I've completed Merret as well as
Cameo. I think I've managed to backlink everything I can.
As I was backlinking I noticed there are two profiles for Alexi:
Alexi Seraphim and
Alexi.
Here are Merret and Cam:
Merret:
Description:
Merret is first introduced in
The Keeping Place (pg 50) when she is serving in the kitchen and belongs to the
Coercer guild.
Miky asks her if she can go over to the
Empath guild hall after nightmeal.
Elspeth asks if she is one of
Gevan’s magi, wondering why she has not become one of
Miryum’s coercer knights because her aggression and skill in martial arts was legendary and she consistently won the contests staged during
Obernewtyn’s moonfair.
She shares
Hannay’s view that the knights’ aim does not go deep enough and that children’s minds are far more receptive. During the moonfair the magi perform. Merret plays Gevan’s “clumsy†assistant and voices the fears
landfolk may have about the magi using black arts. She pretends to faint when Gevan disappears and is dragged offstage. Elspeth and Gevan both enjoy her performing (
TKP, pg 307).
She came up with the idea of the
rebel meeting with Elspeth in
The Keeping Place taking place in
Sawlney where the magi were to perform for a bonding ceremony, so that Gevan can accompany Elspeth to the meeting (
TKP, pg 370).
She tells Elspeth of a place on the
west coast where stone-carvers were trained (
TKP, pg 441).
Merret leads the magi as a performing troupe and will shed
Talents for the rebellion along the way to
Serba’s group in
Port Oran, which she would join. She would
farseek to
Orys and
Kader in the
Beforetime ruins.
Zidon had offered to carry her.
When Serba escapes the on the Night of Blood she is separated from Merret and
Blyss who did not meet back up with her after separating to farseek Orys.
Someone dreams of her and Blyss waiting outside a city for a messenger from
Gwynedd (
The Stone Key, pg 211).
Elspeth contacts her from
Stonehill and tells her of what has transpired. She rides to
Halfmoon Bay with Orys and Blyss to escort Elspeth and
Domick to the ruins. Merret and the other stranded Misfits have been working with Gwynedd who leads the rebellion.
When Elspeth leaves on the Umborine for
Norseland, Merret is working with Serba to coordinate the taking of the westland cloisters and the
Hedra. Blyss will not go anywhere without her.
Age:
Undetermined, though young; perhaps Elspeth’s age.
Position:
Second mage to Gevan. Takes a leading role in the Misfits’ isolation on the west coast, working closely with Gwynedd.
Talents:
Powerful
coercer with
beastspeaking Talent.
Notes:
'Merret' probably derived from the old English name 'Merritt', meaning 'boundary gate'.
[ligne][/ligne]
Cameo:
Description:
Cameo has delicate features, slender bones and hair like cream silk (
Obernewtyn, pg 74).
Elspeth is astonished that anyone could condemn her as a Misfit. She tries to be friendly with Elspeth but Elspeth is disinterested and disappoints her.
She is among the group Elspeth is with that is taken on a tour of the farms by
Ariel. She again tries to be friendly with Elspeth to no success. Whilst all the Misfits hate, even fear Ariel, Cameo does not seem to as she smiles at him, his return smile unpleasant. When they go to work on the farms she chatters happily to him. She is sent to work in the orchards. Whenever she works on the farms she sits with
Matthew,
Dameon and Elspeth at midmeal.
She tells Elspeth she has
true dreams and one in particular where something evil is trying to get her. She is scared to go to sleep because of them. Her true dreams were the reason she was sent to
Obernewtyn.
When
Madam Vega returned Cameo began receiving ‘treatments’. When asked about her visits to the
Doctor’s chamber she didn’t know what Elspeth was talking about. Elspeth tries probing her to find out what was happening to her but finds that her mind is a maze of blocks because it has been tampered with. Her attitude towards Ariel changes to one of fear.
She disappears for a week and says she has been ill. She talked and laughed but seemed frail, brittle. She was moved into the same room as Elspeth to sleep in. Elspeth is woken by her psychic scream. Cameo speaks of a secret whilst in a trance in which her eyes were ochre before falling into a sound sleep. She is scared and haunted by nightmares.
When she hears people asking if
Selmar has been caught she has a look of horror on her face. She later warns Elspeth that they have to get away, something terrible is going to happen, that they want Elspeth and “the power...†and she faints before she can finish.
A shy relationship begins to develop between Cameo and Matthew.
She again wakes Elspeth and speaks of a map that was hidden, and Elspeth realises the ochre colour her eyes turn in a trance remind her of
Marisa Seraphim. After that event she rapidly declined, losing weight and colour.
Alexi, Madam Vega and Ariel believe Cameo set off the
Zebkrahn machine and believe her to be the key to their research in the same way they believed Selmar was before they destroyed her.
Cameo tries to tell Elspeth of a dream she had but Elspeth doesn’t listen. Dameon tells Elspeth of a true dream he had in which Cameo died.
Cameo disappears during the week Elspeth is ill. She is found by Elspeth in the
caves. She is weak and tells Elspeth she shouldn’t be there. She says she knew Elspeth would come and when Elspeth thinks “Too late†she reads her inner thought and protests. She explains that whatever Alexi and the others did made her smarter, more sensitive. She had a true dream without sleeping in which she dreamt Elspeth would have to do something alone, more important than anything else in the world to do with “this place†and the map Alexi seeks that leads to the machines that made the
Great White. Elspeth must stop them from finding it, destroy it. Cameo did not tell them what she learnt. She tells Elspeth that she is the
Seeker and that “So long as it exists, fate will draw you to it.†She whispers “You came†to Elspeth before she dies.
Elspeth vows that Ariel and the others would pay for what they’d done to both Cameo and Selmar. Matthew is scarred by Cameo’s death and desired to hunt down Ariel when he fled from the caves but the others believed he would perish in the cold.
Cameo is mentioned throughout the following books as Elspeth continues to grieve the loss of her friend years afterwards.
Age:
About twelve (
Obernewtyn, pg 74)
Position:
Original Obernewtyn Misfit before
Rushton took over; died as result of Alexi’s research.
Talents:
Full extent unknown; truedreaming, possibly
farseeking and
futuretelling.
Notes:
The name 'Cameo' is of Latin origins and means 'shadow portrait'. Interesting since all we see of Marisa Seraphim is her portrait, and Cameo channels Marisa, a 'shadow' of the portrait.