Custas

**Custas** (クスタス, *Kusutasu*) is a travelling minstrel, who was saved by Coco after he fell in a river.

## Appearance

Custas is a young boy with dark skin, dark eyes, and long messy dark hair. He is occasionally drawn with sharp and noticeable canines. After an incident that him lose the movement of his legs, he also uses a sealchair. He is first seen wearing a simple tunic with a belt and pants. After being hospitalized, he wears a simple dress he ties around the waist.

After becoming a Brimmed Cap, Custas dons his own personal hat made out of feathers whilst wearing a thick, black pants and a black undershirt with leaf patterning down his torso. He also wears the Wingcloak, now modified without the crutches.

By far his most significant change however, is the presence of his new wood-like platforms which act as augmented leg muscles, allowing him not only to walk, but to manipulate the wooden branches as if it was part of his body. It is a forbidden magic equipment that greatly scars and transforms his leg into something wooden and grotesque.

## Personality

Custas's personality is deeply marked by his rough upbringing. He has an obsession with fate, which he considers cruel and responsible for the hand he was dealt in life, and wants to break out of. He tends to think about money first, and values information that can earn him more, such as learning medicinal herbs with Tartah. He struggles with people helping him, very aware people like Dagda and Coco are the reason he is still alive, and trying to always "pay back" any favor. Notably, he cannot stand seeing Dagda work dangerous jobs for his sake, and asks the man to abandon him instead, despite knowing he couldn't survive without.

Custas is energetic and very reckless, immediately jumping into a river in order to retrieve goods that had fallen inside. Even after being injured and unable to walk without a sealchair, he still ends up acting recklessly and getting himself injured further. He is friendly towards Coco and Tartah, and is generally playful. He expresses affection in a physical way, like holding Tartah in a headlock or jumping on to Dagda's back. Despite having an upbeat personality, he also has lapses of frustration directed towards the world he was raised in.

After being enlightened by Ininia on the 'truth' of the magical system and becoming a Brimmed Cap, Custas became drastically more cynical and emotionally unstable, lapsing between period of calm to choleric anger. By becoming a Brimmed Cap and being given new forbidden magic on his legs, Custas became more spiteful to not only his former friends, Coco and Tartah, but is also now determined in destroying the world of the Pointed Hats. His magical education coinciding with Dagda's attack might explain his emotional instability, as he deals with the stress of watching him die over and over again.

## Plot

### River Rescue Arc

After Dagda requests the help of Qifrey's atelier for a rescue mission, Custas is introduced as one of the victims in the accident. After being rescued, he attempts to return to the fallen caravan and retrieve the lost goods. A boulder falls on top of him, immobilizing him. Coco creates a spell to disintegrate the rock, and brings him back to safety.

### Silver Eve Prologue Arc

Later on, while Coco and Tartah are visiting Kalhn, it is revealed that Custas has been staying in the Kahln Medical Facility to treat his critical injuries, including the provision of a sealchair. He remembers Coco, and greets her fondly, while revealing his friendship with Tartah and their studying of medicinal herbs. At some point between his admission to the Medical Facility and his reunition with Coco, he met Tartah after being assaulted by a group of Unknowings attempting to steal his sealchair, breaking it in the process. Tartah fixed Custas’s chair, and offered to help him up.

Custas tells Coco and Tartah that boulder had left his legs unusable, jeapordizing his job as a traveling minstrel. He reflects on his upbringing in poverty, and lashes out in his frustration towards Coco and Tartah for receiving the privilege of being witches, with magical abilities, homes, food, and education. After leaving Coco and Tartah, Custas finds an injured Dagda in the hospital courtyard and begs him not to take on any more mercenary work, telling Dagda to just leave him behind.

