Cephas Cephas was a genasi and a skilled fighter . He was the long - lost heir to Pasha Marod el Arhapan , the leader of Calimport . Description . As an Earthsoul , Cephas had dark , reddish skin and was heavily muscled . In his Windsoul manifestation , he was slighter in build and had silver skin . Possessions . Cephas wielded a great two - headed flail given to him by Azad the Free . He wore assorted pieces of scale armor . History . Childhood . Cephas ' mother , Valandra , was an Earthsoul genasi who manifested into a windsoul . The Pasha fell in love with her and she bore him a son . Valandra ran afoul of the Pasha and he made her a slave and tricked his champion gladiator , Azad the Free , into killing her in the arena . After his mother ' s death , Cephas was raised by a minotaur nanny . Azad later led a slave revolt and abducted young Cephas from the castle and took him into eastern Tethyr . Island of the Free . Azad found an earthmote over a canyon near the Omlarandin Mountains and built a small settlement known as the Island of the Free on the mote . Azad ' s wife , Sheneerah , trained Cephas to fight as a gladiator in the arena Azad built on the mote . Cephas used Azad ' s legendary double - headed flail in his fights , most of which he won . The arena was rigged with a canvas floor so that Cephas was never able to come into contact with the ground and thus was unable to use his earthsoul powers . When not in the arena or training , he was confined to a small chamber . He was forced to wear thick sandals and walk only on wooden walkways so that his feet never touched the earth . Circus of Wonders . A Kenku assassin named Corvus Nightfeather found out Cephas ' lineage and concocted a plan to rescue him from the Island of the Free . Corvus ' allies the ranger Mattias Farseer and the twin halfling rangers Shan and Cynda participated in the raid to free Cephas . Once he was freed , he agreed to travel with Corvus and the circus he ran . Cephas was given the role of strongman so that the current strongman , a goliath named Tobin , could realize his dream of playing a clown . The circus travelled to the Earthsoul genasi settlement of Argentor where they gave a performance . Corvus was working as agent for both the Weavepasha of Almraiven and Shahrokh , the djinn lord of Calimport . He informed both his masters that he had Cephas in his possession and Shahrokh sent a company of elite minotaur warrior s to capture Cephas . They attacked the circus at Argentor , inflicting heavy casualties on the villagers and circus members although they were ultimately defeated and driven off . Almraiven . In the aftermath of the minotaur attack , Corvus opened a gate to Almraiven that Cephas and other key members of Corvus ' troop travelled through . The Weavepasha knew of Cephas ' heritage and wanted to enspell him with death magic that would kill the Pasha when Cephas came into the Pasha ' s presence . In Almraiven , Cephas met the Windsoul genasi Ariella Kulmina who taught him to manifest as a windsoul . Cynda and Tobin were captured by renegade members of the Firestorm Cabal and transported to Calimport where they were readied for the arena . Guessing that Tobin and Cynda had been teleported to Calimport , Corvus and crew fled Almraiven and travelled through the Plain of Stone Spiders toward the Calim Desert and Calmiport . The vizar of Almraiven , Munaa yr Oma el Jhotos , enlisted the aid of a bound demon known as the Spider that Waits to track Corvus ' party . The demon caught up to the group near the Shining Sea and Mattias remained behind to fight the demon and sacrifice himself so that Corvus and Cephas could escape . Calimport . Cephas and friends travelled into the Calim Desert where they were intercepted by Shahrokh and his djinn allies . The group travelled to Calimport in a magical ship made of sand that Shahrokh conjured . In Calimport , Cephas and Ariella were taken to the Pasha ' s lavish floating palace and given a large suite of rooms . Upon reuniting with his father , neither father nor son showed much affection for each other . Corvus was stripped of his magic items by Shahrokh and made a slave and Shan was taken to the gladiator stables . Corvus made contact with a resistance group who helped him to locate Tobin , Cynda and Shan . Cephas learned the location of the magical stone that kept the palace airborn . He killed his father and then removed the magic stone . The palace began to descend rapidly toward the packed arena below . In the ensuing panic Corvus , Cynda , Shan and Tobin were able to escape the arena and rejoined Cephas and Ariella . They travelled back to the Island of the Free where Cephas confronted , but did not kill , Azad the Free who explained how he was tricked into killing Cephas ' mother .