Overview
The Vine-Sight Satyr is the goat-legged, low, heavy shape of the vine-tangled hill — heavy through the belly and leg, with the head sitting a little too low on the body, like a word that is waiting for a guest. It is the truest eye of the satyr line: the being that sees the vine the way the hill sees the guest, and the seeing is not a choice. There is no will in it beyond the vine and no patience beyond the revel, but the seeing arrives anyway, and the seeing is not a choice. Where the other satyrs keep the party by the wine, the Vine-Sight keeps it by the eye.
Habitat
It lives in Vinehollow, a vine-tangled hill of wine and pan-pipes, its hollows wide enough to hold a party, its vines thick enough to keep a secret. It keeps the outer line, because that is where the guest is thinnest and the seeing earns its keep, and because a satyr that leaves the outer line is a satyr who has left the hill. The revelers keep the deep hollows, the vine-queens keep the vine-ring, but the Vine-Sight keeps the outer line and does not stop seeing. It is settled on the hill, and the settling is the whole of the territory, because the party does not leave the vine.
Appearance
A Vine-Sight reads 1.48 m tall and carries 52 kg of low, heavy flesh, built heavy through the belly and leg with a low, broad back. The coat is a thick, wet brown, the color of old hill-stone seen through a bright glass, with a faint pattern of deeper, sea-black bands running along the leg. The mark is the clean, deliberate bone-white at the hoof-tip and the horn — a pair of true, curling horns set high on the head — which is the satyr line's most persistent claim, and the not-fading is the whole of the warning.
Behaviour
It moves at 9.2 m/s across the hill, quick, because the seeing does not wait for the guest and the being has nothing to do but see. It does not hunt by the mouth; it hunts by the eye — the guest is seen through the vine, and the keeping is taken the way a word is taken, line by line. When the guest thins — a day before the ending, never a moment after — the pale eyes run a degree cleaner and the being sees a degree harder, the way a hand holds a blade. It does not age in the way the hill does, and the not-aging is the whole of the healing; an elder is marked by a coat gone a deep, dull hill-slate and a horn gone pale silver.
Natural Weapons & Defenses
The eye is the whole of the weapon — a gaze that sees the guest through the vine, and what it has seen, it keeps, and the keeping holds the hill's faith for a generation. There is no strike beyond the eye and no defense beyond the vine: the coat is a thick, wet brown to a deep sea-black, as hard as the promise that keeps it, and the bone-white at the horn holds the word the way the stone holds the debt. A Vine-Sight that is harmed does not break in the way the hill does not recognize — the harm simply stops being a harm in the ring, and the stopping is the whole of the healing.
Magic Alignment
Its line belongs to charm, the will, the patient, precise keeping of the party across the vine-rings. The Vine-Sight carries the line's truest named inborn, Vine-Sight — it can see the guest through the vine, and the seeing is not a choice. It also carries Party-Carry, the line's body, which is not a choice either, because a satyr whose revel did not carry across the hill would not be a satyr of the vine. Its signature power is the Guest's Eye: a gaze that sees the guest through the vine, and what it has seen, it keeps. The seeing is the whole of its speech, and the keeping is the whole of its law.
Society
There is no court in it, and the not-having is the whole of the shape. The satyrs of the hill speak in parallel the way the party speaks — each one its own guest, all of them the same vine. The revelers keep the deep hollows, the vine-queens keep the vine-ring, and the outer line keep the seeing, and the three have learned that a guest that is not seen is a guest that is not a promise, and the not-seeing is the whole of the peace.
Culture & Lore
The party is the only honest conversation the hill has ever trusted, and the lore of the line is the party. A satyr that sees its guest a generation past the ending is a satyr that has kept the hill, and the keeping is the whole of its reputation. The pale eye is the mark the line keeps — the fine, deliberate cleanness that shows when the guest is read — and a Vine-Sight whose eye runs true is a being the hill will trust with the outer line. The Fae Folk are the only ones who have ever kept a word the vine had already forgotten, and the keeping is the whole of the legend.
Home
It lives in Vinehollow, a vine-tangled hill of wine and pan-pipes, its hollows wide enough to hold a party, its vines thick enough to keep a secret. The being keeps the outer line, and the outer line is the whole of its home, because the home is the guest and the guest is the home. The Fae Folk do not come down the line, and the not-coming is the whole of the distance. The hill gives the line its guest, its wine, its one honest conversation, and its one true eye, and the line keeps all four the way it keeps the word — until the party is done.
Relations
The Fae Folk of the glades are the small kin the hill tolerates — the fae keeps the glade and the satyr keeps the vine, and the two have learned that a glade that is not drunk is a glade that is not a party, and the not-drinking is the whole of the distance. The Harpies of the crags are the neighbors the vine tests most often — the harpy keeps the crag and the satyr keeps the hill, and the harpy who has been welcomed is the harpy the vine has already decided is a guest, and the deciding is the whole of the law.
In the Story
The six who arrived through the The Threshold never came up the hill, but the hill has been seeing since the oaths were sworn below, and the outer line's satyrs have been reading a day earlier than they should. This season a word came up from the party that is not in the vine — a word the Vine-Queen does not remember ending, and the not-remembering is the whole of the warning, because the hill keeps its party, and the party has started to end itself. The Vine-Sight sees the guest the party is keeping, and the guest is the whole of the story's edge.