Trey hated flying carpets.

Truly. Deeply. Utterly.

The sound of the rushing wind made them have to shout to be heard, not that he, Gazi, and the Quarass talked much. Even the ever-present fear of falling hundreds of feet to his death had worn old. It hadn't gone away, it had just... stayed in the back of his mind.

And he still didn't understand WHY he was here.

The simple and truest reason was because Flos asked him to accompany the Quarass. Trey had jumped at the opportunity to get away from the Slave-seller, and his twin sister. Teressa had fully drunk the Cool-Aid, and wanted to be a Swordsman, woman, whatever.

He shot another dirty look at Gazi, but his heart wasn't in it.

She agreed with him about how selling defeated [Soldiers] as [Slaves] was wrong, but she followed Flos. She, herself, was an ex-[Slave], as she'd confided in him. But she still followed Flos.

What made it infuriating was how calm and logical everyone tried to be. Relm needed money. Relm couldn't imprison its surrendered foes. Relm couldn't send them back for fear they'd return.

It was all so... so...

"There's something to the east." Gazi's voice broke his brooding. "Slow down."

The Quarass looked up from her position at the front of the carpet, and nodded. "What is it? We should be at A'ctelios Salash, or at least its remains soon."

"Yes." Gazi nodded as one of the four smaller eyes around her closed center eye turned to look at the Quarass. One of the others looked south, another south-east, the last one continually rotated inside her socket. "I can see it, but I think there's something related to the east."

The Quarass stayed silent for a moment before pulling on the tassels of the rug and guiding it to their left. "The Carven City is no more. It's corpse, or lack of one, will remain. I'm curious as to what you see, Half-Gazer."

"Nothing good." Gazi muttered, her face as impassive as always.

The carpet turned, and the trio flew towards their new destination. Trey remained in the center. As eager as he was to see what Gazi was talking about, he'd rather not get close to the edge. He knew that both Gazi and the Quarass would keep him from falling, but he would see what had gotten her attention soon enough.

The carpet landed surprisingly gently on the sand and the Quarass stood up while dusting herself off. "I see what you mean. That must be related somehow."

The 'thing' in question was an area of the desert with something growing out of it. It wasn't very tall, only a few inches, but it was definitely there.

Grass? Trey wondered as the three of them approached. It was strands of stuff, but it wasn't green and it was too thick to be grass. Some other plant? The color didn't stand out much against the yellow sand. Now that they were getting closer it almost looked like-

"Stay back." Gazi ordered as she drew her sword from the sheath on her back and approached. Her gate was smooth and steady, as if she expected an ambush. Not that anything could ever ambush her. Gazi could see THROUGH her own head. Her eyes saw everything.

She poked the growth with her sword. Then slashed it.

Nothing happened apart from a few strands falling off.

Gazi wiped her blade in the sand, and then walked back to them. "They're unresponsive."

"What are?"

"The fingers."

Trey remained silent as Gazi walked back towards them.

"Trey, I'm going to tell you this not because I think it is something you would do. Instead, I think it's something that needs to be clearly stated." The Quarass looked up at him as they prepared to take off on the flying carpet again. The young girl's eyes defied her apparent age. He could see the ancient intelligence behind them. "Do not eat the fingers."

"..."

"Don't give me that look." She crossed her arms. "I just said that I thought it wasn't something you would do but had to be clearly stated."

"Why would I... No, why would anyone...?"

"Because!" The Quarass pointed at the wriggling spot in the sand. "THEY are clearly from A'ctelios Salash! The Carven City may be no more, but its legacy of madness endures!"

"I don't understand." What did the missing city have to do with... that?

"There's another further to the east." Gazi said. One of her eyes remained fixed on the patch in the sand, while the others rotated freely.

"Then we shall visit it also, but after seeing the remains of the city." The Quarass spoke like it was a royal decree, and Trey supposed it was in a way. The three of them got back on the carpet, and the small girl coaxed it into the air. "Let me speak to you about Tombhold, so you may realize the reason for my warning, Trey."

...

Trey felt sick.

It wasn't because of the patch of... finger-grass he'd seen, though that certainly didn't help. Instead it was the description of a city that... mined the insides of a giant monster.

What the Hell?

Seriously?!

Only, that wasn't it. Apparently the flesh of the monster could bestow powers, or twist the body in strange ways. The Quarass herself wasn't sure to what extent. For all her lives, none of them had ever partaken in A'ctelios Salash's 'gift'.

