“Tis magic, Vicar. Powerful magic.” Fo-Gee wiggled his fingers fast, producing a storm of gold speckles. They hung in the air between them like icy teardrops, drifting, twinkling, shimmering, and disappearing. “I be a great god, Vicar, a spirit of the wood possessing unspeakable powers…”

Fo-Gee is a new character, a tiny character barely larger than a grown man’s thumb. He is a mazzamurello, or Italian leprechaun who lives in a place called Eliade. He is first introduced to readers in Shimmer.

Readers (as well as Pero) caught a glimpse of a mazzamurello way back in the first book, in Betrayal, when Pero apprehended the orange-stealing peasants, Cambio and Gisele Sartore. Pero was the only one in their little party to spot a tiny man in a brown suit and suspenders standing on a branch. The little fellar, knowing he’d been seen, leapt into a flowery bush. Pero was already frustrated and convinced himself he was seeing things.

Fo-Gee has a lot of common sense, a witty, biting tongue and a short temper. He possesses a bit of knowledge about the shimmer, the mysterious gold light Pero has been seeing streak about him, troubling him.

Another fissure lit quickly through a bush.
Pero scratched at the back of his head, confused.
“No, Vicar, ye might talk and walk here, an yer eyes might be open but ye stills dunt see. Only One can helt the broken an raise the dead. Just One. Ye don’t get fixed cause ye sorry ye got caught. That not be enough. It not make ye a better man. Gettin’ caught. It doesn’t fix ya. It just means ya got caught. Are ye caught, Vicar? Is that what this is to ye? Ye swimming in the fissures, testing the meddle of the man ye are, wondering if there be more to ya than yur sins?”

I think Fo-Gee is a unique character that interjects a bit more humor into the story. He’s very confident and sure of himself despite his diminutive size.

Allen M Werner is the author of the epic dark fantasy series The Crystal Crux.
Betrayal, Blue Grotto, Cold Knight, Shimmer.