The so-called "Hand Bros" were ancient creatures known as Fingercreepers, said to be children of the Finger Mother, just like the Two Fingers.
Yet in stark contrast to the supreme status of the Two Fingers, Fingercreepers were considered a blasphemy against the Golden Order. The Carian Royal Family had recognized their affinity for magic and domesticated them on a large scale. Their behavior also followed ordinary biological patterns: they recognized their masters and had their own social structure. Young, smaller Fingercreepers even developed a childlike attachment to their summoners, perhaps because they were still at the age when they clung to their mothers.
In that respect, Fingercreepers were no different from kittens or puppies. In fact, their far greater intelligence made it easier for them to befriend humans.
But! But!
Fingercreepers looked utterly grotesque.
As their name suggested, they were clusters of fingers, with neither heads nor feet, crawling around on countless digits. Any normal person who saw a pile of fingers scuttling toward them would experience severe physical and psychological discomfort.
Tarnished had been disgusted by these things plenty of times and thought he had hardened his heart into steel. What he had never expected was that Ranni's courtyard now contained not only Fingercreepers, but the real nightmare bosses-Royal Revenants!
The instant he stepped through the courtyard gate, more than thirty Royal Revenants scuttling around like cockroaches stopped in unison. They turned their heads together, fixing their hollow eyes on Tarnished.
These monsters were assembled from three twisted bodies and crawled on six arms, their movements stiff and abrupt, like puppets pulled by invisible strings. Their vacant eyes and lifeless expressions conveyed a despondency devoid of any hope for life, inspiring the same thought in everyone who saw them-these visually distorted, mind-polluting things were living manifestations of ill omen,