Underneath my skin there are two feathered wings...
Bookman Junior, Knell, is fourteen years old and of Russian decent; her parents were killed when she was five. She lived in an abandoned library for two years. Bookman found her by chance during a mission with Road and took her on as his apprentice. She rigorously denies herself any emotional attachments beyond Bookman, and has thrown herself head-first into the world of knowledge. Ironically, she does this because she subconsciously hopes it will cause Bookman to love her like a daughter. Her (other) biggest shortcoming is her incredible physical ineptitude; she only recently started wearing the mandatory "Bookman Eyepatch" because she nearly killed herself on some stairs when she first put it on seven years ago. Road likes to dress her up and she uses Teez to fight, courtesy of the Earl. She often calls Booman "papa" because of a misunderstanding that happened when she first became his apprentice (she could only speak Russian at the time, and once when she agreed with him ["da, da!"] Road thought it would be hilarious if she made them go on a mission disguised as father and daughter) and the habit's stuck ever since.
Some of her life:
The early memories were hazy, at best. Just two panicked voices commanding her to run, the faces they belonged to invisible except in dreams or nightmares. There was the squelching sound, too, that she later learned was a noise human bodies made when impaled with pointed objects. She remembered vaguely that she found shelter in a large building that she later realized was an abandoned library.
Her first year or so alone was similarly blurry. She remembered crying a lot, for a long time. And when the tears went away, she remembered looking in the books until the smaller words she knew joined into larger ones, and she remembered being comforted by their ordered arrangement on the page. She liked very much to see the words in sequence, and to know when something was all right or all wrong. She was very sad when she learned how to burn the books to keep warm, because the books were her friends but she needed to *live* more than she needed friends, and the people in town spared her only food, not firewood. To minimize the pain of loss, she memorized the books. She kept their order and their words filed carefully away in her mind, so they would never be lost to her.
It was shortly after she realized she could do this that he showed up. He was tall and had hair almost like hers; she wondered for half a second if he was her father. She thought he was alone but she could smell her friends burning, and not by her own accord. "What are you doing?" she asked him, but then he raised a finger to his lips and she somehow knew that meant "be quiet" and he picked her up gently. She watched over his shoulder as a girl in a strange dress with strange colored skin danced and laughed within the flames that were consuming her home and friends.
She wanted to cry out, to tell the stranger "don't!" and make her leave, but the way he held her told her that there was nothing to be done. Soon he carried her outside where the snow was falling, and she cried. "My friends," she whimpered, "she hurt my friends." He rocked her and shushed her until finally she could no longer cry, and fell asleep.
Things were clearer after that. His name was "Bookman" and he wanted her to be his apprentice. She knew what an "apprentice" was but not a "Bookman." When he explained that she would get to learn things all the time- things no one else could ever know- she decided she would become his "junior." He had smiled and passed his palm and thumb over her forehead; she felt something strange take root in her, as she lost and gained a name at once. "Knell," he spoke quietly. "That's your name, from now until you become Bookman." She paused and thought about the sound of the word; contemplated the definition. Then she asked the question all children ask, but with an intent most children lack.
"Why?"
"Because something great was lost, today and long ago. Something is always lost. That's how humans live." She nodded and stored the information and subsequent conclusion away: she could either live a life of loss, or live a life that contained nothing to loose.
Knell chose the latter.
But it wasn't easy, not at first. She was thankful to him, this kind and intelligent almost-stranger. He spoke to her softly in her native tongue, teaching her strange and wonderful stories that weren't stories at all but records, records that painted the world as huge and beautiful and scary. He gave her an eyepatch, and she wore it without complaint because it was a gift, although it made her run into cabinets and doors and even walls. Knell didn't like that her body was bruised by the end of the week, but she didn't complain and was sad when he took the eyepatch back because she thought she had failed.
The grey-skinned girl that had burned her friends came to their room a little after that. (It was "their" room and not "his" room because she was still small, but she didn't mind.) Knell tried to hide behind Bookman but he wouldn't let her; he pushed her out in front of him and she almost cried because she was so scared. He told her to be strong and do what the girl said. Knell didn't want to but she let the girl lead her to another room, because she didn't want to disapoint him. The girl babbled to her in a language she'd never heard before, while she combed and curled and braided out her long red hair. Knell didn't understand the words, but she recorded them because she thought they might be important. The girl put her in a frilly dress and she didn't like it because she felt silly, dressed like the rich ladies that had sometimes dropped coin or food into her outstretched hands. Then the girl let her go and she went back to her and Bookman's room. She told him everything that happened, and repeated what the girl had said. He looked pleased that she remembered, and told her that now she would get to learn something new called "English."
