Oh boy... is this story getting crazy as we slowly head into the FINAL FINAL arc.
Clove's mother, Saya (or the Azure Dragon's image of her) appears in episode 237.
I realized this was the first time I was able to draw her NOT in a flashback but actually interacting with other characters so it seemed like a really cool fresh scene. Despite Saya being gone, the dragon's relics do retain memories and characteristics of the characters up to their final moments. I really wanted to capture the ferocity the other characters speak of when they describe her.
Saya's design is REALLY similar to Clove (something I mildly regret since I was starting out and wanted to make it super obvious they were related lol) but I did try to give her sharper/darker features. She is also one of the only characters to have slit pupils (not shown here well) which I think make her look a lot more alien and more reptile-like. ^^
Anyways, I hope you enjoy this little rendering process because oh boy those effects took me a long time!