The Woman is the third member of Riva's chorus, the interpreter who speaks for the balance, wisdom and harmony that hold the mediator's other voices together.
The Woman appears in Loud as a Whisper. She is one of the three interpreters, bound to their work by generations of family tradition, who turn the thoughts of the deaf mediator Riva into speech.
She explains that she is the element that binds all the others: harmony, wisdom and balance. In practice she speaks least, stepping in to temper the Scholar's reasoning and the Warrior's ardour.
She is killed with the other two when the first meeting on Solais V is attacked. The Solari leaders, shocked, execute the man responsible, but Riva at first refuses to continue. He finally stays behind alone on the planet to teach both sides his sign language.