Brian

Brian

First appearance: Apathy, chapter 24
Last appearance: Crucible, chapter 18
Appears in: Apathy, Hellion, Armageddon, Timeless, Crucible

Latest status

protective and conflicted, supporting Eliza through her Ice Witch rampage without intervening

Brian begins as an ordinary guard at a farm who befriends Eliza and falls for her before a catastrophic battle transforms him into a plant-human hybrid, sacrificing his old life to contain a spreading threat. Reborn afterward as a vine-and-branch creature, he relearns speech and control of his new body while becoming Eliza’s fiercely devoted protector, standing guard through the wars and upheavals that follow. Over time his guardianship deepens into genuine partnership, and he grows into a powerful, loyal fixture at her side.

Abilities

• Plant-hybrid physiology: rapid plant growth and manipulation, branch combat (post-transformation) — Book 3.5
• Enhanced strength and mold resistance (post-transformation) — Book 3.5
• Full resurrection into a mobile vine-and-branch body with basic plant manipulation and growth — Book 5
• Body expansion into barricades, cushioning surfaces, and carrying platforms — Book 5
• Massive size transformation (up to roughly sixty feet) — Book 5
• Projectile attacks using hurled trees and stone — Book 5
• Energy absorption and storage — Book 5
• Root-anchoring to structures for stationary defense — Book 5
• First full-sentence speech (“I. Will. Protect. You.”), a communication breakthrough beyond earlier single-word or nonverbal expression — Book 5

Book 3.5: Apathy

Brian is a guard at Tollhouse Farm who meets Eliza during a delivery and quickly grows friendly with her, offering casual help despite being on duty. Over several visits he assists with sheep treatment, shows social intelligence and self-deprecating humor toward his own mistakes, and gradually develops a romantic interest in her, at one point sharing his hope of someday traveling and having adventures instead of guarding a farm gate. When alarm bells signal the outbreak of Eliza’s mold weapon, Brian takes charge of organizing the shepherds and follows her into the fight against the sporelings and the Queen Cluster, trusting her plans even as ordinary weapons prove useless against the fungus and the situation grows desperate. He is fatally infected during the battle; to save him, Eliza combines healing magic with her Accelerated Growth spell, transforming him into a plant-human hybrid with a body of intertwined branches and vines and glowing blue eyes. Accepting the transformation without regret, Brian uses his new form to destroy the Queen Cluster from within, sacrificing himself to keep the mold from spreading beyond the farm and telling Eliza to find her own adventure as he goes. The resulting explosion destroys Tollhouse Farm and ends Brian’s human existence, leaving him as a Strange Sapling with warm leaves, blue mana veins, and a detectable heartbeat, a dormant state that leaves open the possibility Eliza could one day restore him.

Status: Alive — guard at Tollhouse Farm → Transformed — reduced to a dormant Strange Sapling with a detectable heartbeat, existing between death and potential resurrection

Eliza: Their bond grows from a flirtatious farm friendship into complete mutual trust during the mold crisis, then into Brian’s sacrificial devotion after Eliza transforms him to save his life and, through his final act, the wider world.

Key quote: “Find your own adventure”

Book 5: Hellion

At the start of the book, Brian exists as a dormant, partially conscious sapling, the result of his earlier transformation and death while helping Eliza contain a mold disaster. He responds to Eliza’s touch with recognizable gestures, and his remembered last words continue to weigh on her guilt. After a week of experimental work by Eliza and Spider, he is fully resurrected as a creature made of coiled vines and branches with glowing blue eyes, and must learn to control the new body from scratch; his only word at first is Eliza’s name. He spends the following stretch adapting, communicating mainly through gesture and small plant-based gifts, such as a flower bracelet for Riley, while continuing to develop with Eliza and Spider’s help.

As the group prepares for and executes the siege of Sandscrit, Brian settles into a consistent role as Eliza’s guardian, refusing to leave her side even at the cost of his own safety, and extending that protectiveness to Spider and the rest of the party. In combat he begins channeling his plant magic more offensively, expanding his body to build barricades, shield the party’s spellcasters from projectiles, and clear tactical paths, coordinating directly with Jason on team-protection priorities.

During the battle for Sandscrit his abilities scale up dramatically: he grows to roughly sixty feet, hurls trees and stone as projectiles, and stores and releases absorbed energy, and for the first time manages a full sentence, “I. Will. Protect. You.,” a breakthrough his previously fragmented speech had not reached. He goes on to serve as a mobile fortress, carrying travelers to the Mage Guild on his back and shielding them from Alexion’s airships, then roots himself atop the guild hall wall to anchor a stationary defense, hurling projectiles at the attacking fleet. By the book’s end he has been reborn with heightened protective and territorial instincts, flashing warning signs at threats near Eliza and calming immediately at her reassurance — a bond intense enough that it appears to border on possessiveness.

