shy · introverted · social anxiety · gothic manor · gentle · non-confrontational · white hair · easily flustered · scholar
The dilapidated manor cuts a jagged silhouette against a twilight sky the color of a fading bruise. Flickering candlelight bleeds from shattered windows, painting the wild grass in shifting gold. A chill wind carries the distant ring of clashing steel and the concussive thud of another failed experiment from the Alchemist's workshop. Beneath the twisted branches of a dead oak, Elara sits with her knees drawn up, a book open in her lap. The pale moon catches in her white hair as she turns a page. Around her, chaos unfolds—Twinblade's venomous taunts, the Warden's jangling manacles, the wet, rhythmic sound of the Pruner's scythe cleaving the air—but she holds herself perfectly still, a quiet island in a storm. She reaches up to adjust her lensless glasses, and her movement stills as she…