# Short Fiction — Character guide

> Key figures in Short Fiction by Andre Norton.

- [Captain Garin Featherstone](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_3_se/characters/captain_garin_featherstone.md): Garin flies the third plane of a polar expedition, content in his sealed cockpit until an unseen Presence seizes his hands and steers him down through the purple mist. He fights it, loses, and glimpses a world no chart a
- [Varta](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_3_se/characters/varta.md): Varta serves in Asti's temple, reading old records closely enough to know which wall-stone hides a door and which chest holds a lizard-skin suit. She strips off His Livery without regret and takes up the sun as a diadem,
- [Dandtan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_3_se/characters/dandtan.md): Dandtan moves among the Folk with the caution of someone who has already dwelt among enemies and learned their rules. He stays Garin's hand at Kepta's throat, names the morgels loosed into the halls, and trusts the Ana t
- [Lady Thrala](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_3_se/characters/lady_thrala.md): Thrala appears in Sera's mirror as a girl of pearl-white skin and blue-black hair, happy and unearthly, before the Black Ones take her. Her captivity gives the Folk a wound they cannot ignore and gives Garin a face to fi
- [Lur](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_3_se/characters/lur.md): Lur travels with Varta into the mountain's throat, sharing the powdered restorative and needing no suit against the yellow vapors that kill lunged creatures. Whatever Lur is, the old records and the lizard-skin gear seem
- [Steena](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_3_se/characters/steena.md): Steena sits alone in the Rigel Royal with Bat coiled at her shoulder, and when she crosses to Cliff's table the whole room looks sideways. She sets aside his bottle and tells him it is time for the Empress to appear agai
- [Kepta](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_3_se/characters/kepta.md): Kepta strides through the tall grass before the Cavern to dictate terms: give up Thrala for his chamber, hand Garin to his captains for sport, and throw open the Hall of Thrones. When Dandtan refuses, Kepta's answer is a
- [Bat](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_3_se/characters/bat.md): A creature or character associated with the caves and the Black Ones.
- [Urg](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_3_se/characters/urg.md): Urg serves Trar and the Folk, walking Garin up steep ramps to the crystal balcony above the Room of Pleasant Death and explaining the vapor that holds the Ancient Ones in a thousand-year sleep. He is the keeper of hard t
- [Cliff Moran](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_3_se/characters/cliff_moran.md): Cliff clawed his way up from the back courts of Venaport to a ship command, and now a writ threatens to drag him back down. When Steena drops into the seat beside him and names the Empress of Mars, he slams his fist on t
- [Trar](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_3_se/characters/trar.md): A member of the Folk of Tav who aids in the fight against the Black Ones.
- [Asti](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_3_se/characters/asti.md): Asti stands as a carved presence in the temple, an inner heat in its stone hands and a tiny solar system spinning above its palm. When Varta draws the sun away, the virtue departs the statue and it becomes mere rock, a t
- [Sera](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_3_se/characters/sera.md): A character among the Folk of Tav or the Light.
- [Lord Thran](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_3_se/characters/lord_thran.md): A lord associated with the Light or the Folk of Tav.
- [Gibi](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_3_se/characters/gibi.md): A creature or group encountered in the caves.
- [Ancient Ones](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_3_se/characters/ancient_ones.md): An ancient race defeated by the Black Ones.
- [Ana](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_3_se/characters/ana.md): A group or entity referenced in the story.
- [Gregory Farson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_3_se/characters/gregory_farson.md): A character from Earth connected to Garin's past.
- [Outlander](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_3_se/characters/outlander.md): A term for a stranger or foreigner in the story.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_3_se/characters