Sheng Xiao

When a little axolotl egg tumbled into Sheng Xiao’s brood, she didn’t ask where it came from. She simply took it in. When it hatched, she named the creature Calamity and taught it to bend mana into forms both beautiful and dangerous.

Now her child is loose on Praetoria, copying faces, unraveling alliances, leaving bodies behind. The Riftwatchers want her dead.

So Sheng Xiao has sided with the Conclave Arcana—not because she trusts them, not because she seeks the secret of Praetoria, but because if someone is going to dig it up, it might as well be those who’ve promised to protect her child instead of those who would see Calamity fall.

She’ll play her part. She’ll guard the mages and guide their expeditions. And if Portia betrays her? Well. Sheng Xiao survived the Splintering. She’s seen the rise and fall of countless kings and queens, emperors and empresses. She’ll see one more.

For now, she watches. She waits. And when her daughter calls, she will come.