Extirpated from the continent at around the same time as griffins, sphinxes are unseelie fae that actually do deserve their reputations as man-eaters, as they seem to derive more nutrition from highly intelligent prey, favoring learned professors above all else. This, combined with the sphinx’s own high intelligence and cunning, makes them extremely dangerous to keep in a zoological garden or menagerie. But it also makes them highly desirable and sought-after, so naturally both the Imperial and Royal Menagerie and the Collegium Zoological Gardens have at least one sphinx.

They are fed a regular diet of rhesus monkeys, the most intelligent creature that can be spared, but will often try to bargain their way into sweeter meat, as both sphinxes have fully mastered the common tongue. Indeed, they engage in an enciphered correspondence which seems to keep them appraised of the other, though no one at the Collegium has been able to break their code. It was thought that providing a male sphinx—the size of a housecat, and quite stupid compared to the female—might result in cubs, but the only result in both cases was that the sphinx toyed with the male for a month as they slowly tortured it to death. Visitors to both are cautioned never to enter into a contract of any kind with a sphinx, to give its riddles no heed, and above all to never, ever take anything that it offers.

  • Like what you see? Purchase a print or ebook version!