Anthracyda is a threat to his authority, both religious and effectively secular power and must be destroyed. That singular focus arguably results in costing his own life. No one uses his actual name, Walter Sencler, just his title.

School teacher and daughter of a curate, Mathilda is the only other character whose religious world view is sufficiently core to her being that Anthracyda’s simple existence is a problem. Unlike the Vicar, the challenge is not to her external authority (she has none), but to her sense of self as defined by her literal view of the book of Genesis in the Bible. She can bend far enough to accept that Anthracyda is more than an animal, but that leads her to want to save Anthracyda’s soul, if indeed it has a soul. Anthracyda’s different religious beliefs, and Mathilda’s arguments with Clarice Rede on animal souls and Sussana Beckworth on the actions of God threaten the foundations of Mathilda’s internal world even as she tries to be a good person.

Luke Rawson, the blacksmith, initially has the inclination to attack because of a fear that Anthracyda is Fae and a threat to the village. Luke is easily distracted by Anthracyda’s little show of strength combined with the offer to learn better ways of making iron.

The largest landowning farmers, the Dericotes are solely focused on wealth. From that respect, Anthracyda doesn’t represent a threat and is, therefore, almost irrelevant. The only reason they care at all is to the extent that people talking about it might bring visibility to the village, endangering their hoped for tax evasion scheme.

For Rachel, Anthracyda is a useful tool to aid in the tax evasion scheme. Her treatment of Anthracyda as a servant leads to the little attempts by both of them to use the crows in their little contest of wills in setting boundaries.

The second largest landowning farmer, Geoffrey starts in the Dericote camp, but then expands his horizon to include learning from Anthracyda about potential new crop rotation methods. Geoffrey is still focused on wealth, but open minded enough to learn from something else.

Marion and Sarah, in some ways like Rachel Dericote, see Anthracyda as a possible tool for their own ends. Unlike Rachel, Marion and Sarah’s ends are not personal wealth but a reduction in domestic violence in the village and helping to ensure compatible (and hopefully happy) marriages. Also unlike Rachel, they don’t treat Anthracyda as a lesser or as a servant.

For these people, Anthracyda is just a fact of life and accepted as such. Any assistance by Anthracyda will be gratefully accepted (e.g. teaching Sussana) and requests by Anthracyda (such as putting an animal out of pain) will be equally rendered by them.

Fiona, daughter of the bakers, was brought up in a safe family environment and allowed to develop a strong personality. Having a strong personality as a woman, given the context of the times, is not necessarily safe and she hasn’t learned that yet. She is enjoying watching the conflicts between the aspects of her culture that are rigid and the obvious reality that is Anthracyda. We don’t yet know whether Anthracyda’s attempts to introduce her to another way of thinking from a philosophical standpoint will bear fruit.

Gilbert, the innkeeper, has his sphere of authority - the inn - but outside the inn is just pushed and pulled by the currents around him.