Servine

A rare species resembling a cross between a leopard and a large dog — sleek, muscular, silent, the size of a small pony. Their most distinctive trait is eyes that change colour with emotion, memory, and trust: amber at dusk, copper when wary, deep green in love. Servines do not vocalise; they communicate through presence and thought-shapes that imprint on those they bond with. They were bred and abused in fighting pits across the Varnhalt Frontier before the practice was driven underground. The bonded Servine of the con-artist Rook, named Myx, is the best-known surviving member of the species — and the proof that what was sold as a weapon was always a companion. The Cartographic Society of Iterants has petitioned the Luminous Fold to recognise the Servine as a person under Fold law; the petition has been "in review" for two Loops.