A mage of the Order of the Falling Sky, Li'asusra is a big contemplative man, who plumbs the depths of the magical arts. He also has a side-business buying and selling magical trinkets, some of which he manufactures himself. Others he trades for or sells on consignment from his colleagues.

Li-asusra is a widower with a daughter named Jelsin-asusra, who is full grown, and herself a member of the Shavik Order. He has been courting a woman named Saret for several months. His elderly father Jin-asusra, a retired greengrocer (and locally renowned raconteur), lives with Li-asusra, and is a thorn in his side, always chiding him about his choice of wizardly order.

As a master, Li-asusra is supposed to take on an apprentice, and has done so. But the individual he recruited from the Shavik Order, a lanky lad named Orchiln, has recently informed him that he intends to recind his apprenticeship and attempt to return to the Shavik Order. This is trouble for Li-asusra for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that he'll have to try to find a new apprentice.