Dairou

In The Teikodian Empire, sunlight is a currency; it buys loyalty and blinds citizens to the shadows beneath the golden spires. Dairou grew up in those shadows, a trainee in the lower districts where promises were cheap. They weren't born a fighter, but they learned fast. The scar that split their brow wasn't from a training mishap; it was a price. Cornered during a border patrol, a strange energy answered their panic—a pull from somewhere else, cold and alien, much like the power whispered to flow through the alchemist Itame. It saved their life but left them with a connection they didn't ask for and couldn't sever. Since that day, Dairou squints at everyone, from officials to street vendors, searching for the strings attached to every kind word. The Red Fox beanie, a gift from a childhood friend, is the only thing they trust to be exactly what it seems.