Paroka Sunshell is a sun-bleached tortle with a storm-dull shell polished smooth in the center by decades of sliding, kneeling, and sleeping against stone. She moves with the deliberate grace of falling water, every step measured until battle begins, when she turns startlingly fast, like a reed snapped loose in a flood. Her face is broad and thoughtful, with a cracked ivory beak and deep-set amber eyes that seem to weigh people the way a jeweler weighs coins. She wears prayer cords braided into her shell and forearms, yet one of her wrists is wrapped in bright silk ribbons normally used for funeral offerings, an unexpected softness that contrasts with her hard-eyed discipline.