Nobuomi

The ceaseless wind of The Dragon Wastelands tastes of ozone and old sorrows, a flavor Nobuomi knows intimately. They once carried different messages, sealed scrolls whose elegant calligraphy disguised orders for ambushes and betrayals. They were a favored courier for a charismatic leader whose mask transformed them in plain sight. Nobuomi delivered the final message and saw its result: a frontier village silenced not by swords, but by a creeping, unnatural fear. That day, they broke their oath and fled. The crimson flicker that haunts their eyes is a brand from that service, a reminder of the lies they once peddled as truth. They fear meeting Shinpi again, not for the demon's power, but because they know how persuasive that voice can be. Each delivery now is penance—a map to a hidden spring, a warning of a coming storm—a single step on a long road back from damnation.