Barbara Authen

Barbara is small and white-haired in her old age, standing roughly a head above Anya Forger. Her long, frizzy hair gets gathered into a bun, with some fringe left loose around her face. Photographs from her younger years show the same bun crowning a head of dark hair.

Few characters radiate as much warmth as Barbara. She welcomes near-strangers into her home without hesitation, steers conversation with practiced ease, and delights in gentle mischief, flirting openly with her husband and teasing Yor into blushes over her still-newlywed marriage.

Devotion to Sigmund anchors her life. She corrects his memory lapses without a flicker of impatience, steadies him through moments of confusion, and lights up whenever tutoring Anya restores his old professorial spark. Though not particularly bookish herself, she backs the girl's studies with snacks, comfort, and open celebration of every achievement, eventually confiding to Loid that Anya is the nearest thing she and Sigmund have to a grandchild. Beneath the softness sits quiet steel; when her husband's wartime record is framed uncharitably, she pushes back firmly, stressing his dedication to Ostania through medical research.

Barbara met Sigmund while handling office work at a university in Berlint, drawn to his endlessly inquisitive mind. They married and raised a son, though his academic career kept him away from home for long stretches. During the Second East-West War of Unification the couple relocated to Covenia, where Sigmund helped rehabilitate wounded soldiers, and after retirement they returned to Berlint to live near their son and his wife.

The Authens take the unit beside the Forgers at 128 Park Avenue. Barbara manages the move while Sigmund gets lost buying groceries, meeting Loid in the process, and accepts her husband's apology flowers with a kiss that leaves the neighbors staring. She soon pulls the Forgers into her orbit, baking cookies, quizzing the couple about their upbringing and marriage, and watching contentedly as Sigmund tutors Anya in Classical Language, snapping him out of his rambles when needed. When Anya brings home a Stella Star for placing second in the subject, Barbara celebrates as proudly as any grandmother, undimmed by the Tonitrus Bolt that came with it for a failed Math final.

On later visits she shares the couple's history and old photographs with Loid, defends Sigmund's loyalty when the morality of the warring nations comes up, and helps jog his memory when names like Donovan Desmond escape him. One night she finds him gripped by a familiar sinking anxiety and quietly brews him tea until he settles. Loid, discreetly watching the pair for anything suspicious, turns up nothing at all.