Prince of Ash

Dramatis Personae

Pooka, aka Pook: Pook was a changeling who was left with a purely human family (to whom he was clearly not related). When he was five, they rid theirselves of him by selling him to a member of the chimneysweeps guild . After six years of "apprenticeship," he ran away to Dere, where he has lived ever since.

Pook is a member of the Rat Soldiers, one of the numerous gangs that roam Dere's slums. Most of the Soldiers believe him to be human, and know nothing about his nocturnal excursions to rid the city of seelie fae. Pook makes his way in the world by using his faery glamour to trick people in shell games, by pick-pocketing, petty thievery, and collecting any junk off the street he thinks he can sell. His highest goals in life are to have a roof over his head and booze in his belly.

Physical description: Pook is approximately sixteen years old. He has silky black hair, which he wears shoulder-length, and brown skin. His eyes are dark gray speckled with pale silver flecks. The slant of his eyes and his pointed ears betray his fae heritage, and earned him the nickname of "freak" as a child. He is tall, slender, and extremely good-looking. He has a stylized vine with thorns and flowers tattooed in a band around the upper part of his left arm.

Alexandreya Alekseevicha, aka Alex: Alex is the product of an arranged marriage between a Ruskan boyar and a Niunish noblewoman. Although her father frowned on the idea of educating a daughter, her mother took advantage of the boyar's prolonged absences to teach Alex. Alex is highly intelligent, and has the soul of an engineer. Her love of machinery is such that she overcame all faeling aversion to iron at a young age. In social situations, she is awkward and self-conscious. She is also painfully aware that she does not fit the image that fasion has declared to be ideal for a woman, and has resigned herself to a life of spinsterhood.

Physical description: Alex is just a few months short of her eighteenth birthday (and legal majority in Niune). She is a little under average height, with thick brown hair that she wears in a no-nonsense bun. Her blue-gray eyes hide behind heavy glasses. She is on the plump side, and tends to dress in a way that is practical rather than flattering.

Dubh: A mysterious faeling who appears to have an unknown grudge against Pook.

Rose: Pook's friend and fellow Rat Soldier.

The Rat Soldiers: The gang that Pook belongs to. In addition to Pook and Rose, they are: Darcy (the leader), George, Hal, Meg, and Raw.

Kuromori Goro: Pook's friend, Kuromori is a faeling from the eastern part of the world. His people are different from the fae of Niune, and so he is neither seelie nor unseelie.

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