Foulk Trigemine

****F******oulk Trigemine**, also called **Antony Masseter**, was a sutler under Morvengarde. He was ruthless, and used his kairos mechanism to travel through time and complete Morvengarde's assignments.

## Biography

### *Bluecrowne*

Trigemine, a roamer, time-traveled into 1810 using his kairos mechanism. He met up with Ignis Blister (who annoyed him) and after discussing the device, explained his mission from Morvengarde: find a conflagrationeer. The two set off for the Quayside Harbors in search of a place to stay.

After detecting Liao's firework, Blister declared that the conflagrationeer was indeed nearby. They went to the Quenching Press, where Trigemine met the Ironmonger. The Ironmonger was, to Trigemine's disgust and dismay, discussing a bargain for the Albatross, which Trigemine was supposed to get for Morvengarde, with a Jumper. After the Jumper left, Trigemine talked to the Ironmonger about the Albatross himself, and the man expressed contempt at Trigemine's association with Morvengarde. The Ironmonger left, and Trigemine agreed with Blister that Jumpers were to be hated. Blister later shared what he'd learned with Trigemine: the Jumper's name (Coffrett), and that the conflagrationeer was connected to a ship called the *Left-Handed Fate*.

Blister, seeing a girl and a boy in a boat, realized that the conflagrationeer was not the ship's gunner but the Chinese boy whose father captained the ship. Blister and Trigemine discussed what taking the boy (for they were now certain he was the conflagrationeer) would entail. Trigemine told Blister who the conflagrationeer was for: Jack Hellcoal. He recounted some stories of the man, and both wondered what would happen if they failed this terrifying customer.

Lucy and Liao, wandering around the Quayside Harbors, saw Trigemine and Blister. Blister had a fire in his hand, and after some coaxing, showed Liao how to do it too, and they talked for a long time about fireworks, and worked with them in Bliter's wagon. Meanwhile, Trigemine, who did not know much about fire, spoke to Lucy Bluecrowne. Trigemine and Blister were, it was decided, to come to the Bluecrowne home, so Blister could teach Liao more about fireworks.

Trigemine tried to convince the Ironmonger once again to sell him the Albatross, but he refused, to Trigemine's anger. Blister and Trigemine spied on Lucy and Liao using the flame in a lamp, and when Liao's mother showed up, Blister identified the Lady Xiaoming as not human. They wondered how they were supposed to take Liao with this powerful, immortal being around, and discussed how Morvengarde would like it if they took her too. The bartender's son heard them discussing it, and Trigemine took him to another time, where he was killed.

Trigemine finished doing the calculations it had taken him hours to do. Blister declared that he had managed to get a rope that could bind Xiaoming, from Forgeron, and knew a place that they could use to confront the Bluecrownes. Trigemine and Blister showed up at Bluecrowne House. They quickly enacted their plan to take Liao away, and Blister and Liao disappeared, exploding Liao's workshop behind them. Trigemine met Lucy and explained that if she got the knife Albatross, he would tell her where to find Liao. He did, and Lucy went for the knife, because he'd threatened to whisk them away if she didn't. Lucy took the *Driven Star* and arrived at the Ironmonger's workshop, but he and Jonas Forgeron and Jianming Cerrajero convinced her that Trigemine had lied about giving Liao back, and Lucy left without the knife.

Lucy and Xiaoming showed up at the house where Trigemine and Blister were, and met Trigemine at the door. He was quite angry at the loss of his knife, and he and Xiaoming made threats back and forth. Inside the garden, Liao was trapped in a pillar of fire, but seemed unhurt, only angry. Blister and Xiaoming fought with fire while Lucy fought Trigemine off. Blister, despite being a conflagrationeer, was severely burnt, but managed to wrap Xiaoming, who had somehow turned into a bird, in Forgeron's rope. Lucy walked through the lyke-fire despite the incredible pain, to the peddlers' shock. From inside the fire prison, the elixir enabled Lucy to speak to the fire, and she was able to move with the fire. Lucy used the marlinespike given to her by the Ironmonger to take apart the rope holding Xiaoming. Xiaoming escaped, blinding the sutlers, and Lucy and Liao walked off as well.

