Aphelion

Glittering smoke eddies from Aphelion's lantern, carrying the scent of frankincense and myrrh. Gentle chimes sound as she angles her wings to feel the sunlight clash against shadow. She knows the way leaves shape light into dappled shade. She can tell the tulip poplar from the elm from the sycamore, and no leaf matches the shadow she feels laid against the light.

A bright golden arrow is drawn. No one must trespass on her holy ground, on the faded whitestone monument built to her, to the light, under the dappled shade trees. The bright golden arrow is released.

Aphelion is a priestess of the sun. While born to parents on Sorineth, she is closer to a spirit than a normal dragon, fading in and out of the light like mist on the wind. She protects an old, rundown temple near the Beacon the Radiant Eye dedicated to the lesser gods of light and to the Sun. Her eyes are blind, but being magical, takes power from the contrast of dark and light to locate targets. In dark spaces or at night, the smoke from her lantern glows and wreaths around potential dangers.

Those who have seen Aphelion say her presence has a dreamlike quality. The scented smoke and gentle chimes are calming, and she comes in and out of view like a mirage. Those rare few who have heard her speak say that she refers to the temple as 'she,' and presumably the gods to which the temple was built. During the time of Sorineth's orbit in which it is furthest from the Sun, her form becomes more corporeal, and so her namesake became Aphelion.