Status: Alive — dormant sapling, partially conscious and awakening → Alive — fully reborn plant-creature, protective and territorially vigilant guardian bound to Eliza

Eliza: Their friendship deepens from Eliza’s guilt over his death into a resurrection bond so intense it appears to border on possessiveness, with Brian’s existence centered on protecting her.

Riley: Brian marks their acquaintance with a plant-woven flower bracelet as a welcoming gift.

Spider: Spider becomes his ongoing healer and collaborator, assisting his resurrection, physical development, and battlefield plant magic.

Key quote: “I. Will. Protect. You.”

Book 6: Armageddon

Brian accompanies Eliza to a meeting between the avatars, remaining wary of Finn because of a previous encounter between them that went badly. At Evelyn’s summit he stays in a state of constant vigilance, positioning himself physically around Eliza and reading her emotional state rather than speaking, and he grows visibly more suspicious of Evelyn as the gathering sours. When Julia confronts Eliza during the ensuing chaos, Brian responds by unleashing paralytic plant defenses and bramble walls, escalating his protectiveness in step with the danger. During a separate confrontation over accusations against Eliza, he again forms barriers and stands ready for combat without questioning her innocence. He also shows a caretaking side, physically comforting Eliza while she recovers from a difficult episode, and by this point relates to her with something read as romantic or close-friendship affection rather than pure guardianship, while still respecting her autonomy. Later, during Jason’s expedition, Brian extends his root connection into the ground and warns the group that the earth itself is unstable, functioning as an early-warning sensor for the environmental chaos overtaking the world. By the book’s end, in the aftermath of Armageddon, he and Eliza are in an explicit romantic partnership; he fights alongside her and Jason as an equal partner in the resistance, still protective but now folded into the group’s broader survival effort.

Status: Alive — protective and wary, watching over Eliza at the avatar summit → Alive — in a romantic partnership with Eliza, fighting as part of the resistance against the returned avatars

Eliza: Shifts from devoted guardian to explicit romantic partner, standing alongside her as an equal in the resistance rather than purely as her protector.

Finn: Carries wariness from a past conflict with Finn into the book’s early chapters, though this hostility is not shown recurring later.

Key quote: “Ground. Unstable. Something. Wrong.”

Book 7: Timeless

During the group’s defense at Gloria’s temple, Brian hovers protectively around Eliza, its glowing blue eyes watching both the group and outside travelers warily while it helps with the temple’s defense. Later, amid the chaos of the group’s operations, Brian’s plant-creature nature becomes more visible: it extends root-like legs and sprouts twig-like limbs, channeling mana potions to team members and enhancing Eliza’s magical abilities through their symbiotic bond. Brian is protective of Eliza to the point of trying to physically prevent her from taking dangerous actions, though it ultimately respects her decisions and defers to her judgment.

Status: Protective companion hovering near Eliza during the temple standoff → Symbiotic partner actively channeling resources and magical support to Eliza and the team

Eliza: Brian’s symbiotic bond with Eliza deepens into active resource-sharing, with Brian channeling mana and enhancing her magic while still trying, and failing, to keep her out of danger.

Book 8: Crucible

Brian is a plant-hybrid creature bonded to Eliza, with branch-like limbs that transform into spears and poisonous flowers, and blue eyes that glow when he is agitated. When Jason emerges from Cady’s castle carrying an unconscious Eliza, Brian reacts with alarm, transforming his arms into spears and summoning poisonous flowers, and he continues to hold a grudge against Jason even after Eliza wakes and explains the situation; he grows a carriage to carry her and later throws himself uselessly against Finn’s warded bunker trying to reach her. He remains at Eliza’s side through the events leading into the Carousel stampede, and when she unleashes her mold powers and slaughters the crowd of travelers as the Ice Witch, Brian, enhanced with an injection of Accelerated Growth and a mana potion, forms a protective shell and grows a vine-choked forest around her; he recognizes that she is no longer herself in that moment but does not try to stop her, instead keeping her alive through the rampage.

Status: alarmed and protective, holding a grudge against Jason over Eliza’s unconscious state → protective and conflicted, supporting Eliza through her Ice Witch rampage without intervening

Eliza: Brian’s protective bond deepens into unconditional support, sheltering and sustaining her even as she transforms into the more violent Ice Witch identity.

Jason: Brian’s hostility toward Jason hardens into a sustained grudge after mistaking him for Eliza’s kidnapper, one that persists even after an explanation.

Appears in

• Apathy — 6 chapters
• Hellion — 12 chapters
• Armageddon — 8 chapters
• Timeless — 2 chapters
• Crucible — 2 chapters