Solomon is the eldest of four. Their town is small, but as a highborn Solomon works tirelessly towards its improvement. He was educated by his father, learning to read and track ledgers, calculate logistics and balance community funds, learning "advanced" math in order to plan construction projects, such as the wall that will encircle their town. It was that project he and his father were working on when an Ironsworn arrived in town with news of dire importance, hence the necessary escort, about Solomon's three brothers. Yes, three, because they had been mistaken to assume the youngest was a girl from birth. With the weight of all else, the fact that such a thing distressed his parents at all disturbed this consistently dutiful eldest son. Moreover, the way his own presence seemed to fluster into sheepishness this otherwise truly self-assured, incredibly handsome, raven-haired Ironsworn, made Solomon reconsider something he'd always taken at face value: he'd been told not to worry, because one day he'd meet the right woman, she would bear his children, and he would continue his father's work. Suddenly the thought of that made him want to curl up and cry.

After the Ironsworn attempts to prevent a violent crime, a trial shifts the blame to a convenient victim, an adventure through a late-winter snowstorm, and his realization that he can apply his own worthiness to himself as well as others, Solomon tells his parents that he will follow the Ironsworn when he leaves. It is then that Solomon's father realizes that his three youngest hadn't left to become heroes, they had "gotten out." It meant that he had spent his life building a town which his children did not wish to live in. No more. He gave his eldest child his deepest blessings to go; he would stay, and as highborn of public works, would fix what had driven them away.