Qai Chia
Qai’natha “Qai” Chia is easy to spot in a crowd: A young human woman of quality adorned in the latest fashions. Her dark hair is always elegantly done up, and her make up—though simple and in taste—is never smudged. Shrewd brown eyes brighten her face, as does her ever-present polite smile. Those of a lesser class might think her nothing more than an airy socialite—she never misses a social event—but her peers are often surprised by her adept conversation and fervent political views: She talks numbers, exchange rates, and other’s trade agreements with shrewdness, but she is most shocking for her adamant demand for working-class rights, regular patrols, and a justice system that defends the poor and working class. She commands the room in discussions on these topics, her cheerful countenance surprisingly changed to a fiery fervor. Somewhat scandalously, she has even been known to don workman’s garb while visiting the mines themselves, both to sell her fine-leaf tobacco directly to her customers but also to discuss their various struggles.
Her peers in Eronia allow such eccentricities largely because they pity her tragic tale: Qai’natha Chia is the only surviving member of the Chia estate. When Ehlonna Chia—a wealthy tobacco and tea merchant from Waterdeep—decided to establish a shop in the newest boomtown, the caravan was beset by monsters, killing everyone. Only Qia survived. She stumbled into town on a limping horse pulling a wagon of fine tobacco and tea. She immediately made connections with Nimune Haste —Ehlonna had carried with her a letter of introduction from a fellow Merchant in Waterdeep—and Qai has since used Nimune’s charity as a launching point into Eronian society, telling all who would listen that her mother’s dying wish was to establish the family business in these gods-forsaken mountains.
But Qai’natha Chia’s flashy exterior guards a secret: she is a fraud. She is not, in fact, Qai Chia at all. She was Navali Dirthcrown, born and raised a servant on the Chia estate. She was a darling favorite of the Chia family, who quickly recognized her wit and passion. Trained in letters and numbers, she had been serving as Ehlonna’s junior accountant and secretary. The same age, Qai’natha and Navali had been raised as friends, and it was long assumed that when Qai inherited the family business, Navali would continue on as chief accountant and steward. When the caravan was attacked, Navali had been injured and left for dead but woke to find her friends and employers—her whole life—slaughtered. Devastated, Navali picked through the wreckage of her life, and realizing that she now had nothing, she devised a cunning plan: She would continue on to Mythrite, assuming the identity and fortunes of her deceased friend and mistress. And so, she became Qai Chia.
Written by Scott Russell Morris, www.skoticus.com
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