Overview
Leech Folk are the parasitic kin of the blood pits. They trade in blood, always, and they consider the ledger a promise the pit keeps.
Habitat
Leech Folk live in The Gullet Pits, a blood pit where the ledger is the only honest conversation. They need three things: a blood old enough to be a debt, a pit deep enough to hide the ledger, and a stranger who is worth the bite. They are settled in pits around the blood-rings, with biting-lines across the mapped current; a leech who has not kept a ledger in a season is called "the one who forgot the pit."
Appearance
The leech-folk silhouette is the pale, low, quick shape — narrow at the shoulder, light at the waist, with the head sitting a little too low on the body, like a word that is waiting for a bite. Males stand 1.35 m to 1.52 m, pale and quick, with paler gums and a low, barked voice; they are the bite, the first pull, and the ones who take the blood and give the debt. Females stand 1.35 m, leaner and quicker, with a thinner hide and a longer memory; they are the wardens, the ones who keep the ledger of debts, and the ones whose nod is the pit. The base skin is a pale grey-green, wet and glistening, the color of old pit-water seen through a dark glass, with a faint pattern of deeper, sea-black patches along the side and a clean, deliberate bone-white at the lip-edge that is the leech line's most persistent claim. The eyes are a pale, washed-out pit-white, large for the head, with a slow, deliberate blink and a depth that makes them look like they are reading the debt — and in most cases, they are, and the reading is the point. The head is the mark: a flat, narrow skull with a pair of true, pointed ears set high on the head in the same pale grey-green as the skin, and a short crest of fine, soft hair growing in patches along the crown. The lips are the mark — the sucking lips, always clean, and always pointed at something, the leech line's most persistent claim. Males carry the line in the lip and the bite; females in the ledger and the memory. Elders are marked by a skin gone a deep, dull pit-slate and a crest gone full silver — an old leech bites slower and holds the debt longer. Everyday wear: a wrap of stitched pit-hide at the waist, a single bone bead at the throat, and no armor, because the skin is the armor and the pit is the home.
Behavior
Disposition: clannish, shy, territorial, cunning. In peace, leech-folk are quiet, deliberate, and absolutely certain of the pit — they have the blood, and they let the surface know it. In war they fight as the ledger fights: the bite first, the pull second, the patient, precise holding of the debt third. Strangers on the surface are either a trade or a mistake, and the mistake is the one the pit remembers. The social unit is the pit, 20–60 strong, around the blood-rings — no pit follows a biter, it follows the warden whose ledger is truest. Two signature quirks: a leech who is being lied to will not call it out — they will simply keep a ledger for the lie and wait, because the keeping is the point. And they keep the blood for a lifetime: a blood the pit has taken is a debt, and the debt is paid in bite.
Warfare & Markings
Tactics: the ambush of the bite — the leech line does not fight on the surface; it fights as the pit fights, with the bite, the pull, and the long, deliberate patience of the one who has already kept the ledger. Armor: none, by choice — the wet skin is the armor, and a leech who wears metal has already decided the pit is not enough. Weapons: the short bone-blade, the bite that is not a weapon but is used like one, and the ledger that is not a weapon but is used like one. War markings: the Lip-Notch, a deliberate chip in the left lip for every trade kept, worn as a record of the long pit; the Blood-Knot, a single knot in the tail-braid for every pit oath kept, in sea-black; and the Ledger-Brand, a small, deliberate mark on the inner wrist — the first debt the wearer ever kept, worn as a mark of the beginning. Post-battle: the dead are carried to the pit, their names spoken over the blood, and their blades laid across the threshold — a leech buried without their ledger is buried as a surface.
Magic Alignment
Primary domain: divination — leech magic is the record, the ledger, the patient, precise reading of the debt across the pit. Secondaries: shadow and death. Named inborns: Pit-Sense (a leech can feel the blood's mood a day before it is due, and the feeling is not a choice), Dark-Sight (a leech sees in the dark the way a human sees in the light, and the seeing is not a choice), Debt-Carry (a leech's ledger carries the pit's memory across the blood, and the carrying is not a choice). Signature power: the Warden's Word — a leech can speak a word in the pit tongue and let it land on a ledger, and the ledger will keep the word until the debt is paid. Limitation: leech magic is spent on the pit; a leech who has spent their warden's word must sit in the light for one day, and the day is the worst one of the pit.
Religion
Leech Folk keep Omnath, the Last Memory as their primary god — the knowledge, the record, the ledger that is the pit's own law. The pit is Omnath's library, and the leech is the library's reader. Priestly class: the Ledger-Keeper, who keeps the pit-temple and speaks the debt at every rite. Heresy is not blasphemy — it is a word broken in the pit, and there is no rite for that one; the pit simply stops keeping the ledger with the breaker.
Society
Pits of 20–60, led by the Ledger-Keeper, rank decided by the ledger — whose debt is truest. Rank is never inherited, it is kept: a pup whose first ledger closes clean can outrun its own warden before the season turns, and the outrunning is the whole of the law, because the pit does not care about the blood, it cares about the record. The pits keep a debt-shelf in the deep — a single row of hollows where an outsider's name is written while the trade is open, and the writing is the whole of the courtesy, because a leech who writes your name has already decided you are a trade worth keeping, and a leech who does not write it has already decided the pit is not enough. Outsiders are either a trade or a mistake, and the mistake is the one the pit remembers — a mistake that breaks a debt is remembered until the debt is kept, and the keeping is the whole of the apology, because an apology that is not kept is not an apology, it is a word, and a word is not in the pit. Two rules hold in the pit: a ledger is not burned, and a bite is not refused — the first because the burning is the whole of the heresy, and the second because the refusing is the whole of the war.
Home
They live in The Gullet Pits, a blood pit where the ledger is the only honest conversation.
Relations
The pit keeps its ledger with The Gullet Pits as the only honest conversation, and the keeping has held for as long as the blood has been old. The Selkies of the mirror trade at the pit-mouth — the selkie keeps the drown and the leech keeps the bite, and the two are the same bargain seen from two seasons, because a selkie that has been bitten is a selkie that has been paid, and the paying is the whole of the peace. The Kelpies of the mirror do not enter the pit at all, and the not-entering is the whole of the respect, because the kelpie keeps the mirror and the pit keeps the ledger, and the two have learned that a mirror that is not written in is a mirror that is not a debt. The Frogloks of the shallows are either a trade or a mistake, and the mistake is the one the pit remembers — a froglok that has broken a debt has already decided the pit is its, and the deciding is the whole of the offense. Uaellaen keeps a page of the ledger in the wiki — the debt-shelf, the warden's word, the bite that is not a bite — and the keeping is the whole of the record, because the camp has learned that a leech who has been written about is a leech who has been kept for, and the keeping-for is the whole of the welcome. The Forgotten keep their distance at the pit-mouth, and the distance has held for two seasons, and the holding is the whole of the peace.
In the Story
In the current story, the leech-folk are the ledger under the camp — the debt Uaellaen writes about when the pit is the only law. The Forgotten keep their distance at the pit-mouth, and the distance has held for two seasons. This season a ledger was found in the deep with a name in it that no one in the camp wrote — a name that is not in the pit's memory, and the not-memory is the whole of the warning, because the pit keeps its ledgers and the ledgers do not lie. The name is the one the camp has not been shown, and the showing is the keeping, and the keeping is the whole of the story.
You stand in our pit and you make a sound. Good. Now we know where you are, and you have made our ledger's choice for us. The price is a debt. You have one to give, or you are already a find. — Ledger-Keeper Grik the Pale