Sorceress Xandra

Xandra was not born to power, which is the whole problem. She was born adjacent to it: close enough to watch it handed out, never close enough to be handed any. She learned early that talent is a slow road and patronage is a locked door, and that neither of those is true of a bargain. She started small. A favor traded, a secret sold, a name whispered into the dark to see what answered. Something answered. Since then she has made a career of finding the seam in people — the ambition they're ashamed of, the resentment they've never said aloud — and widening it until they walk through on their own feet. She rarely has to push. She considers pushing inelegant. She does not think of herself as evil. She thinks of herself as honest about what everyone already wants. Her contracts are always accurate, and always worse than they read. The demons she deals with find her difficult, because she negotiates like someone who has already accepted the cost and is now simply haggling over the receipt