Rusty

Before the Water Wars, Rust was the youngest graduate of Valdros Academy of Steamworks — a prodigy who designed atmospheric water condensers powered by clockwork. Her machines could pull moisture from thin air. The city called her a miracle worker. Then the war came. Not over land or gold — over?water. Nations bombed each other's reservoirs. The last great river, the Aqueron, was poisoned in a desperate final strike. Within a decade: no rain, no rivers, no mercy. Rust watched her city crumble. Her condensers couldn't extract what no longer existed. Her mentor, Old Man Fenwick, died trying to protect their last working prototype. She escaped with his goggles, a half-finished mechanical arm prototype grafted to her right shoulder, and a single blueprint she still can't bring herself to finish — a machine that might, one day, bring water back.