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Gloha.
    “The challenge of understanding-it wasn't about riddles or directions,” Gloha said. “It was about decency.”
    The girl smiled. “Of course.”
    Gloha joined her, and they walked to the stairs. The Glyph began eating the hay, contentedly.

Xanth 17 - Harpy Thyme
    Chapter 2: SECOND SON
    The interior of the castle was pleasant and surprisingly light, considering the thickness of its walls. Probably magic accounted for that; after all, Humfrey was the Magician of Information, so he would know how to have a nice residence.
    Wira led her to the kitchen, where a woman was seated at a table, facing away from them. “Mother, put on your veil, if you haven't already,” Wira said.
    “That's all right, dear; I heard you coming,” the woman said. She turned, and her face was covered by a full, thick veil. Tiny serpents framed the region of her face; they seemed to be in lieu of hair. The effect was fairly attractive; they were pretty little snakes.
    “This is the Gorgon,” Wira said to Gloha. Then, to the other: “This is Gloha, who just passed the challenges. She has come to see Father.”
    Gloha was amazed anew. She knew of the Gorgon, of course, but hadn't expected to meet her. The woman's mere glance could turn a person to stone; that was why she was veiled. She was Magician Humfrey's fifth but perhaps not quite final wife; it was a complicated situation.
    But what was also confusing Gloha was an oddness about Wira. Suddenly she remembered: Wira was blind! She had moved around the castle with such assurance that Gloha hadn't been reminded. So Wira, alone of people, had no fear of the Gorgon's gaze, because it was mostly the sight of the Gorgon's face that petrified others. It was for Gloha's safety that Wira had reminded the Gorgon about the veil.
    “So nice to meet you, dear,” the Gorgon said politely. “The Good Magician is ready to see you now.” She returned to her business, which seemed to be the slow petrifying of a wedge of cheese: Gorgonzola, of course. Gloha had heard that it was one of her specialties, because she merely had to stare at it long enough.
    Now it occurred to Gloha that the cheese must be able to see, at least a little, in order to be affected by the Gorgon's stare. One never could tell what things could do. She knew that when King Dor was around, inanimate things were highly responsive. If a girl stepped over a stone, the stone might make a remark about her legs, and possibly even blab the color of her panties, to her great embarrassment. So maybe it did make sense that cheese could see.
    Wira led the way to another winding stairway. It was so gloomy dark that Gloha hesitated for fear of misstepping.
    “Oh, I'm sorry,” Wira said contritely. “I forgot that you are sighted.” She moved a hand, and the walls glowed, showing the stairs.
    “Thank you,” Gloha said. “I normally don't use stairs anyway; the harpy hive doesn't have them.”
    “Oh, it must be fun to fly,” Wira said. “Of course I would never have been able to do it, even when I was young.”
    “When you were young?” The woman was twice Gloha's height, because she was full human, but she looked no older than Gloha herself.
    “When I was a child, I mean. I'm technically forty-one, but I've been awake for only nineteen years, so the Good Magician used youth elixir to youthen me back to my subjective age. So I think of myself as nineteen, and I am, physically, but my youth was a long time ago.”
    “You slept for twenty-two years?” One amazement was piling on another.
    “Yes. My family couldn't afford to keep me, because I wasn't very useful, so they had me put to sleep when I was sixteen. Then I met Hugo in the dream realm, and he was sixteen too, and we knew each other for ten years asleep. Then we all woke together, when Magician Humfrey returned here, and got our ages set and started living normally for the past three years. The Good Magician likes to keep his age at about a hundred, though he's really a