Character · from book 4
Louis and Firas
Two level-22 Americans found drunk in a brothel bar on the fifth floor: Louis Santiago 2, a Pest Exterminator from Miami who drove his mother's convertible van down a stairwell and got a legendary knockout spell for it, and Firas M., a Hammersmith with a level-10 Puddle Jumper. Sobered by force, they grow into a bombing crew, the party's pilots and, by the end, something like friends.
First appears: Book 4
Series arc
As of book 8. Two Americans who flew a house in book 4; Firas dead since book 5; Louis a general with a naiad's heart and gills since book 7. In book 8 he drives a lowrider Tahoe that trails its heats, second-to-last in the first, until Bodi's stall-buffs put it first for one, and then last again, names a cleaner bot Suckira after his mother's vacuum, brings a bucket of 'secretions', and is Minus's secondary target. His mother's what-if apartment holds a thinner Louis who graduated. He cannot go to the Cabaret because his gills need magic, so he goes into the casino's stasis portal instead — 'I’m not nearly as scared as I used to be' — and wakes in Sheol with a leech on his skin and Forkith's welcome. Katia's child is his.
Open threads
Status is open or resolved; the chapter after it is the last one that moved the thread.
| Thread | Opened | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Louis lives on a naiad's heart that will not work outside | B7 ch. 84 | open · B8 ch. 99 — He could not go to the Cabaret because his gills need magic; he went into the casino's portal instead and woke in Sheol, where Forkith's leech keeps him alive 'As long as it’s on your skin'; whether the heart works outside the dungeon is untested. |
| Katia, human and pregnant, among the children above | B7 ch. 86 | open · B8 ch. 27 — Lexis: the kinder facility is not retaken but Katia has been in contact; a confused third party — a god — is protecting it (ch. 28). Bautista, leaving by the Cabaret, means to reach India and 'check on the child' (ch. 71). |
| The casino's 'Nothing': a stasis chamber that leads to Sheol, not the Cabaret | B8 ch. 79 | open — Pontiff tests the portal and leaves the playing field (B8 ch. 82); Chris, Britney and then Louis follow, meant for Herot's menu (B8 ch. 85, B8 ch. 87); Louis wakes in Sheol with a leech on his skin and Forkith's welcome: 'We needed soldiers on a different front' (B8 ch. 99). |
| Katia's own party | B4 ch. 33 | resolved · B5 ch. 21 — She leaves the party for Imani's guild, Safehome Yolanda, with Elle, Bautista, Florin, Gwen, Tran, Louis and Firas; the Royal Court of Princess Donut joins the guild too. |
All threads: Open threads.
Through book 4
Two drunk level-22s who become, over fifteen days, a bombing crew, the pilots of a flying house, and level 30 (B4 ch. 3, B4 ch. 5, B4 ch. 20). Louis's Cloud of Exhaust knocks out city hall's guards; Firas's Puddle Jumper gets the party onto a balcony; both fire rockets from the ground (B4 ch. 6, B4 ch. 12). They cut the top off the house, wreck a pub, get banned from a town, ride a bull of a house behind a god's puppy, and ferry the changelings across the Lacuna (B4 ch. 20, B4 ch. 29, B4 ch. 33). Louis finds the party's secret channel in a toilet stall; Juice Box says she will marry him (B4 ch. 32, B4 ch. 34). Both go with Katia.
Through book 5
The Twister's crew: the Dream's only named target (B5 ch. 15), a level 173 poisoned from the air (B5 ch. 51), a boombox announcer (B5 ch. 70), the cat tunnels read off a map (B5 ch. 72). The Sledge crashes the house into two towers. Firas dies in the pit beside an unconscious Louis when the last lightning finds Britney's butterflies (B5 ch. 76, B5 ch. 77); he was to be best man at Louis's wedding to Juice Box.
