Mitch A. Avita

Salis Riveria is a triton who was hatched in the city of glass (located in the elemental plane of water) living there until she was around eight years old. At a young age her father passed away while working for the crimson shell. He was a loyal and brave paladin who died in active duty fighting to fulfil his oath to protect the home of his beloved wife and child. Salis’ mother, stricken with grief and no longer feeling safe without the presence of her husband, set to travel to meet her brother who worked as an undersea sage in the Pirate Isle in the material plane. (located in the sea of fallen stars, Baldur's Gate). Getting to the material plane was smooth sailing, the city of glass has teleportation portals that connect to the other plans to ensure safe travel. Settling into the new home was easy in theory, with Salis’ uncle (mothers' brother) being a well trusted member of society, work and education opportunities were easy to come by, but the unspoken weight and coldness of grief lingered. Salis, while struggling to juggle her own grief and her mother, was also struggling to come to terms with the body she was growing into. The heavy expectation of growing up to be like her father only added more to that weight. As much as she loved her father, becoming like him was not something she imagined for herself. Salis thought her body was wrong, a joke made by a cruel god as none of the other children around her understood her feelings, she felt alone and strange. Salis looked up to her uncle, a hardworking and intelligent Triton by the name of Zolos Glassth, who held no prejudice or resentment towards Salis when she opened about her feelings of herself, and feeling like she was born into the wrong body. To him, she was just his niece, no questions asked, and he knew his sister very well, and never said a word to her. Salis mother found work as a trader selling traditional home remedies, going between her home and their old home to trade to different crowds. Because of this, salis and her mother spent little time with each other, often staying with her uncle when she was too young to help her mother's business. The time spent with her uncle catapulted her love for books and everything magical, with no known sorcerer blood in her family, the only hope she had of gaining magic was to start learning as soon as possible. By the age of fifteen Salis became distant from her mother and grew much closer to her uncle Zolos. She would often spend time in the Grand Library that Zolos managed, that housed history, arcane knowledge, and her favourite, tales of dragons that roamed the land above, a land she had never visited before. She read every new book on magic, dragons and adventure that she could get her hands on, her uncle would always look so proud. When she turned sixteen, she started working part-time in Zolos library. While helping her mother make herbal medicines for her travelling cart. By seventeen she had started travelling with her mother, but their bond never strengthened. At eighteen Salis started presenting feminine. Growing her hair, still dressing the same and slowly switching to wearing blouses, wearing more jewellery, and the slightest bit of makeup. At nineteen she worked less at the library and more with her mother, allowing her to explore her old home a little bit more. Wandering into monasteries and book houses searching for archives and little hidden gems others wouldn't even glance at. At twenty-one, Salis was wandering her old home, waving hello at traders who recognised her and old friends of her mother that gave her sad smiles and nods. She wandered down a street she had not been before and stumbled upon a quaint little reading room - “City of Glass, Home of Stories”. When she opened the door, the bell dinging softly, she set eyes upon a beautiful sea elf by the name of Caspien Rumren, sitting lazily behind the front desk. Long white hair fell softly over his shoulders, accompanies by bright blue eyes that complimented his peppermint blue skin.

They talked for a while, engaging in conversations about their love for literature and the arcane. He was a sorcerer, helping the town and traders pass through planes safely when they didn't have enough people, but he mostly took care of the bookstore for most of his time. Every time she visited the city, she always found her legs taking her to the little bookhouse, time passed and conversations grew deeper, more meaningful, and they opened to each other more. Caspien saw her as she had always wanted to be seen, she opened up about her struggles at home, her struggles with her identity, and with his arcane abilities and connections, he knew he could help her change into who she was on the inside, it would take time, but she was thankful. Salis stopped working at Zolos library part time and helped her mother travel on while her way to work at her new job, working with Caspien in the Book house. Her and her mother never grew closer, only talking when needing to, her mother hardly noticed the changes going on, but her uncle did, and again, never said a word to her mother and supported her through it. At age twenty-three Salis knew what she wanted and who she was, fully comfortable within herself. She wanted to leave the pirate isle and go back to her home city, to move in with Caspien. She knew she had everything she needed in her homeland, with Caspien, whom she fell deeply in love with, he in love with her too. She had a job lined up, taking care of the book house, allowing Caspien more time to help the citizens and traders of the city travel safely, which was a heftier pay rise too. She said this all to Zolos, who was happy but wary, and in private Salis introduced Caspien to Zolos who then happily gave him his blessing to take his niece to her new home.

On Salis' twenty fourth birthday, with the company of her uncle, she told her mother everything that she had kept from her. She told her that she had a loving boyfriend in the sea of glass and that she was planning to move there in the coming week. If the shock of her having a boyfriend while being a 'boy' wasn't enough to almost give her a heart attack, Salis telling her she wasn't a boy, might just have finished the job. Arguments ensued, her mother felt betrayed by her daughter and her brother, having not known all these years. Salis' mother finally took a good look at her once son for the first time in a long time. Salis’ once strong face was now softer. Rather than being messy and unkept, her hair shoulder length hair was now curling and waving, adorned with coral clips and beads. Her eyes were still her father's eyes, and her nose still her mothers, but she still looked like a stranger. Salis mother refused to give her daughter her blessing to move and be with her lover and refused to accept her as the daughter she always had but never seen. Salis was rightfully distraught and left early, taking her belongings to go to Caspien. her uncle protested, it wasn't safe to go alone, and the magic had recently been unstable, she did not listen. She left to the nearest temple and took a portal to the elemental plane to be with Caspien, wanting the comfort of her boyfriend after the rejection of her mother. When she was let through the portal something happened, the magic of the gate was interrupted, somehow, and Salis was not where she was meant to be. Instead of standing on the flat stone, in the guild near Caspian's home, she was floating in an endless sea of black and dark blue. Her eyes settled onto the unfamiliar land around her, coral like none other she had seen, city ruins, ship wreckages and water darker and heavier than she had ever felt. Her skin was tight as she struggled to move. She did not feel alone.