Xisisrefliel
also known as Xisis the Dragon
A dragon whose lair lies at the bottom of the Crimson Sea, reached through a sided spore tunnel that opens at supplicants' summons. Seen in person he is easily as tall as four humans stacked, with a sinuous neck, reptilian body, six limbs, two vast wings, and an onyx hide whose features are picked out in burnished ridges of silver — including two horns and a back-line of spikes — beneath a silver mane that continues into a beard. His eyes are mother-of-pearl, his breath like burned hickory. He is a hoarder not of treasure but of ideas, and he keeps a household of mortal servants below, kept away from arriving supplicants to avoid contamination. STD:Tress:Ch 50
A dragon believed by some to live in a palace at the bottom of the Crimson Sea. The notebook on Crow's desk presents him as a several-hundred-year-old being whose existence is dismissed by most as the rambling of crews driven mad by the Crimson crossing, but who is real, well-attested by trustworthy supplicants, and credited with the cure of incurable diseases — including, in 1123, the only recorded survival of a spore gestation in history, that of Queen Bek the Fifteenth. STD:Tress:Ch 30 superseded at STD:Tress:Ch 50
Known facts
- trades-boons-for-spore-fearless-servantsUlaam tells Tress in her cabin what the dragon actually wants: not lucre, but a single new indentured servant per boon, granted in exchange for one reasonable favour such as a healing. The terms are always the same — one supplicant, bound to him for the rest of their life. The hard part is finding a candidate who can be led through a tunnel of spores to reach his palace under the Crimson without losing their nerve.STD:Tress:Ch 33
- summoned-by-letter-in-glass-case-thrown-overboardThe supplicant's ritual for reaching Xisis is to drop anchor anywhere inside the region the dragon watches and throw a letter overboard sealed in a glass case — the procedure Crow's books prescribe. The reply is a tunnel: the spores visibly undulate and spin into a whirlpool that opens a sided shaft down through the Crimson to the dragon's chamber.STD:Tress:Ch 49
- keeps-mortal-servants-for-deep-sea-researchXisis keeps a household of mortal servants in his lair below the Crimson, who serve him and his research into the complex ecosystem at the bottom of the spore seas. They are kept out of the entry hall when supplicants arrive, so that they are not tainted by reminders of the outside world.STD:Tress:Ch 50
- takes-crow-as-servant-in-place-of-tressIn his lair beneath the Crimson Sea, Xisis accepts Crow as his new household servant in place of Tress, after Tress flips the deal and offers Crow as the sacrifice. He frames the decision as taking the well-tempered, skilled, hated officer over a driven would-be escapee, and offers as his excuse for releasing Tress that her ongoing spore work represents the planet's technological progress, which he prefers not to disrupt.STD:Tress:Ch 51
- fears-precisely-one-being-on-the-planetXisis tells Tress that there is precisely one being on this planet he fears, and refuses on that basis to do anything to help her quest against the Sorceress — including lifting her curse on the man Tress loves. He pointedly notes that Cephandrius does not count.STD:Tress:Ch 51
- policy-of-non-interference-with-surface-worldXisis makes it a point not to interfere too much in the workings of the society above the Crimson. He uses this principle as the stated *excuse* — he refuses to elaborate on the word — for releasing Tress when she argues she would be a uniquely useless servant, citing her ongoing spore inventions as a contribution to the planet's technological progress.STD:Tress:Ch 51
Events
- STD:Tress:Ch 50 Glides down a corridor of his solidified-spore chamber to meet Crow and Tress — onyx hide outlined in burnished silver, silver mane and beard, mother-of-pearl eyes — and leans in close enough that Tress sees herself and Crow reflected. Says nothing while Crow makes her offering, then nothing while Tress makes a different one.
- STD:Tress:Ch 51 Receives Tress's flipped offer in his chamber, hears both women out with frank amusement, and clicks five silver claws on the floor to forbid them from harming one another. Settles on Crow as the better-tempered servant, gags her with the animated ribbon of a pillar, and accepts her as a replacement for Lili, whom he has promoted. Refuses to lift the Sorceress's curse or help Tress's quest, citing precisely one being on the planet he fears, but insists on paying her in three small boons in exchange for delivering a new servant.
Backreferences
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 30
- factCaptain Crow
- factCaptain Crow
- factQueen Bek the Fifteenth
- factDelph of the Zephyr Islands
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 33
- factCaptain Crow
- factTress
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 37
- factLaggart
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 40
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 44
- factCaptain Crow
- factSalay
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 49
- factCaptain Crow
- factXisisrefliel
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 50
- factTress
- factXisisrefliel
- factDragonsteel
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 51
- factTress
- factSpore Eater
- factXisisrefliel
- factXisisrefliel
- factXisisrefliel
- factFort
- factAnn
- factSalay's father
- factFilistrate City
- factMicropsia
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 53
- factFort
- factFort's Board
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 57