Alixia De Freis is an extinction curator — a temporal conservationist: she has spent her life studying and cultivating extinct species of flora and fauna — including a Dodo by the name of Maximillian.
Alixia is married to Methuselah, and between them, they have three children: Phileas, Lyrandil and Simeon. The De Freis family are the stewards of the Chapter house nearest to the Frontier, known as the Charitable House of the Hundred. Caitlin has been living with them since her parent’s disappearance eight years ago.
Alixia was born in Lisbon, 1762 into the noble family of the Count of Oeiras. When she was seventeen, she met Methuselah De Freis, the son of an Arabian spice trader, and ran away. They spent the next few years travelling the world, until one day they met Rufius Westinghouse — who introduced them to the Order.
She became an Antiquarian and became fascinated by the plants and animals that had died out in the last 12,000 years, going back in time to collect seeds and eggs which she cultivates in her garden — a Kew-like glasshouse on the roof of the Chapter House. She also keeps a menagerie of animals and birds, as well as a pod of Gray Whales in the baths in the basement.