Blister unbodied Xiaoming with fire. Lucy loaded the sobbing Liao into the *Driven Star* and they set off. The *Left-Handed Fate* showed up as well. Trigemine swam after them and attempted to board the boat, and after some thinking Lucy decided to sink the *Driven Star.* Liao exploded his rocket supplies and the two swam away, before being loaded onto the *Left-Handed Fate.* Seleucia Deacon showed up, and showed her disappointment and contempt for Trigemine, who had dragged himself back ashore, and Blister. Jack Hellcoal then arrived, and after some conversation, killed Deacon and left. Trigemine vowed to have revenge on the Bluecrownes.

### *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book*

Antony Masseter was a guest at the Blue Vein Tavern. He was a tall traveling merchant who would often get up in the night, and sometimes play one of Mrs. Haypotten's music boxes. He smoked with Phineas Amalgam and Gregory Sangwin, offering them each a cigar. Phineas Amalgam told the tale "The Game of Maps". A peddler with cold blue eyes came to town to acquire a piece of a mechanism he'd lost, an adit-gate that could bridge space and time. He knew Nagspeake well enough to suspect that one might be found in Fellwool House, so he found a boy, since children were very good at finding adit-gates. He told Pantin that he could prove his bravery by spending a night in Fellwool House, so Pantin did. The peddler instructed Pantin to find an adit-gate in the house and bring him the keyhole from it, and he would pay Pantin for it, so Pantin went looking. Eventually, exhausted and shaken, Pantin exited the house and gave the peddler the map key, which he'd decided was the adit-gate.

After the tale, Masseter complained about how peddlers were always villains in folklore, challenging the guests to think of stories where the peddlers were not bad, after which Reever told the tale "The Whalebone Spring". Madame Grisaille then told "The Roamer in the Nettles". There was once a boy called Pantin who lived in a house with the secret grave of a roamer-hero in his yard. One day, a thief called Trigemine came, pretending to be a peddler. He brought catalogs from a company called Morvengarde, and inspected each house for something of value that he could buy, but he did not find the box he was looking for. He then gave each house drinks for having let him look around, but it turned out they were drugged. Pantin, however, hadn't had any, and was awakened in the night when the peddler returned and began to dig up the grave of the roamer-hero. With the help of the gargoyle Troublewit, Pantin used the old iron to raise up the hero's bones in an attempt to scare away "Mr. Trigonometry". The thief tried to be polite, but the roamer-hero saw through it, and sent the thief away without the coffret he wanted from the grave.

After telling the story, in which a thief comes in the guise of a peddler, Madame Grisaille apologized to Masseter. Petra then asked Sangwin to tell the tale of the peddler and the man who loses an eye, and after receiving Masseter's approval (they were worried about offending the man who only had one eye), he did. A man with cold blue eyes came to town, looking for a box that would fit a lock that he had, so they sent him after the hollow-ware man, who'd just disappeared into the hollow-way. When the man returned from the hollow-way, one of his eyes was tin; the hollow-ware man must have asked for an eye in payment for the box. The stranger did not tell the townsfolk anything more. Masseter did not think the peddler had been a villain, because the man could have just walked out when he heard the price, but the box had been worth an eye to him.

Later, Masseter asked Petra if she'd decided on a tale, and wondered what he would tell, wishing he could tell something different than the others'. He then commented on how Petra had been requesting specific tales, then left for a smoke. He later offered a cigar to Jessamy Butcher, and he and Amalgam, Sangwin, and Tesserian asked her about being a headcutter. In the night, Masseter got up and wound many of Mrs. Haypotten's music boxes. Masseter listened to Captain Frost's tale of Melusine and Lowe. Tesserian told the tale "The Ferryman". After speaking with Cas for a long time, the Ferryman Isaac Knickpointe saw across the river a customer he'd carried before, someone tall with lantern light reflecting off something shiny near his left eye. The Ferryman took Cas to tell the man a riddle for passage. Masseter spoke with Sorcha about fire-kenning and reckonings, mentioning that he had some questions but usually did his own.

Sorcha told a story of a fire-kenning. One day, a customer came to the shop of the fire-savvy John Ustion, saying that he'd been referred by Alphonsus Lung. Lung had not trusted him to have what he wanted, so he had sent the customer away. Ustion realized that he wanted a device not for keeping time but for manipulating it, and the customer explained how this would work. Ustion could not trust the customer, so he sent him away, but he was captivated, and as soon as the customer left, he began to work. Ustion never finished the device, however, but left a list of the parts it needed and locked the thing in a cabinet, having grown uneasy about it. He told his granddaughter to destroy it, but when she went to do it, it wasn't there anymore.

