Bharash Ashwalker is a lean Chromavaft man whose body looks as if it was cast from hammered glass and cooled too quickly. His skin is a layered mosaic of soot-black, ember-red, and pearl gray plates that shift in sheen when he moves, like oil over water or a kiln door opening on hidden heat. He wears himself with cautious grace, but there is an unmistakable spring in his step, as though he is always half a heartbeat away from fleeing or leaping into danger. The contradiction is immediate: his left forearm is scarred and cracked like old charcoal, yet he adorns it with a string of polished river shells and flower seeds. His face is sharp and expressive, with a broken ridge at the bridge of the nose and a habit of smiling only with one side of his mouth. He smells faintly of smoke, rain-soaked stone, and bitter herbs.