Conflagrationeer

A ****c******onflagrationeer** is someone who has an uncanny power over fire. They can also touch most kinds of fire without being burned. Liao also found it easy to learn words that had to do with fires, even if they were in another language.

## History

### *Bluecrowne*

Trigemine arrived in Nagspeake and met up with Blister. They were, he said, to find a conflagrationeer, as someone wanted one from Morvengarde. Blister, himself a conflagrationeer, was offended, but Trigemine explained that this was a conflagrationeer for the customer to own, not for their services. Blister was surprised, not having met another conflagrationeer in a long time, but Trigemine had used his kairos mechanism to calculate that this was the right time and place to find one.

Liao was very excited to go to his workshop, saying that fireworks were his favorite thing to do. Lucy recalled when Liao had designed the Coronation Day salutes, and they had been magnificent. Liao set off a firework using the supplies in his new workshop. After seeing Liao's firework, Blister deemed that there was indeed a conflagrationeer in town. Trigemine and Blister later decided that the conflagrationeer wasn't the *Left-Handed Fate*'s gunner, but the little boy Liao. Trigemine revealed the identity of the conflagrationeer's buyer: the fearsome Jack Hellcoal. They wondered why Jack wanted a conflagrationeer.

Liao listed many different types of fireworks for Lucy. Liao spotted Blister holding cald-fire in his hand, and came over. Blister helped him hold the fire too, and they conversed with Liao, who had immense knowledge of chemicals and creating fireworks. Liao and Blister played with fireworks. Blister wondered how Liao knew so much about fireworks, and later they found out that it was from his mother, Xiaoming, who had taught Liao, and who Liao had inherited his skill from.

Liao set off a firework from the Driven Star in the daytime, and it was magnificent. Liao, however, was upset, because he didn't think the firework should have worked. He remembered Blister hinting at him being a fire spirit, and thought that he could only hold the cald-fire in his hand because he was "special".
Xiaoming later showed Lucy fire tricks, and put her hand in the fire without being harmed. She explained that the peddlers, one of whom was a conflagrationeer, had taken Liao for his fire powers because he would eventually be very powerful, and even though she was more powerful, she would be too hard to take. Xiaoming also used the fire to do a sort of fortune-telling.

Liao was imprisoned in a pillar of fire. Blister set Xiaoming on fire, and she turned into a crane. Xiaoming set Blister on fire, and he burned for the first time. After this, it hurt him to use his fire powers. He used his powers to send belluine after Xiaoming, which unbodied her, but put Blister in so much pain that he collapsed. When escaping, Lucy and Liao blew up the *Driven Star*, and Liao was enraptured at what his powder did. Seleucia Deacon and Jack Hellcoal were both very angry at the loss of the conflagrationeer.

### *The Raconteur's Commonplace Book*

Sorcha, the Blue Vein Tavern's maid, tended the fires often. She said a firekeeping prayer over them, which she'd learned from her grandfather. Reever told a story of the four Yankee Peddlers, which included Ignis Blister, who sold many things related to fire. Sorcha and Maisie made fancy spills in the fire, animal shapes that danced and sparked majestically.

Sorcha volunteered to tell a story, and confirmed that she'd been raised with firekeeping traditions. Petra mentioned fire-reckoning, and Sorcha explained to the other guests that it was a calculation of the impossible, also called *fierekenia*, fire-kenning, or fire-cunning. While she was talking, Sorcha put her hand in the fire, and didn't notice. Negret, recalling the burns he'd felt on Sorcha's hands, knew this was why, and when Sorcha realized what she'd done and pretended it hurt, Negret saw through the ruse. Mrs. Haypotten wasn't worried, having seen Sorcha do even stranger things with fire, and Phineas Amalgam knew that she was a conflagrationeer like her ancestors.

Sorcha told a tale of John Ustion, a fire-savvy inventor. One day, a customer had come, asking about a *fierekenia* mechanism that could manipulate time. Ustion did not trust the customer to have this thing, so he declined to make it. But he was intrigued by the idea, and began to work on it on his own time. He thought about different types of fire he could use, and decided on wheat-fire. He worked and worked on the device, but it didn't function, and he realized what it was missing. Overtime, however, he began to have qualms about it, and told his granddaughter to destroy it, but it was gone.

Masseter talked about the oddness of the fire. He revealed that he had John Ustion's fierekenia mechanism, which he'd finished and had assembled by someone fire-savvy that he knew. Sorcha later answered Jessamy's question about what type of fire would surround Petra's headcutting, demonstrating a border fire.

### *Ghosts of Greenglass House*

Owen found a letter from Liao to Mr. Fulgor, asking for fireworks supplies.

## Members

* Ignis Blister
* John Ustion
* Sorcha
* Xiaoming
* Liao Bluecrowne