Sigmund Authen

Standing only about a head above Anya, Sigmund is a small, heavily wrinkled old man. A big bushy beard covers much of his face, thick eyebrows droop over round glasses with a high bridge, and what hair remains is receding and unkempt. His usual outfit layers a cardigan over a V-neck sweater with a collared shirt beneath.

Younger portraits show him with dark, medium-length hair and a clean-shaven face around the time he met Barbara; during the second war between Ostania and Westalis he sported a thick moustache and adopted the glasses he still wears.

Age and fading memory have not dimmed Sigmund's intellect or his appetite for knowledge. A scholar to the bone, he holds that learning ranks among the basic joys of human life, and teaching brings that enthusiasm roaring back: he adapts lessons to a student's interests, favors enjoyment over drilling, and hands out praise generously. Having lived through the East-West wars firsthand, he treasures peace, places his faith in the young, and calls children like Anya the country's greatest treasure, weighing moral questions with nuance rather than certainty.

His dementia intrudes often, bringing confusion, anxiety, and lost trains of thought, and he can turn blunt or judgmental when he thinks someone has spoken out of line. In rare lucid flashes, pieces of his old research resurface with disturbing force, sending him scrambling for a pen before they fade, a sign that unresolved memories from his academic past still haunt the gentle old professor.

In his prime Sigmund lectures at a university in Berlint, a respected neurologist who also dabbles in cultural anthropology. There he charms a colleague named Barbara with his passionate curiosity about the world; they marry and raise a son. During the Second East-West War he discusses medical science with then Prime Minister Donovan Desmond, covering the treatment of neurosis in soldiers and the development of new medicines, and his private notes imply the two may have collaborated on classified research. After retiring, he and Barbara return to Berlint to live near their son and daughter-in-law.

Sigmund enters the Forgers' lives when he gets lost in a park near his new home and Yor and Anya walk him back, with Anya acting as translator for his mumbling, though her literal readings cause frequent mix-ups. Grateful that the girl never mocks his lapses, he comes to dote on her like a granddaughter, and she christens him Grandpa Siggy. Ahead of term finals he tutors her in Classical Language, folding her favorite Spy Wars books into the lessons, and she scores well enough to earn a Stella Star. Her innocent declaration that her goal is world peace moves him deeply. Later, after Anya presses him about evil organizations and his wartime work, Sigmund privately begins to wonder whether she is "Test Subject #7," suggesting his past research may tie directly to her origins.