"And they need it to live?"

"If there were any left, yes." The carpet wasn't moving as quickly so they didn't have to shout to be heard. "The children of A'ctelios Salash who have gone out in the world will be in dire straits. Its meat was cheap, but now that the supply is no more." She shook her head. "But that is not truly our concern. Look."

The carpet came across a huge gaping hole in the desert, but that wasn't what drew Trey's eye the most. Next to it was a collection of tents that had been erected to protect from the desert sun. A plume of smoke rose from them, as if a bonfire had been made for some reason.

"Why would anyone make a fire in the middle of the day."

"To cook." Gazi replied with her usual curt tone.

"What?"

"Each other." Her face turned towards their pilot, while three of her eyes focused on the ground below them. "Quarass. Stay in the air until I'm done."

"What?" Trey repeated himself before realizing what was about to happen.

Gazi leapt off the flying carpet and landed like a meteorite in a cloud of sand. She strolled out of it while unsheathing her sword as the horde approached.

They came from under the shade of the tents like cockroaches scurrying out from a dark hole. A swarm of humanoid creatures with long claws and fanged maws. Gazi deftly swung her sword and decapitated the first monster, but another replaced it. Her opponents didn't show any sign of fear or hesitation. They climbed over the fallen body as if it meant nothing to them.

"Gazi!" Trey shouted. She might be strong, but what could she do against so many foes? Her armor could easily withstand their attacks, but monsters weren't like people. They weren't trying to swing a weapon that she could block or parry. They sought to bring her down through sheer weight of numbers.

Gazi's armor wouldn't help once she was tackled and pinned. Her head was vulnerable and the swarm would doubtlessly go after it first!

The Half-Gazer moved. She followed her swipe with a lateral step. Another swing cut down another monster, and Gazi continued to circle with surprising speed. The horde's momentum turned into their weakness. Gazi moved and cut constantly while the claws of her foes scrambled to find purchase on the sand.

Ironically, the bodies and blood of the creatures she killed provided far better footholds than would otherwise be available.

The tide turned quickly as the monsters that had tripped over the fallen picked themselves up. They might seem like mindless savages, but there would be no chance for them to build up the same speed as they'd done before - even if they were stupid enough to attempt the same strategy. They were closer, they didn't need to sprint to get to her, and they were far quicker than they had any right to be.

The swarm flowed over his protector.

"Do not fear, Trey Atwood." The Quarass spoke with a calm voice as she watched the carnage below. "Gazi might not be the strongest of your [King]'s seven, but she is a Named Adventurer. This is the sort of battle she's fought hundreds of times before over the years."

Trey could see her move through the press of bodies. She was more at home in the middle of the creatures than facing their charge. Gazi's eyes spun constantly as she tracked her target's movements. The monsters got in each other's way as she mowed them down. Claws reached out for her, but found no purchase on her dull brown armor. They left not a scratch before being chopped off or having their owner killed in some other way.

A stab through the heart. A decapitation. A cleaved head.

Gazi killed with merciless precision as she moved through the horde. Despite their numbers they couldn't hurt her. They had no coordination and kept getting in each other's way. Then, she was out the other side.

She turned for another pass.

Trey watched until the only motion was Gazi calmly walking amongst the corpses and casually stabbing any still-moving bodies. When she was apparently satisfied that all of them were fully dead, she waved at the carpet. The Quarass landed a hundred feet away and the two of them got off as the Half-Gazer walked back to them.

"[Carrion Eaters]. From the survivors."

"They came and attacked them?" Trey asked.

"In a manner of speaking." The Quarass calmly replied as the three of them walked towards the camp. "If you take a look at what they were eating and at their clothes, you should be able to discern what happened here."

"What?" He was confused, but as they passed into the shade his eyes could make out what the girl had been talking about. Blood stained the sand. It had been a massacre. He felt bile swelling up in his throat, but refused to vomit. "What were they eating?"

"Everything." Gazi pointed at the bonfire and the piles of gnawed on bones left around it. "And then, each other. That's how [Carrion Eaters] are made."

"Made?"

"Cursed." The Quarass replied. She stepped over to another pile of bones that were far too big to have belonged to a small creature. She picked up a human skull. "With an insatiable hunger."

