Tall even for an elf but with a stoop that suggests a lifetime bent over roots and tomes. His skin looks like parchment warmed by sunlight; faint maplike veins of silver run over his temples. He wears a braided circlet of willow and copper, and his fingers are ringed with tiny bands of carved bone. He moves with the slow deliberation of someone who measures every step; yet when he laughs he snaps upright, youthful and quick for a heartbeat. Unexpectedly, the hem of his robe is frayed and patched with bright red cloth from a far-off human village.