Chiori the Dusty

Should a traveler ask why Chiori’s specs are always coated in a fine powder, the locals would point to their wanderings. But the dust isn't from the road. It's from their beginning. They remember the deep, dreamless silence of being part of the mountain in The Crystal Highlands of Armaria, patient and unthinking for ages uncounted. Then Hogo-sha was summoned. The mountain guardian’s power spilled over, an unintended surge that cracked the stone Chiori was bound within. They woke up, and the shock of that moment never left their face. They traded an eternity of peace for a lifetime of reaction, of flinching at every sudden noise. The dust is a constant reminder of the quiet they can never get back.