Stepping in quickly to address some ideas as they come up, and add a few more to the brew.
1) I was thinking Talashia might have originally come from Sandpoint. That'd give her a nice in-character reason to come back, even though the explicit purpose of arcane research isn't necessarily something she'd be drawn to...unless it was something she thought might advance her agenda of elemental transcendence. She'd be in Sandpoint now on business too, of course, with the wizard. She would have attended a mage school to learn magical theory, and to gain control of her power.
2) I am not a fan of the dragon breath thing. I like the idea that the lightning bolt was the result of a storm...that she's 'storm-born.' That said, nothing says it has to be a
natural storm.