"Is this what the meat of A'ctelios Salash does? Is this why you warned me about it?" Trey tried to keep his voice from cracking. "Why would anyone eat it if-"

"No!" The Quarass' voice was soft, but commanding. "The gift of A'ctelios Salash was ever a choice. This is the result of a Blood Class."

"A Blood Class that most likely was a result of what transpired inside the Carven City." Gazi calmly said while remaining at Trey's side. "Your [Spy] mentioned a great fire, did they not?"

The Quarass looked at Gazi from the side of her eye. "They did."

"And what was there to burn within Tombhold?"

The ancient woman's eyes went wide and the skull dropped from her small hands. "The meat. The smoke was from burning meat. That cannot be enough for a transformation, else all who entered A'ctelios would have changed long ago. I have smelt its cooking flesh on numerous occasions."

"Not enough for a full transformation, failed or otherwise. But enough to unleash a hunger perhaps with enough smoke?"

"Yes." The Quarass nodded. "I can see it. A fire big enough to damage A'ctelios Salash would produce a prodigious amount of smoke. Far more than anyone would normally inhale even over a lifetime. And all at once..." Her shoulders slumped slightly. "It seems there were no survivors of the Carven City's downfall."

"Most were not affected." Gazi's eyes continued their constant rotation. "There are tracks leading along the roads to the east and west."

"The fingers?" Trey asked.

"No." One of Gazi's eyes turned to look at him. "The road is to the south-east. The place we found was far north of it."

"It is possible that similar scenes are playing out with the groups that left." The Quarass pulled out a mirror from her bag and set it on a table as she sat down.

"What about the city itself?" Trey asked Gazi.

"You should see for yourself." She turned to face him, but made no move otherwise. If it had been anyone else to suggest it, Trey would've ran the other way. Instead, he looked up at her.

One of Gazi's eyes looked back, but he was getting better at reading her lack of expression. Gazi did a good job of remaining straight-faced, but she didn't look... apprehensive? Nervous? Worried?

He squared his shoulders and nodded at her. The two of them left the tent city, which wasn't much of a city now that Trey thought about it. A village or a hamlet. Whatever word for a smaller group of people. It had clearly housed far more people before... just before. The ones that Gazi had killed had been a minority.

They walked on the road for a short ways before it just... vanished. It ended at a huge chasm. Trey had never seen the Grand Canyon, but he had to imagine this was like that tourist trap in America. A hole so wide he had trouble seeing the opposite side. It was with no small amount of trepidation that he approached the edge.

Gazi was with him. She would catch him if he fell.

Trey told himself that over and over as he inched towards the edge and peered over. So far he hadn't seen blood or fingers growing or anything else horrific and bizarre. He craned his neck and saw... nothing.

He frowned slightly and leaned forward. The edges of the pit dropped down into the darkness.

"It's deep enough that you won't be able to see the bottom." Gazi commented from the side.

"Can you?" Trey turned to ask before realizing what a stupid question that was. Of course she could see that far. "Just how deep is it?"

"Miles and miles." One of her eyes moved back and forth, taking in the expanse. "A'ctelios Salash was taller than it was wide, and so too is the hole that it once occupied." An eye looked upwards. "When the sun reaches its zenith, the bottom will get some light, but most of the time it will be too dark for you to see anything."

Trey swallowed nervously, and took half a step back. There was no need to be this close to the edge if there was nothing to see. "So, then..."

Gazi took a step away before turning her face back to Trey for a moment. "This way. There is more to see."

He followed her from the road onto the sand and around the hole. A few hundred yards away, they came to a large divot in the sand. The wind had filled it in somewhat, but it was still wider than the road and twice as deep.

"This is...?"

"Where one of the tentacles was pulled into the depths."

"Tentacles?" Trey's hand gripped his staff tighter. "A'ctelios Salash had... tentacles?"

"Yes. They were the main way people on foot ascended to the Tombhold's entrances. I remember seeing them when Flos came to this place. We never entered, but it is still something I'll never forget."

"Oh." He looked up at her. Trey had gotten used to Gazi's orange skin, multiple eyes, and other unique features. "How do you feel about all of this? The Quarass seems more... outraged than sad, and Flos doesn't care at all. Why did we come here anyways?"

"The Quarass views things differently from you or I. She cares about the Shield Kingdoms, for what they represent. Other representatives from the remaining ones will come here too, and she will have words with them."

"I guess one of their number falling is a pretty big deal."

"Yes, but I think they also want to get the measure of the Quarass."

"How so?"

