Wind-Reader Sera Thalen
Troubled by the Storm's Silence
The young omen-interpreter of the clans, copper-haired and wind-burned, her fingers dark from lightning-rod etchings. She reads the storm honestly, and right now the storm is not answering the way tradition demands. She is the first authority figure to believe something is genuinely wrong, and the omens frighten her.
Description
In the Wind-Reader's Pavilion, Sera Thalen moves among chimes of tuned metal and glyph-etched lightning rods, reading the storm's subtle shifts. Tonight the chimes ring in uneven harmonies and the rods spark without being struck. The wind is not aligning with the ritual, and she does not know why.
"The wind should rise when the duel is named. It should answer... When they look at one another, the storm hesitates. I have never felt that before."
Unlike the elders, Sera is shaken rather than resolute. She fears misreading the omens under political pressure, and she is desperate to understand what the sky is trying to say before dawn.