Through book 6
Louis alone: Juice Box beheading a viceroy at the warlords' table and sending him her love (B6 ch. 22), Katia's bucket (B6 ch. 30), Christmas by force and fear of Carl's eyes (B6 ch. 48), five skulls from one attack and a sixth for Ines so the others need not (B6 ch. 62, B6 ch. 65), marked by a goddess and outliving her (B6 ch. 65, B6 ch. 69). He carries Carl out (B6 ch. 72).
Through book 7
Party Planner's pilot and a changeling's husband (B7 ch. 6, B7 ch. 10); every bombing run of the war (B7 ch. 23, B7 ch. 60); ripped out of the sky by a drake (B7 ch. 66); cut open and re-organed with a warlord (B7 ch. 80); possessed by his wife to be saved, and shown, through her curse, to be terrified of her (B7 ch. 82). A naiad's heart, a rebreather, gills (B7 ch. 84); divorce papers (B7 ch. 86); the father of Katia's son (B7 ch. 86).
Through book 8
Louis, in a lowrider Tahoe that bottoms out and trails its heats — second-to-last in the first — until Bodi's stall-buffs put it first for one (B8 ch. 15, B8 ch. 45), and then last again (B8 ch. 67); Katia's baby's father; Bautista will go and check on the child (B8 ch. 71). He names the cleaner bot Suckira after his mother's vacuum (B8 ch. 61), brings the bucket of 'secretions' (B8 ch. 47), and is Minus's secondary target — 'pork chop over there' (B8 ch. 72). His mother's what-if apartment holds a thinner Louis who graduated (B8 ch. 74). 'I’m not nearly as scared as I used to be'; 'heigh-ho, Silver. I’ll die on that hill' — and he steps into the stasis portal (B8 ch. 87), waking in Sheol with a leech on his skin and Forkith's welcome (B8 ch. 99).
Where they appear
| Book | Chapters they are in (of the book's) | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 4 — The Gate of the Feral Gods | 25/35 | 3, 5–8, 10–13, 15, 17, 19–21, 23–30, 32–34 · the book's own page |
| 5 — The Butcher's Masquerade | 32/78 | 3, 7–8, 11, 15, 17, 21–24, 35–36, 50–52, 56–57, 59–62, 64, 66–67, 69–70, 72–73, 75–78 · the book's own page |
| 6 — The Eye of the Bedlam Bride | 30/74 | 3–4, 11, 19, 21–22, 25–26, 28, 30, 32, 35, 40, 46, 48–50, 54, 57, 61–70, 72 · the book's own page |
| 7 — This Inevitable Ruin | 58/89 | 4–12, 14–16, 18–21, 23–26, 29–33, 35, 40, 44–45, 47, 50, 54–57, 59–63, 65–70, 73, 77–87 · the book's own page |
| 8 — A Parade of Horribles | 46/99 | 1, 3, 15–16, 20, 22, 25, 33, 35–39, 45, 47–48, 50, 52, 54, 57–59, 61–62, 67–69, 71–75, 78–89, 92, 99 · the book's own page |
By book
Louis and Firas in book 4 — The Gate of the Feral Gods
Chuckleheads
Found drunk at the Spit and Swallow with a changeling doing Jessica Rabbit on Louis's lap, level 22, coasting (ch. 3): Louis Santiago 2, twenty-seven, from Miami, who drove his mother's Chevy Astro — convertible for Instagram, the Tiddy Twister — down a stairwell on I-95 and got Cloud of Exhaust, a legendary knockout spell with a ten-minute cooldown he had only ever used to run; Firas M., a car detailer with a cleric's mace and a level-10 Puddle Jumper (ch. 5, ch. 6). Mordecai sobers them with Rapid Detox, which makes drinking impossible for the floor: 'It's all I got left.'
The pilots
They knock out city hall's guards (ch. 6), cut a fake throat on cue (ch. 11), fire their two rockets each (ch. 12), and while Carl is gone they cut the top off a house, learn to fly it by riding air currents, wreck a pub when it pops out of Katia's inventory, and get banned from a town when Louis urinates on the owner from the air (ch. 19, ch. 20). Level 30. They ride a bull of a house behind a god's puppy in a lightning storm (ch. 29), ferry every surviving changeling across the Lacuna (ch. 33), and go down with Katia. Louis barges into the haunted bathroom, spills the ink, and — Juice Box says — will marry her (ch. 32, ch. 34). 'You know a plan is really desperate when it requires confidence in people like us.'
