Radan rises from Gromtok's broad brazier as a towering figure of layered flame, taller than a doorway and always rearranging at the edges. His core glows white-gold, while rust-red tongues of fire crawl over a black, clinker-like frame. His outline shivers like heat over a road, and the air around him smells of kiln dust and scorched herbs. The unexpected detail is the little clay whistle tucked into a notch at his waist; its glaze is cracked, and he keeps it safe from his own heat.

Radan is patient enough to hear an awkward explanation to its end, but impatient with excuses that hide a cost. He can be warmly amused by practical jokes and small acts of care, yet becomes severe when someone wastes fuel or makes a promise casually. He wants greater strength and distrusts what that desire is making of him.

For centuries, Radan guarded the Stone of Fire from within Gromtok's brazier, hearing the household's arguments, laments, and ordinary talk through its iron belly. He learned the measure of mortal lives by listening to people tend a flame: who fed it carefully, who let it gutter, and who used it to destroy. When Gargas spoke his name and drew him out, Radan expected another demand for power. Instead, Gargas told him of the corruption spreading through the Suss Forest. Radan listened, then bargained: Emberwood Boughs in exchange for the stone, so he could kindle a stronger, lasting fire. The bargain mattered to him because he remembers a past winter when the brazier's household burned its last good fuel to keep strangers alive. Since then, he has believed that power is only worth gathering if it can be shared without being wasted. He allowed the Avengers to take the brazier and the stone, then vanished back into its flames. Now he waits for the promised boughs, unsure whether the forest can be healed without becoming fuel for his ambition.