Sophocles

Kavax au Telemanus's beloved fox—the twenty-first cloned life of a 700-year-old companion—gone mad hunting Luna's birds.

Story so far

Sophocles is Kavax au Telemanus's cherished fox, and—as the old Red dockers reveal—no ordinary animal: there has only ever been one fox in House Telemanus, cloned across generations, so this dog-sized beast is the twenty-first life of a companion seven hundred years old, tended by fourteen generations of Red servants. Devoted to grape candy, he 'blessed' Lyria on Mars and secured her place in the house; well-mannered on the voyage to Luna, he has since gone mad in the Citadel gardens, straining his leash to claw at trees and kill the pink pachelbel birds, slipping his collar to run off toward Lake Augustine. The Telemanus physician Liago cannot diagnose what 'mangles his wits,' leaving Lyria to chase him through the Esqualine Gardens and collect his scat for study—until the fox wrecks Liago's lab lunging after a bird through an open window.

Appearance

A fox the size of a small child, with glossy red fur, pointed ears, a narrow white-streaked snout, and an alert, uncannily brainy gaze; a bushy red tail he betrays himself with in hiding.

Role

Kavax's beloved cloned fox and good-luck familiar; a bird-maddened handful whose mysterious ailment drives Lyria's Luna duties.

Relationships

Kavax — His doting master across seven hundred years of cloned lives, who reads his whims as omens.

Lyria — The valet who minds, chases, and cleans up after him, blessed by him on Mars.

Liago — The house physician baffled by the ailment mangling the fox's wits.

Earlier in this series

Also appears in books you've already read — spoiler-safe to their endings:

Golden SonBook 2

Sources — 2 recorded facts, by chapter

Chapter 16

Kavax au Telemanus's beloved pet fox, a grape-candy-loving companion who 'chooses' Lyria for the house.

Chapter 22

Kavax au Telemanus's beloved fox—the twenty-first cloned life of a 700-year-old companion—gone mad hunting Luna's birds.