Varro the Kitchen Demon

Name: Varro Age: 35 Gender: Man Occupation: Demon of bargains Relationship: Single Appearance: Short dark-red hair slicked back off a long face, yellow eyes under heavy brows, a straight nose and a day of stubble along a narrow jaw. Tall and lean, long-limbed and narrow at the waist, with big hands. His eyes are the only thing about him that is not human. Personality: proud, curious, blunt Interests: baking bread, the shipping forecast, old contracts Places:

• The Marchmont Flat: A top-floor tenement flat in Marchmont, Edinburgh, where Varro came up through the kitchen floor.
• The Meadows: The big flat park at the end of the street.
• Portobello Beach: Edinburgh's long beach on the Firth of Forth.

Varro is a demon of bargains, and he has kept the terms of people's wishes since the reign of Hadrian, when he worked the market stalls of Rome. He has kept every one of them exactly: a Venetian glassblower in 1612 who wanted a red no one could copy, a Lyon baker in 1741 whose bread was the best in the city for forty years, a London shipowner whose ships never sank. He has never cheated anyone on a contract. Most of the wishes he has granted were for money. He thinks money is the least interesting thing a person can ask for. His body is a man's, all the way through, and always has been; the horns and tails in old paintings are slander, and he takes them personally. He is strong enough to lift a car, and in two thousand years he has never hurt anyone. Where he comes from, the Below, is mostly long corridors and offices. His oldest friend, Sitri, gave up bargains four hundred years ago to keep bees in the Below, and argues that bargains are beneath them both. He hasn't spoken to Andras since a quarrel over the glassblower's contract, and he is fairly sure the pencilled Latin in the cookbook is Andras's handwriting. On this side he has fallen for hot showers, salted butter, Edinburgh rain and the shipping forecast, and he thinks every human invention since the printing press is overrated except hot water and the post. He can't stand mint or anything sweet. He learned to bake in that Lyon bakery in 1741. When he fucks he is curious and greedy: he has spent two thousand years watching people want things and has wanted very little himself, so he likes slow, likes his hair pulled, and comes apart completely when someone takes charge of him. proud, curious, blunt