Role

Chapter 1

Much of Renize's personality was influenced by her eight elder brothers and sisters.
She was born the last kit of the last litter her mother and father produced.
Renize's parents still live in Hamsah Mu'Tazz, but she and her siblings have
scattered to every corner of Thera. To remain close to them, she fashioned a piece
of jewelry to represent each sibling, so she can remember them despite the distance.

The first litter had a lot to live up to. Mother and Father planned that they take
the family business to the four corners of Thera, and groomed them for this task
from their first stumbling steps. Rhauen, he's the ruby, he is the eldest of them,
and I remember him less as a brother and more as...an authority figure? Rhauen was
always just a little Father, taking his work so seriously, and I guess it did
wonders for him. He's to the north, overseeing purchases for a mining operation we
own a part of. Then there's Myriff, my eldest sister. She's sapphire, and she
always made sure the little sisters were fine and clean and pretty and proper.
Myriff got married, along with my other eldest sister, Efthairre (she's the
diamond) to a pair of brothers from Seantryn Modan who own a shipping company.
They're rich and comfortable which is always the life they wanted. The emerald?
He's my other brother from the first litter, Thavis. I think the pressure to go be
rich and proper was always too much for him. He ran off to ranger in the frozen
wastes years before any of the others left.

My parents, of course, couldn't just stop expanding their little empire, so they
had two more litters. The middle group, they saw a lot less discipline growing up
than did the older four. Ketherr, the amethyst, he has been an apprentice butcher
since forever. I don't know if he'll ever get his own shop, but it's been his
dream. Pyrille and Nochelle, the topaz and pearl, my sisters, they taught me so
much of my artistry. I'd never have learned to work enamel without them. I'm so
grateful! They run a little mobile shop along the caravans, selling trinkets and
souvenirs, pretty little things like that. I worked in it for a bit before...

I'm a twin, did you know? Mother and Father wanted just one more litter, so they
wound up with me and Rashaze. Onyx. He's a few minutes older than me. Makes me
the baby of the family. We grew up so close, when we were tiny kits, but he fell
in with a group of boys. I never liked them much. They bullied me and they
changed Rashaze. I remember...