Brask Huzsár is a broad, stooped dwarf whose body has the dense, compact look of a man carved from a mine pillar and then left too long in damp air. He favors his left leg when he walks, not from injury but from conserving strength, and his gait has a peculiar rhythm: three dragging steps, one sudden precise placement. His beard is thick at the jaw but sparse at the chin, where it breaks into pale cords like old root fibers. When he laughs, which is rare but startlingly warm, his lower teeth show first because his jaw closes slightly crooked. He smells of iron dust, boiled wool, and the sharp mineral scent of rain on slate. His hands are huge and steady, yet his left thumb trembles whenever he believes nobody is watching. The contradiction is immediate: he looks immovable, but he seems to be quietly vanishing inside himself.