Masseter and Petra talked about things left behind (Masseter was sure that Petra was up to something with this mention), leading to Mr. Haypotten telling a tale of a bottle of fog. In the story, when the boy Hugo went to a reliquary maker to have his bottle fixed, Gaz was talking to another customer with one blue eye, telling him that he could use the spring that was provided even though it was different from the plans, but the device needed a winder, so the customer left. Afterward, Masseter watched as Mr. Haypotten indicated about High Walkers, and was interested in the story of Blaise Forel. After Maisie's tale, Masseter figured out what the knave had really done to take things and how she'd had good intentions and was not a villain. Maisie demanded to know how he knew this, and he responded that he was good at spotting patterns.

Masseter told the tale of a boy called Foulk. He could see all the patterns, and the almost-patterns tortured him. He began to look for a specific pattern, which he could sense but not see, and loved a girl called Jacinda who seemed to escape all the patterns. One day, while on a walk, he met Morvengarde, who told him that he was part of the Roaming World, and that was the pattern he had been sensing. Morvengarde gave Foulk a loupe with which he could see worden and ferly, weyward lumination which discerned special individuals. Overtime, Foulk got better at discerning weyward light, and one day he saw an incredible amount of ferly in Jacinda's garden. He wrote to Morvengarde, and Seleucia Deacon looked at the meteorites and declared that they weren't interested, then left. Jacinda kissed Foulk, but then she disappeared, and Foulk realized that she had been the source of the ferly, and Morvengarde had taken her. Foulk ended up having to work for Morvengarde, and was eventually tasked with a time-manipulating device. He planned to one day go back and rescue Jacinda, but before that, he did terrible things for Morvengarde, whatever he asked. Eventually, though, he failed two assignments in a row and his mechanism was destroyed. He was told to rebuild it, and the years went buy, until Foulk showed up at the inn.

After his tale, he said that everyone in the inn had weyward light about them, especially young Maisie. He then confronted Petra with the knowledge that she had been controlling the telling of tales, and Petra said that according to her calculations, this was the kairos moment for them. She told her tale. After the Skidwrack River had flooded and killed her family, she used orphan magic to go upriver to stop the flooding before her town was destroyed. A man with one tin eye and one blue one took her out of the river, then offered to go upriver instead of her. Although something about him seemed false, Nell believed him and gave him the bone, and he went upriver. However, he did not go to the river's source, but got out, and left with the magic bone, leaving her town to be destroyed.

Masseter took the green lens out of his eye, revealing that it was cold blue, and took away his eye patch, revealing a tin orb. He insisted that he had lied, and showed the device he'd been building. Petra revealed that she had the last piece he needed, and when he tried to take it from her, the nails in the floor reached up and held him immobile, and he realized who Madame Grisaille was. She threatened to turn him into a statue if he did not do what Petra said, so he unwillingly agreed to the deal of going to the Skidwrack River's source with Petra and Sullivan and stopping the flood before Petra gave him the piece he needed. He, Sullivan, and Petra left and floated upriver until they were out of sight of the inn. Jessamy then told a story about how Petra would beat the Devil and stop the flood, while Masseter and Sullivan cheered her on.

## Physical appearance

Trigemine had cold blue eyes that betrayed his true character under his polite atmosphere. At one point, he lost an eye, and now one of his eyes is tin and not blue. For most of his stay at the Blue Vein Tavern, he disguised himself by wearing an eye patch over his tin eye and a green lens in his blue one. He is tall, and has a scar like a firework on his hand. He walks quietly.

## Personality and traits

Trigemine acts very polite, but underneath it, he is ruthless. He will stop at nothing to meet his assignment from Morvengarde, even if it's killing.

## Trivia

* "Trigemine" is pronounced "TRIH-juh-meen".
* "Trigemine" might be a reference to "trigonometry", the chronometric trigonometry that he does for his kairos mechanism.
* Foulk Trigemine appears in nine of *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book*'s fifteen tales: The Game of Maps, The Roamer in the Nettles, The Hollow-Ware Man, The Ferryman, The Reckoning, The Particular, The Gardener of Meteorites, The Summons of the Bone, and The Crossroads.

## Gallery

**Take a look at our **gallery for Foulk Trigemine****.

## References

1. ↑ *Bluecrowne* audiobook
2. ↑ *Bluecrowne*
3. ↑ *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book*