Most of the descendants of East Island's original settlers who still remain in the neighborhood live in their ancestors' houses, or in some cases in new structures built on their ancestors' property. At least one such descendant, however, doesn't live a house, per se, or an apartment, or any such conventional residence. In fact, it could be said that Leka Ingandi doesn't live in the neighborhood at all, but under it. Leka's ancestors were badger chogatachs, and when forced out of their residence dug burrows beneath the neighborhood and moved there instead, furnishing them with what they managed to salvage from their house. While, with the exception of the Old City and certain other areas, the ground beneath [[&Luuml;m]] is mostly marshy and unstable, the same linings that keep the water in East Island's canals relatively clean also keep the area within the canals relatively dry and solid, making such excavation possible.

In the intervening generations, the burrows were expanded into an extensive complex, one of which Leka is now the sole permanent occupant, being the last of his line to remain in East Island. He has invited people he trusts to visit his burrows and even to stay there temporarily, but he does his best to keep them a secret from the authorities, wary of how they might react. Cognizant of his ancestors' ill treatment, Leka sympathizes with the malcontents who hope to oust the rich residents of East Island and return the neighborhood to what it originally was, and allows them to use his burrows as a staging or meeting area, although he himself takes little active part in their activities beyond that.

Leka Ingandi is a small but sinewy man with a shuffling gait and a tendency to keep his gaze looking downward. He has a small face with round ears that stick prominently straight out, a pointed chin, and untidy black hair. When in mostly human form, he usually keeps a black and white stripe of fur on his back and a badger's tail; when in mostly badger form he usually keeps his human head. In the former form, Leka favors wearing loose brown smocks and knee-length brown trousers—clothing he can don and doff quickly when he changes shape.