Hane Shirabe
Sarcastic but fundamentally loyal. Loves the freedom of the Middle Sky and sides with neither power.
A Shimobe smuggler. Flying between sky and earth, they broker the meeting between Sora and Tsuchi.
Backstory
Hane, a Shimobe smuggler flying between The Canopy Isles and The Root Realm, is one of the people who best knows the reality of both civilizations. Delivering Root Realm delicacies to upper-island nobles and carrying banned books from The Canopy Isles to Root Realm scholars.
Hane, who has felt the omens of The Great Fall as changes in Middle Sky air currents in their body, brokers the meeting between Sora and Tsuchi. They insist "it's business," but the actual motivation is a pressing sense of crisis about the collapse of the Middle Sky — The Canopy Isles falling means the disappearance of the Middle Sky itself.