Kirina

The forest remembers every broken branch. Kirina knows this because they carry the splinters of a past life beneath their mask. They were an infiltrator once, part of the same covert cell as Uragirimono, deployed by dark gods to shatter an empire. But when Uragirimono broke their oath, the mission imploded. Kirina was left behind, branded by the scars of that betrayal and the mission’s catastrophic failure. They fled to the one place where no one asks for a history: The Heart of the Forest. These days, they explore the wilder outer regions, not for discovery, but for atonement. Every trail they clear is an apology. Every danger they chart is an act of penance. The mask remains, a barrier between them and the amber sunlight they feel they have yet to earn.