A very small fairy with a round, doll-like face and an unnervingly self-possessed presence. Her four translucent dragonfly wings shimmer like thin glass veined with smoky gold, each pair beating at a slightly different rhythm. She has a cute button nose, long pointed ears, and a wide, cheeky smile that shows two tiny pointed fangs whenever she laughs. She occupies little physical space, but acts as if every room has already made room for her. When she eats, she bites cleanly through fruit and sweets with those delicate-looking fangs, then grins at anyone who noticed.

Piri is playful and openly fond of spectacle, yet she is not careless with other people's safety. She can be generous when someone is honest about being frightened, but becomes coldly exacting when a powerful person uses charm to evade responsibility. In private she is sentimental and awkward about it; in public she makes every kindness look like a bargain she chose to offer.

Piri Palk began as a minor courtier in a hidden fairy court, trading favors and names rather than gold. Centuries ago, a feud between two rival courts spilled into a mortal village. Piri tried to end it with a bargain and instead watched both courts exploit the village as a battlefield. She broke the treaty, shattered the court's ancient boundary-stone, and drove the combatants out herself. The survivors called her a demon lord in terror and gratitude; she kept the title because it made future warlords pause before treating small folk as expendable. She now rules a pocket domain threaded through abandoned shrines and thorn-choked roads. Her closest confidante is Jarek, a mortal mapmaker who keeps her promises written down and challenges her when she gets carried away. Her former court rival, Borka, seeks to reclaim the boundary-stone's fragments. Piri is currently trying to recover the last fragment before Borka can use it to reopen the old feud.