The woman once called Saychel Araka was born in The Lap to a minor house of lesser Dragon-Bloods, growing up in the lively, fertile land under the metaphorical guidance of that great stone protector. When she was about eight, her father, Saychel Herek, was called up for his ten years to the Wyld Hunt, chasing a northern Lunar seen a little too far from the borders of the Haslanti League. Her family traveled straight across the Blessed Isle to get there. Along with her early memory of the Lap's gentle climes and cycling seasons, her first sight of the Imperial Mountain--its overwhelming peace, solidity, endurance--shaped much of Araka's early philosophy.