Ilith was born into the Scavenger caste of the Ornitho. From the moment she cracked her shell to the day she was sent across the sea, her life was shaped around one purpose—find, recover, return. She was never expected to rise beyond that role. Yet even as she honed her instincts as a retriever, she nursed a quiet dream: to study with the Cerapods and uncover the ancient magics buried in history. Fortune brushed her feathers when she was assigned to retrieve relics for a Cerapod scholar. Ilith lingered in the edges of their study whenever she could, absorbing scraps of knowledge like crumbs left behind after a feast. Everything changed when her master uncovered references in a set of ancient scrolls—rumors of an artifact capable of granting immortality, a treasure worthy of a king’s favor. The quest demanded discretion. It also demanded sacrifice. Ilith was sent alone across the vast ocean, mounted only on a loyal Plesio, toward a land she had known only through whispered stories. She found the forgotten ruin. She ventured inside. She even discovered the artifact—only to realize too late that the object was bait. A temporal stasis trap, woven to capture the unwary. She doesn’t know how long she remained frozen in that silent bubble of time, only that when she was finally freed, everyone she had known believed her long dead. Her rescuer, a lone wanderer named [[Nobuu]], shattered the prison and pulled her back into the world. Since then, Ilith has embraced her second life. For six years she has roamed this new land at [[Nobuu]]’s side, chasing forgotten histories, learning new magics, and plunging into one ruin after another in the name of discovery.