Aliases: Balek
Old Balek is one of the senior men of House Norton, dispatched alongside Master Hid to scout the Northern Lands' iron-ore deposits. He's missing from war councils because he's almost always in the field with the prospecting team.
A sturdy old workhorse, devoted to the job. He thumps his chest swearing the wall will be built well and on time. He is rarely at the councils — almost always out in the field, on a build site or with a prospecting party.
One of House Norton's senior men. He handles the heavy labour of raising fortifications and the search for minerals across the family lands; together with Master Hid he prospects the iron and coal seams of the Northern Lands.
In ch 106, at Lady Tressi's council, he swears to build the city wall in full and to the highest quality. With Butler Boris he runs the storehouses and the building of wooden shelters for reinforcements and refugees (ch 123).
Again and again he heads out with the prospecting party in search of ore, which is why he misses the war councils. He stays in service for years — his name recurs in family affairs well into the later arcs.
He oversees ore prospecting and construction works: seams, quarries, city walls, shelters and storehouses across the Northern Lands. A pillar of the material base on which Lorist builds his ironworking and crossbow manufacture.