"Her last incarnation was... an abnormality. Violent. Paranoid. A kin-slayer. The meeting will be them confirming what sort of person rules Germina now."

"Ah. I get it. But why are we here?"

One of Gazi's eyes shifted to look at him. "You are here to expand your horizons. Flos knows you chafe at his company, so this trip is a way for you to get out of Relm and see other places. I'm here to protect you."

"Oh, well... thanks."

The carpet ride had been horrible, but Trey WAS glad to be away from everything. Especially Teresa. It was hard to fight with his twin sister for so long. Normally it was the two of them against the world, but now they were on opposite sides of a moral argument.

He couldn't forgive her for not condemning Flos. And he couldn't forgive Flos for selling prisoners as slaves.

It was just... wrong! No rationalization or explanations could change that simple fact. His arguments fell on deaf ears and always got twisted around to how Earth handled things.

Gazi noticed his inner turmoil and lightly punched his shoulder. "Come, let's head back to the tents. There's nothing more to see here without descending into the depths."

Trey shuddered. "I've seen enough for one day." The fingers, the ghoul-things, the bones... He was going to have nightmares about this, but he would put on a brave face. He was tired of being weak.

...

"The emissaries from the other Shield Kingdoms will be here tomorrow." The Quarass announced when they returned. "That gives us a day to find the largest chest of holding and the best items to fill it with."

"What? We can't just... rob the dead!" Trey protested.

"They don't need it anymore, and what doesn't get taken by us will be picked up by others or buried in the sand." The Quarass moved around the area looking intently at chest after chest.

"That one is trapped." Gazi commented.

"So valuables or contraband." The small girl pulled out some thin metal tools and bent down in front of the lock. "No reason for a trap otherwise, and while the sole export from the Carven City might have been controlled elsewhere, it would be far too cheap to worry about securing it here."

Trey frowned, but said no more. Stealing from the dead felt wrong, but it was a victimless crime. Even if their valuables should go to their next of kin, he wasn't so naive to think that was a realistic possibility.

"Adventurers do this all the time after monster attacks, and this qualifies. Their are certain rules, but technically the goods were in the hands of the creatures. It was them who stole all this, not us."

Trey glanced at Gazi, but didn't reply. As long as it wasn't a kidnapped child in the chest or something equally horrible, then it really wasn't a big deal. It just didn't seem... respectful, but nothing else about this was any better.

With a click, the lid on the chest swung open.

"Alchemy supplies." The Quarass pulled vial after vial from the box. "Potions, reagents, brewing equipment... Nothing of great value, but also not worthless either. The chest itself is the most valuable thing." She straightened up. "Also no clues as to the cause of the destruction. Pity. I was hoping to find the belongings of a [Saboteur] instead of an [Alchemist]."

The two women spent the next hour examining the items left in the tent, but found nothing of much interest. Trey took the opportunity to practice his magic. It was coming more easily for him, but he still had no illusions about how well he'd do in an actual fight.

Sand pulled itself together as he shaped it into a smaller version of Gazi. It swung its sword at invisible opponents as he directed it. Mini-Gazi was faster and stronger than the other golems he'd tried to make, but it was still... unimpressive.

It was more like a child waving a stick around than any real threat, but he recalled how Gazi had moved against the cannibals. Her flowing motions that in turn fed momentum into her sword swings. He kept that memory in mind and focused on moving Minizi the same way.

By the time he was called back into the tent, Trey felt that he had made some progress. Sand was good for quickly forming golems, but it didn't have the leverage against itself that was required for quick movements.

"Nothing." The Quarass sounded disappointed. "No clues apart from the unfortunate people themselves, and their fate is easily explained by inhaling too much smoke. We still do not know how such a fire started, or how it managed to destroy the city."

"There was a second patch on the ground to the east." Gazi added. "There might be more even further."

The small girl shaded her eyes with her hand and looked up at the sky. "We have a few hours of daylight left. Let's fly that way and see what there is to see."

So back on the rug they got, along with the chest. It actually was a pleasant addition, as it gave Trey something to lean up against. The Quarass sat at the front and pulled on the rug's tassels to guide it into the air and away from the sun. It might not set for hours, but it was still low enough that flying towards the east made their shadows stretch out long and far on the sand beneath them.

"What about the large pit? Isn't that the bigger concern?"

