Mareda is a young dwarf woman built like a compact athlete, with broad shoulders, powerful arms, and a long-legged, almost human proportion that makes her seem taller than she is. She stands perfectly upright even when exhausted, as if balance were a point of personal honor. Her face is unusually open for a dwarf, with a high forehead, a narrow bridge to her nose, and an expressive mouth that gives away amusement before she intends it. She takes up more space than her height suggests, planting her feet wide and turning her whole torso toward whoever speaks. The unexpected contradiction is her hands: thick-knuckled and callused from stonework, yet she handles tiny brass mechanisms with the delicacy of a jeweler. Within a minute of meeting her, most people notice that her eyes rarely settle on faces. They travel instead to door hinges, ceiling joints, loose paving stones, and the hands of anyone carrying a weapon.