:AoL:Ch 2
- summaryMB2:AoL:Ch 4
- factYomen-Ostlin Wedding
- factSliverism
- summaryMB2:AoL:Ch 5
- summaryMB2:AoL:Ch 6
- summaryMB2:AoL:Ch 7
- summaryMB2:AoL:Ch 9
- factMarasi
- summaryMB2:AoL:Ch 11
- summaryMB2:AoL:Ch 14
- summaryMB2:AoL:Ch 15
- summaryMB2:AoL:Ch 19
- summaryMB2:AoL:Ch 20
- factWaxillium Ladrian
- factMarasi
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 1
- factWaxillium Ladrian
- factThe Survivorist Church
- factMarewill Flowers
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 2
- factWayne
- factLord Drapen
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 3
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 4
- factWaxillium Ladrian
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 5
- factWaxillium Ladrian
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 6
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 7
- factSteris Harms
- factThe Bandit Brute
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 8
- factWaxillium Ladrian
- factSteris Harms
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 9
- factWaxillium Ladrian
- factSteris Harms
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 10
- factSteris Harms
- factAunt Gin
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 11
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 12
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 13
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 14
- factWaxillium Ladrian
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 15
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 16
- factWaxillium Ladrian
- factThe Ascendant's Field
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 17
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 21
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 23
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 24
- factSteris Harms
- factSteris's Usefulness Chart
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 25
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 26
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 27
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 28
- factSteris Harms
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 29
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 30
- factWaxillium Ladrian
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 31
- factWaxillium Ladrian
- factSteris Harms
- factAhlstrom Tower
- summaryMB2:BoM:Epilogue
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 2
- factWaxillium Ladrian
- factMaxillium Ladrian
- factTindwyl Ladrian
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 5
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 7
- factAhlstrom Tower
- factMaxillium Ladrian
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 9
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 11
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 13
- factCycle
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 15
- factHarmony
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 17
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 18
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 19
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 27
- factGave Entrone
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 31
- factSteris Harms
- factAdawathwyn
- factAdmiral Daal
- factGovernor's Select Council
- factDarlin Cett
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 34
- factWaxillium Ladrian
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 35
- factWaxillium Ladrian
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 38
- factTenSoon
- factTenSoon
- factHarmony
- factAdawathwyn
- factLady Gardre
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 40
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 43
- factWaxillium Ladrian
- factSteris Harms
- factThe Bands of Mourning
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 46
- factWaxillium Ladrian
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 48
- factSteris Harms
- factThe Bands of Mourning
- factAdmiral Daal
- factElendel Evacuation Plan
- factArmal
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 57
- factMarasi
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 58
- factThe Big Gun
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 66
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 67
- factTenSoon
- factSteris Harms
- factSteris Harms
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 70
- factSteris Harms
- factSteris Harms
- factMarasi
- factGovernor Varlance
- factGhostblood Allomancer Cell
- factSteris's Tsunami Plan
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 71
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 73
- factGovernor Varlance
- factSteris's Tsunami Plan
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 74
- factWayne
- summaryMB2:SoS:Ch 2
- factWaxillium Ladrian
- factThe Boris Brothers
- factFather Bin
- summaryMB2:SoS:Ch 7
- factLady ZoBell's Party
- summaryMB2:SoS:Ch 8
- factEdwarn Ladrian
- summaryMB2:SoS:Ch 9
- summaryMB2:SoS:Ch 10
- summaryMB2:SoS:Ch 11
- summaryMB2:SoS:Ch 12
- factFather Bin
- summaryMB2:SoS:Ch 16
- summaryMB2:SoS:Epilogue