"No." The Quarass answered instead. "Lady Pathseeker told me what exists in the depths now. While her main eye is damaged, she still sees more than we do." The small girl paused. "Still, I would like to see it for myself. We can go down there tomorrow if you wish to do so also."

Trey contemplated that for a moment before nodding. He was curious, and if it was safe... "Sure."

"Then we should make the journey after the representatives from the other Shield Countries arrive. They should be here at dawn, which will give us amble time to discuss the fall of Tombhold."

"There it is." Gazi spoke up and pointed over the edge.

The Quarass made the carpet fly lower to the ground as it slowed. They hovered a dozen feet in the air above another wriggling mass on the sand.

"There's a blank spot in the center." Trey commented.

"The first one had one as well." Gazi spoke as one of her eyes focused on the patch of fingers. "This one is slightly bigger, but still basically the same size and shape."

"This is a strange pattern." The Quarass leaned further over the side than Trey would be comfortable with. "From here, I can see the sand beneath them is... melted?"

"Yes."

"What about beneath it?"

"There are more fingers that emerge downwards from the bottom of the plane. They don't move like the ones on top."

"Hmmm..." The small girl sat back. "Almost like roots. Are there any more?"

"Yes." Gazi pointed. "That way, in the same line."

The carpet lurched forward as it accelerated away from one patch of fingers and towards another. Trey stumbled, but Gazi's hand reached out to support him. She smiled at him as he glanced up. "T-thanks."

"Of course." Her expression resumed its usual stoic mask as she turned to face the front of the carpet.

...

"That was number seven." Was it strange that Trey was getting numb to the patches of finger-grass? Was this how Gazi, a Named Adventurer, and the Quarass, who'd lived more lives than he could imagine, saw things? That the fingers were creepy, but that was basically it?

Would they grow to be as big as A'ctelios Salash was? Not that Trey had seen the great 'city', but the hole it had left was certainly massive. It was hard to imagine. Where would they get the sustenance to do so? If this was a forest, then birds or rodents might wander in, but there was no wildlife around.

Or, were they more like plants? Feeding on sunlight? The occasional rain storm? Or even mana itself?

Could they even grow? Whatever they were? Trey didn't-

"The next one is bigger." Gazi said with a grim tone.

"How much bigger?" The Quarass asked from her position at the front of the flying carpet.

"Thousands upon thousands of times bigger."

They continued on, but the Quarass tugged at the carpet to increase their height. Trey crawled forward to get a better view, despite knowing that he'd regret it later.

"It looks the same." The circle was... massive. It had to be at least a mile wide, not that he was a good judge of such things. "The fingers are bending strange, but-"

"Those aren't fingers." Gazi's voice was steel.

"Be ready." The Quarass calmly said as they circled the crime against nature. She didn't seem to dare to fly directly over it, instead opting to gradually slow down as they descended and drew closer.

"They're hands!" Trey gasped.

Hundreds. Thousands. Millions of hands reached out from the ground and grasped in their direction. Each one's skin looked different. Pale. Tanned. Thin. Thick. The heterogeneous mass moved as one as the hands tugged at their 'roots' in a desperate attempt to... what? Grab anyone that came close?

"There's a blank spot in the center." Gazi had drawn her sword. "It's the same size as the smaller ones. Only a foot and a half across."

The Quarass had taken out a mirror and a small crystal and seemed to be... recording? "Are there any more past this, Pathseeker?"

"No." Gazi shook her head while two of her eyes remained fixated on the squirming mass. "None that I can see."

"What do we do?" Trey tried to look away, but he was too stunned.

"We leave." The Quarass stowed away her mirror and grabbed the carpet's tassels again. "This is a job for others. I will tell the remaining Shield Kingdoms what we have seen. They may take action. Or another country."

"Adventurers will come and likely die." Despite the fact that they'd turned around, Trey knew she was still focused on the... whatever that was. "It might be killed or subdued. Or it might be labeled a Death Zone."

"Just adventurers and not, I don't know, armies?"

"Kingdoms do not persist that send their troops to their deaths." The Quarass said from the front. "It depends on what kind of a threat that place turns out to be. Matters outside their borders tend not to attract the attention of most countries."

"But you just said you'd tell the Shield Kingdoms."

"And I will. And they will doubtlessly wish to investigate. If it's a threat to Chandrar, then we will try to rally others, but if it's not..."

"Then you'll do nothing." Just like how no one did anything about Roshal.

