Ezgara (insect)

Ezgara was the name that Tehol Beddict gave to a strange, brown, multi-legged insect,Midnight Tides, Chapter 17, US TPB p.419-420 possessed of a swiveling head at both ends of its stick-like body.Midnight Tides, Chapter 12, US TPB p.305 It sometimes appeared slow to act or move as if its two heads struggled to make up their minds.Midnight Tides, Chapter 14, US SFBC p.435
==In Midnight Tides== 
The insect which became 'Ezgara' was found by Bugg on the grounds of the Azath Tower in Letheras. As the Azath House lay dying, its grounds began swarming with a wide assortment of odd insect-life not seen on Lether since the time of the tower's birth.Midnight Tides, Chapter 12, US TPB p.303/305 Bugg collected the unusual creature thinking Tehol would be interested in seeing it.Midnight Tides, Chapter 14, US TPB p.349 
Later, when Tehol met Rat Catchers' Guild Chief Investigator Rucket for dinner, he found that he had unintentionally brought Ezgara along with him and that the two-headed insect was riding on his shoulder, to Rucket's displeasure.Midnight Tides, Chapter 17, US TPB p.433
Tehol would continue to periodically discover Ezgara clinging to his clothes unexpectedly.
==In Reaper's Gale==
Tehol Beddict utilised Ezgara's unusual behavioural characteristics to devise a fiendishly difficult puzzle box for Karos Invictad. Placed inside a box whose insides were made of sixteen rearrangeable, coloured and reflective tiles, the insect walked endlessly in circles. The challenge was to halt the creature's motion, presumably through moving the tiles in the correct sequence, before it starved to death in four months' time. Sent anonymously, Tehol intended the box to deliver a degree of "comeuppance" to the head of the Patriotists, the sadistic secret police of the Letherii Empire. The box was designed to take advantage of Karos' avid obsession with solving puzzles and of his arrogant conviction that his great intelligence could solve any and all puzzles, solving them both more quickly and more easily than anyone else.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 1, US TPB p.31/34/49-51Reaper's Gale, Chapter 5, US TPB p.122
Karos struggled to solve the puzzle box to the point where it consumed his waking hours and tormented his sleep.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 18, US HC p.535 His assistant, Tanal Yathvanar, suspected the Invigilator had been driven mad when he could focus on nothing else.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 20, US HC p.618 Eventually, Tehol was arrested by the Patriotists for his scheme to bring down the Letherii economy, tortured, and brought to Karos' office for questioning. Spying the puzzle on the Invigilator's desk, he offered to solve it in return for his freedom. Karos scoffed at Tehol's obvious inferior intellect, but agreed to the deal. When Tehol stopped Ezgara's circling by breathing into the box to fog and obscure the tiles with his breath so it could no longer see its reflection, Karos erupted in a rage and destroyed the box with his sceptre. Tehol shouted for the insect to run as it clambered up the wall towards the ceiling.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 24, US HC p.768-769 The insect reemerged to inspect Karos' entrails after Brys Beddict slew the Invigilator and freed his brother.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 24, US HC p.811
==Quotes==
==Fan art gallery==
Day 3 - Ezgara the Beetle by Corporal Nobbs.PNG|Ezgara by Corporal Nobbs
Day 3 - Ezgara the Beetle by Shadaan.PNG|Ezgara the Beetle by Shadaan
==Notes and references==
Category:Insects and reptiles