A narrow-faced elderly man with paper-thin skin like old vellum stretched over knobby bones. His right hand is a patchwork of faint burn scars that spiral toward his wrist. He walks with a crooked quarterstaff that doubles as his cane and a rune-etched pointer. His robe is soot-smudged at the hem and carefully mended at the elbows with different colored thread, each mend labeled in tiny neat script. When he moves he seems to take the air with him, like a puff of worn parchment unrolling. Unexpectedly, his left sleeve is pinned back to reveal a bright, new silk cuff embroidered in the flamboyant pattern of a distant city, a single ostentatious flourish that contradicts the rest of his humble, weary appearance.