Louis and Firas in book 5 — The Butcher's Masquerade
They have the Twister back from the changelings (ch. 3); Firas wants Whataburger fries and Firas's girlfriend is not his girlfriend (ch. 7). Louis is engaged to Juice Box (ch. 8) and is the Dream's only named target, circled until the pencil broke the paper over a Facebook photograph with dog ears (ch. 15, ch. 24). Louis has a Voltron plan and cried alone (ch. 36), mists Tent the House from the airship (ch. 50) and kills a level 173 whose thorns fly like ballista bolts, and does not know if he can stomach that again (ch. 51). At the party Louis is the pet-show announcer with a boombox of trap modules (ch. 70), reads the cat tunnels off the map (ch. 72) and loses the Twister to the Sledge's crash. Firas talks Britney into coming, hugs her in the ballroom, and dies in the pit beside an unconscious Louis when the last lightning finds the butterflies (ch. 76, ch. 77). He was going to be Louis's best man, in a tuxedo Katia was secretly sewing.
Louis and Firas in book 6 — The Eye of the Bedlam Bride
Louis alone, with Juice Box beheading a viceroy at the warlords' table and sending him her love (ch. 21, ch. 22) and Samantha kissing him (ch. 48). He holds Katia's bucket (ch. 30), makes it Christmas by force — 'every time I look at you, I get scared that you're going to go insane' (ch. 48) — takes five skulls from one attack (ch. 62) and a sixth for Sister Ines so the others need not (ch. 65), and is marked for death by her goddess and outlives her (ch. 65, ch. 66, ch. 69). Carries Carl out of the FOCSA building (ch. 72).
Louis and Firas in book 7 — This Inevitable Ruin
Army Air General Louis Santiago 2, owner of Party Planner, a bomber named for what Firas wanted to call the Twister (ch. 6). He marries a changeling in a bar because they need each other, whispering vows to a cheerleader between Taylor Swift and Iggy Pop (ch. 9, ch. 10), wears a Donut Holes T-shirt (ch. 7), and flies every offensive of the war (ch. 23, ch. 59, ch. 60). Told the truth by Boomer, Carl lets him fly at a dragon (ch. 63); the drake rips the bomber in half and he lands on the Reaver castle apologising to Katia for being 'such a fuckup' (ch. 66). Snared among robot dogs (ch. 68), paralysed and bound, cut open and re-organed with a warlord's heart and lungs (ch. 70, ch. 80), he is possessed by his wife to be carried out and learns, awake, that she cannot love him without the curse showing her he is terrified of her (ch. 82). Princess Lunette's naiad heart, Loita's rebreather and permanent gills keep him alive (ch. 84); Samantha calls him cousin (ch. 84); Juice Box hands him divorce papers (ch. 86); Katia asks him to father her son; 'Am I still human?' he asks, and Eileithyia answers 'Of course you are. And a good soul at that' (ch. 86). The cop's husband at a funeral is a story he should tell himself (ch. 79).
Louis and Firas in book 8 — A Parade of Horribles
Louis, in a lowrider Tahoe that bottoms out and trails its heats — second-to-last in the first — until Bodi's stall-buffs put it first for one (ch. 15, ch. 45), and then last again (ch. 67); Katia's baby's father; Bautista will go and check on the child (ch. 71). He names the cleaner bot Suckira after his mother's vacuum (ch. 61), brings the bucket of 'secretions' (ch. 47), and is Minus's secondary target — 'pork chop over there' (ch. 72). His mother's what-if apartment holds a thinner Louis who graduated (ch. 74). 'I’m not nearly as scared as I used to be'; 'heigh-ho, Silver. I’ll die on that hill' — and he steps into the stasis portal (ch. 87), waking in Sheol with a leech on his skin and Forkith's welcome (epilogue).