Brynna

Behind every firework, there's a dragon who packed the black powder and the metal salts. For Runescorch (the Magnificent), this dragon is Brynna. She's the brains behind his charisma, an expert in explosives who devises ever prettier ways of blowing things up. Brynna assembles every rocket used in his shows, which can end up being quite a few when Runescorch is feeling particularly excessive.

Brynna wasn't originally in the fireworks business. Her adventures in explosions started with the archeologists of her home, the earth flight. She worked with the digging teams, providing the blasting powder to loosen stone and create controlled landslides. Tunneling through the earth is dangerous business, and no matter how many support beams you install, the threat of collapse is always hanging above you. Brynna knows for a fact that she never got anyone crushed. She also knows for a fact that she did accidentally blow up quite a few old skeletons and various artefacts. Set a dig back months by collapsing an entire natural cavern too. That one wasn't even her fault, as far as she's concerned. The dig leader said they'd ventilated out all the natural gas, and they sure hadn't.

But regardless, she's not allowed to work excavation anymore. And Runescorch, while very entertaining, has absolutely no idea how to run a business. The guy is almost literally loading rockets full of treasure and launching them into the sky to rain upon the crowds. He would probably do that for real too, if Brynna wasn't around to stop him. She is though, with a heavy stick to bonk him with when he's getting particularly over-exuberant.

In truth, Brynna doesn't stick around for the fireworks. Runescorch is just her cover story for her real business of smuggling explosives. Yes, fireworks are explosives, but she builds and smuggles larger ones. Much larger ones. Enough blasting powder to take down entire buildings, packed into something small enough for a fae to carry. (Just barely.) Since moving to the Starfall Isles, she's started trying to incorporate the instability of arcane crystals into her explosives, to middling success. Some of the bombs end up more powerful, but most simply explode if moved too quickly. Or if they can tell you dropped your guard around them.

Runescorch's constant traveling really is the perfect cover for her operations. He's already bringing a cartload of explosives around with him anyways, so nobody will question why there's a lot more of it than is probably needed. Most of a clan will be watching the show, so Brynna can make her deals with those who aren't while the rest are distracted. And even if someone did stumble upon them, she's an explosives expert. She can make smoke bombs to escape with in her sleep. She keeps a few in her bags at all times, and an additional, colourful one under her hat. That one's for use in more casual circumstances, such as escaping an old snapper's long, boring stories.

Despite the vast quantities of powder she smuggles, Brynna's not quite sure if Runescorch has ever realized what she's doing. Perhaps he has, and he just doesn't care. He's always happy to have new crowds to entertain, after all. Which is nice, because it means Brynna doesn't have to find excused for booking more shows back in Ashfall. Runescorch likes visiting his home — convenient, because Brynna's got some meetings with the rebels to get to. They're always buying.

Amazingly, not everything Brynna does is related to blowing stuff up. In fact, Sorrel will sometimes recruit her for assistance in doing the exact opposite. It turns out that when explosives are your specialty, you also have a good idea of what not to do to keep an alchemical experiment stable. Brynna doesn't quite understand the magical side of alchemy, but she does know when combining the contents of two bottles is going to blow the whole lab apart. And experimenting with Sorrel is a great way to discover new compounds for colouring her fireworks. One day, the skies will be filled with colours that most beings' eyes won't even be able to comprehend!

An ice pick might seem like odd equipment for her profession, but it's invaluable for Brynna. Everything needs to be well secured while travelling, or the entire ship or wagon will quickly be found in pieces. To be fair, it'll be found in pieces anyways, but they'll be well-secured pieces. A much easier sort of piece to find later and throw at Runescorch while chewing him out for blowing everything up again.