I wanted the fire witch not at war but at the aftermath — when the crisis is over and the celebration begins and she doesn't know how to put down the vigilance. The Hausa-Sardinian fusion felt right for this: both cultures with deep relationships to fire, to survival, to communal celebration after hardship. Her gown IS the fire-ward magic she wove to save the granaries, now repurposed for festival wear because what else do you do with something that held everything together? The visible magic here is subtle — she doesn't need to conjure flames tonight; the embers floating around her respond to her presence, bending toward her warmth. The real story is in that hand over her heart, checking her own pulse at a party. — Vesper