Knell liked English very much. She still spoke Russian more than any other tongue, but she learned fast. Bookman was very pleased with her progress. He watched her read with approving eyes and Knell read even more because of it, just to know that he was happy with her. Soon she was writing reports to prove her memory, or recording events that happened inside the giant house they inhabited with the grey-skinned Noah. Once while she sat and waited for Bookman to return from speaking with the Earl, she thought of something new to do. She took her pen and turned the report over; she drew a simple picture on the back. A small, long-haired girl sat at a desk reading, while a tall man crouched beside, smiling and obviously teaching. When Bookman returned she handed him the paper and while his eyes were approving of her words they were blank at the sight of her picture. He looked from the page and told her, "don't waste paper." Then he let the picture fall as he walked away, and Knell was forced to follow.
She started having bigger thoughts after that. She wanted to know more than just historical records, and Bookman wasn't disapproving of this. He taught her medicine and philosophy, chemistry and the theories of magic although neither knew a single spell. One day he sent her away with the Noah with the strange smile, Tyki. He told her it was for an important lesson. Knell agreed because she trusted his judgement now, and Tyki wasn't apt to dress her up in doll clothes. "I'm going to teach you how to use a Teez," he told her, and gave her a butterfly with tiny, vicious fangs.
They walked for a long time with the butterfly perched on Knell's hand, until they were in a forest outside a town. "Watch," he told her, as they neared a man chopping wood. He looked surprised to see them but it didn't last long; from Tyki's hands came two huge, enormously-fanged butterflies that pinned the man to the ground with spiked legs. His screams hurt Knell's ears so she covered them; Tyki thought she was afraid and so he grinned. "Don't stop watching," he said, as a swarm of smaller butterflies emerged from his hand. He gestured subtly with his fingers and they responded by cleanly stripping away the man's skin. The man screamed louder and Knell winced and Tyki scowled. "Are you that afraid?" He snapped, and Knell shook her head flatly.
"He's loud," she responded, and Tyki laughed.
"Fix it, then. That Teez is yours, see the red on its wings? Direct with your hands, tell it what to do." Knell urged the butterfly forward and towards the man; its movements and hers were sporadic and clumsy but eventually she found a way to make it eat away his vocal chords. "Good," Tyki murmured, walking closer to the man. "Now, we're not done yet so keep watching. This group of muscles is called the quadricep, and it works like this..." So he continued to teach her, instructing his Teez (or having Knell instruct hers) to eat away each layer of the man until there was nothing left.
When they finished her Teez was much larger. "It got bigger," she noticed, and held it closer to her face.
"It'll split in two soon, or continue to grow. It's up to you." He smiled and Knell nodded.
Soon they were back and Tyki returned her to Bookman. He watched her carefully for the rest of the day, as if he was waiting for her to do something. It felt strange but she tried not to alter her behavior from its usual routine. Before she went to sleep she found the Teez folded itself well inside the finger of her glove, so she kept it there.
Knell had her own room now, and so she didn't wake Bookman with her nightmares. She screamed and screamed and it wasn't until she woke up and threw the light on that he noticed, when he woke up on his own to go to the bathroom. "Get to sleep," he told her irritably, blinking at the light.
"...I had a nightmare..." She said quietly, peering out from her blanket wrap.
"...Get to sleep," he repeated, and continued walking. Knell grimaced and jumped out of her bed to turn the light off, and then ran back. She stayed shivering under the blankets for a long while until she heard Bookman walk by and stop at her doorway. He walked in and she pretended to be asleep; she kept pretending when he sat down on the edge of her bed. He was staring at his hands, and stayed that way for a long time. Knell thought he was asleep and opened her eyes a little wider. He was holding a silver button but she didn't understand; he sighed shakily and sat up. He turned to look at her and she quickly closed her eyes. She heard him inhale like he was about to speak but then he exhaled slowly and stood. He pulled the blanket up to cover her better before he left.