Character · Book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade

Vrah

A mantis hunter of the Dark Hive, level 74, who has killed crawlers by the thousand over many seasons and wears the heads of the dead on her back — Langley's and Bogdon Ro's among them this floor. Warned of on the first day by a janitor whose brother she killed at a food stand; the killer, a few seasons back, of a fellow hunter in a fight ruled legal because it was in the Hunting Grounds; infected by an Arrow of Enthusiastic Double Gonorrhea and set on fire; cured by a god her mother bought. She dies at the Butcher's Masquerade under Mongo and Kiwi, gurgling 'How.'

Segment appearances

Arc

Named by a janitor on the first day — a mantis who has killed thousands and wears the heads (ch. 1) — Vrah loses her little sister Xindy, on her first hunt, to Carl's rockets before the hunt begins (ch. 5, ch. 32), pins a note to Carl's door with a knife (ch. 10), beheads two crawlers on the recap (ch. 21) and lets the orcs go first — because, Carl tells the orc, she knew they would fail (ch. 25). At Alucarda she is level 74 wearing Langley and Bogdon Ro, with livestock and nymphs and Samantha tied to her back (ch. 34, ch. 35); she escapes on fire and infected, and orders a mate to cure herself (ch. 38). Cured by a god her mother bought, she charges across a ballroom to promise Carl's head on her back (ch. 66, ch. 67), loses her own side ('We just want to go home', ch. 69), stares at a dead warning light (ch. 70) and runs a plan Carl did not know (ch. 73). She is the only one who sees Signet's spell coming, and it does not help: Mongo and Kiwi tear her limbs off and Mongo finishes her (ch. 74, ch. 75). 'How.'