Ashya

Ashya is a young woman from Drethen, Tavean, currently apprenticing under the town's tinkerer. She is the first person to welcome Duara Bago and her father Gaul to Drethen, having already anticipated their arrival before Duara ever knocked on a door.

Ashya was born and raised in Drethen. Her father is the town's miller and her mother is the baker. Her uncle Vallen is the blacksmith, and her aunt Paele is the chandler. Her family pushed her toward the tinkerer's trade, and she is currently apprenticing under him, though she admits she never quite arrived at the craft on her own terms.

She is a familiar presence in the woods surrounding Drethen, regularly walking alone to the creek that runs near the hillside cabin. It was on one of these walks, a few summers prior, that she first came across the cabin and identified it as a Bramphian safe house from the Runners she observed passing through.

Ashya is forthcoming to a fault — she tends to speak past her own comfort and then catch herself mid-sentence, circling back to apologize for information she has already shared. She is perceptive and quick to make connections, having deduced both Duara's origins from the scarring atop her ears and the presence of Gaul from the lit hearth, before either was confirmed to her. She holds genuine warmth for the people of Drethen, naming the tinkerer's ongoing affections for Aleuwin the tanner, Vellay the barmaid, and Grielle the cooper as the kind of daily texture that keeps her from wanting to leave — though the wanting is there.

She walks with easy confidence, at one point holding a full conversation while traveling backwards on an uneven path.

Ashya encounters Duara at the creek on her first morning in Drethen and wastes no time in introducing herself, offering directions to her home and then promptly volunteering to guide Duara through town herself. She notices the scarring on Duara's ears and, without pressing, signals quietly that she understands something of what it means.

When Duara comes to Drethen looking for help with the cabin's broken door hinge, Ashya reveals that she had already asked Vallen to forge a replacement weeks earlier, during one of her visits to the empty cabin. Rather than wait for Gaul to find a solution, she retrieves the hinge and installs it herself.

• Duara Bago — New friend; cabin dweller on the hill
• Gaul — Duara's father; met briefly at the cabin
• Vallen — Uncle; blacksmith
• Paele — Aunt; chandler
• Yarrundal — Mentor; master she apprentices under

• Drethen
• Tavean
• Bramphians