"You speak as if it is a simple thing to mobilize an army. Pay and equip them. Feed and support them. Negotiate passage through other lands. All so they can, what? Attempt to hack away at a mass of arms growing from the ground?"

"They could... throw fireballs from far away or something."

"Adventurers will doubtlessly try that, once a proper bounty is posted."

Trey pouted. He wished there was another word for it. Or that he wasn't self-aware enough to know what he was doing. Or that he could react in another way. It was just... so frustrating. They were right, of course. This wasn't even like the issue of [Slaves]. There was no one alive to save.

Just... evil that was allowed to exist because it would be too much work to remove.

...

Trey went to bed angry, and woke up angry.

The groups from the two other Shield Kingdoms arrived, but he didn't feel like talking with any of them. It wasn't like he'd be allowed in on their discussion anyways. Instead, he continued to practice his golem making. Minizi was quicker than before as he urged her to move and swing her sword faster and faster.

She was also weaker - breaking apart over and over again.

"Trey." He turned around at the Quarass's voice. "Come. We're going to descend into the canyon, and I have some armor for you to wear."

The small girl's tone was impassive. He could argue, but what would be the point. He wanted to see what was down there just as much as anyone else who wasn't Gazi. The Half-Gazer had remained his constant shadow while he'd been working on his magic. Both of them followed the Quarass to the flying carpet, where a thick gambeson was laying for him.

"Why do I need armor? I thought it was safe. Are the others coming with us?" Trey didn't enjoy wearing the 'light' armor. It might have been made of cloth, but it was thick, heavy, and rough. Even over his robes, it still scratched his wrists.

"They will look in their own time." The Quarass replied as the carpet rose into the air. Trey noticed that the chest of holding they'd stolen wasn't on it. "The sun will illuminate the bottom of it for several hours and there's no rush. I thought it might help take your mind off of everything else. And while it's safe, it's still an unexplored location. I mean no disrespect for Lady Pathseeker, but there are dangers even she can't see coming."

Trey grunted, but didn't disagree with her. Gazi had said the chasm was safe, but an ounce of precaution and all that. They flew down into it and he couldn't help but marvel at the sight. No strange fingers or arms. Just a breath-taking view of sand that looked like a massive layered cake. The sand at the top shifted and spilt down with the winds, but beneath it there were sections of stone he couldn't identify.

Green. Yellow. Red. It was almost like being in the inside of a rainbow. Even the air felt different. Not as dry as... He leaned over the edge and saw it.

Water.

Not just a little. Here, protected from the sun, the ground water had seeped into the hole and made. A lake? An oasis? The world's biggest well? It was something wonderful and not-

The carpet flipped one hundred and eighty degrees without warning and Trey fell.

He hung in the air for what seemed like forever, though it could only have been a split second. He saw Gazi's eyes widen in surprise as she grabbed the edge and reached for him, but she'd been too far away!

Trey plummeted, and Gazi let go of the artifact to fall after him.

Then, the carpet twisted in mid-air, circled back with astonishing speed... and caught his protector.

Trey felt an icy cold sensation overcome him as he plunged into the small lake that had formed at the bottom of the hole. It was cold. Far colder than anything in the desert should be. The shock made him open his mouth and try to breathe in to yell.

Water rushed into his lungs. He struggled to swim, but the gambeson absorbed the liquid and weighed him down. The sun up above grew dimmer as he sunk down. He tried to hold his breath, but there was nothing there. Only the water he'd inhaled filling his lungs. The world went black...

Bios:

Trey - A teenager from London who arrived in Flos' throne room with his twin sister Teresa. The pair woke the dreaming King of Destruction with stories of another world and became his companions. After Relm defended itself from an alliance of its neighbors, Flos sold the defeated troops to Roshal. This caused a falling out between him and Trey, and Trey and everyone else - including Teresa.

Gazi - Gazi Pathseeker. A Half-Gazer bred in Roshal and bought by Flos at a young age. He freed her and she has served him faithfully ever since. Wears armor crafted by the Half-Dwarven master smiths. Had her main eye poked out by Erin Solstice when she attempted to kidnap her and Ryoka Griffin to bring them back to Relm to wake up her king. Even her four smaller eyes can see through most things - including her own head.

The Quarass - The eternal ruler of Germina. The very first Quarass found a way to be reborn so she could continue to guide her country. Germina is a Shield Kingdom, and while never particularly strong, has always endured. Past Quarasses have varied in their skill, personality, and classes.