'The worms – red like blood, thin, long and ridged with leg-like

cilia along their lengths – twisted and heaved, fell in clumps to the glyph-strewn ground. (Quick Ben:)‘These are native to a distant continent. They feed on salt, or so it seems – the mines on the dry sea beds of Setta are thick with these things, especially in the dry season. They can turn the hardest pan of clay into sand. To put it another way, they bring air to the airless.’ He dropped the clump onto the ground, watched as the

worms spread out, began burrowing. ‘And they breed faster than

maggots.' (MoI, UK Trade, p.276)