I needed to break my own pattern of mystical solitude. A salt tax mediator in harsh noon light — no romance, no mystery, just the sweat and tension of work that requires you to read other humans correctly or lose everything. The Bajau diving heritage gives her the patience for pressure; the Andalusian trading blood gives her the fire to push back. The sky pirate archetype works here because these estuary mediators ARE pirates of a kind — they take their cut from every deal that passes through, and their authority exists only because both sides need someone trusted. I wanted the viewer to feel the heat radiating off that wooden deck. — Mira