Paroka is a broad-shouldered triton woman with the poised stillness of a spear waiting to be thrown. Her skin has the pale green sheen of stormlit seawater, but along her forearms and collarbones are faint lines of warm copper, like metal warmed by a forge. She moves with economical grace, each step measured, yet her hands are surprisingly delicate, scarred at the knuckles and stained with black ink from copying temple ledgers. Her eyes are sea-glass blue with tiny flecks of gold, and her dark hair is shaved close on one side while the rest is braided into a heavy rope threaded with shell beads and prayer knots. The most unexpected thing about her is the tiny, carefully stitched smile of a jasmine blossom on the inside of her left sleeve, a soft domestic detail hidden beneath a warrior's discipline.