Some time later, Custas meets Tartah at the hospital again. Custas seems happy to see Tartah, who asks Custas if he will help Tartah, who in turn wants to help Custas. Custas agrees to this, and the two meet up with Coco along a path outside the city. Coco and Tartah present Custas with a Winged Cloak they made for him. Custas is delighted by the gift, laughing in the face of fate as he, one who was born in the dirt, now flies higher than any bird. Dagda arrives, and Custas exuberantly asks if he saw him flying. The group settles down on some boulders nearby, and Custas reveals that he’s been learning to write. He apologizes to Coco and Tartah for lashing out at them during their previous meeting, explaining that he sometimes becomes frustrated when privileged people don’t realize just how much they have, and tells them that he now understands that just like he can’t change the fact that he was born into poverty, they can’t control the fact that they were born as witches. Custas says goodbye to his friends, and leaves to continue his travels with Dagda.

While camping in a forest for the night, Custas asks Dagda if they can go to the Silver Eve Festival perform in honor of the witches, as he hasn’t yet thanked Coco and Tartah for the Winged Cape. During their conversation, Dagda is suddenly shot by an archer in a bandit ambush. He tells Custas to leave while he fights off the attack, and ends up throwing him away so he's not in firing range. Custas comes back later and sees all the bandits and Dagda down. While not dead yet, he is mortally wounded. He cries and curls up on the man's chest.

They are found like this by the witch Ininia who offers to help them. She brings Dagda back up using a time reversal glyph, and later gives Custas new augmented legs so he can walk. They head to the festival.

### Silver Eve Arc

Custas surprises Coco and Tartah in the middle of a conversation. He cuts it short, lashing out at both of them for lying about magic, and attacking them with his new legs. The two try to tell him they were genuine, which makes him hesitate a little. With the help of Ininia who forcefully attaches magic bracelets they cannot take off, they ask Coco and Tartah to use the Silver Eve's procession to contact King Deanreldea. Custas silences Ininia before she can explain the reason they want to contact him for.

While recovering from the encounter, the two children meet Dagda, who reveals to them he is looking for Custas. They are attacked by Garga who believes Dagda is a Brimhat. Dagda collapses, the glyph on his chest having reached expiration. Custas appears at the last second to take down Garga and redraw the glyph on Dagda's chest to save him from dying again.

## Relationships

### Dagda

Custas refers to Dagda as his "family, master, and partner". He credits him as being the one who pulled him out of life in the slums, and travelled with him as a minstrel. He cares about him greatly, and grows upset when he sees Dagda taking on dangerous work in order to provide for him. Coco mistakes Dagda as being Custas' father on one occasion, but the boy denies it.

### Tartah

After Custas was hospitalized in Kalhn, he became friends with Tartah, who he met after he came to his aid after being assaulted in an alleyway, before repairing his broken sealchair. Tartah and Custas study herbal medicine together as well, despite the fact that witches can't learn about medicine, which Tartah kept secret from Custas. After becoming a Brimmed Cap, Custas' relationship with Tartah deteriorated, with Custas accusing Tartah of being a liar.

Custas acts playful with Tartah, even during times when their relationship is soured. He teases him a lot about his happy go lucky nature and his very earnest kindness.

### Coco

Custas feels endebted to Coco for saving his life during the river accident, and later after her gift of the Wingcloak. He refers to her and Tartah as his "witches he was fated to meet" When he meets her again in the hospital, he salutes her by bowing his head and holding up her hands. Whether he does this as a genuine expression of gratitude or to embarrass her and Tartah is unclear.

After being revealed the truth about magic, their relationship also deteriorates, going as far as violently hitting her in anger.

### Ininia

As the person who saved his life and that of Dagda's, Custas is in a life debt to Ininia, who he regards as his personal savior. As such, Ininia often acts as Custas' mentor, teaching him of the world of magic and guiding him to his full potential.

## Trivia

* In his birthday comics, he says he doesn't really care about the day, having no good memories attached to it.
* He is loosely attached to bird symbolism, like wings and feathers, and talks about fate like a cage to break.
* The dress he wears after the accident might be the Kalhn hospital's gown, as it has a medical cross embroidered on the back of the neck.