Tinker's birth name is Alexander Graham Bell. The elves also know her as Beloved Tinker of Wind. Her husband, Wolf Who Rules Wind, gave her this name because he thought Tinker was too short, not realizing that Tinker was not her real name.
After her transformation, she became able to see concentrations of magic, and it appears to her to be just inside the ultra-violet end of her visual range.
Physical Description[]
Tinker's most notable feature is that she is very short, about 5 feet tall. She has brown eyes and tan olive skin, features common to descendants of Wood Sprites. She has short brown hair, which prior to her transformation was haphazardly cut short to keep it out of the way. As a human she had freckles, but the freckles were gone after the transformation. She is marked with a triangular blue dau on her forehead which identifies her as a member of Windwolf's household and gives her the legal rights of the Domana caste, however she also has those rights by blood test after transformation. She prefers casual human fashions such as jeans and hoverbike team t-shirts. Her hands and fingernails are often dirty with engine grease.
According to Stormsong, there is some physical resemblance between Tinker, Otter Dance, and Jewel Tear. This may be due to an ethnic similarity since they are all members or descendants of Stone Clan.
She has the intanyai seyosa ability to communicate through dreams and see possible futures, which was inherited through her mother, who is also descendant from an elf. Tinker's ability was mild before her transformation, but has since become stronger.
Family
Tinker's birth name was Alexander Graham Bell and she was born in Pittsburg and raised by her paternal grandfather, Timothy Bell. Timothy Bell's birth name as Timothy Dufae, but he lived under a pseudonym after his son was killed. He had two children. His daughter, Ada Lovelace Dufae, married John Wright and had a son Orville John Wright, known as Oilcan. His son, Leonardo DaVinci Dufae, married Wai Sze Wong, known as Gracie, but they could not have children because Gracie was a tengu and not genetically compatible. Many years after Leonardo, who designed the gate that moved Pittsburgh to Elfhome, was killed in an attempt by the oni to capture him, Timothy paid a young woman a million dollars to be a surrogate mother and give birth in Pittsburg, ensuring that Tinker would be a native Pittsburgh citizen. When Tinker was five, John Wright accidentally killed Ada, so Timothy Bell brought Oilcan to Pittsburgh and raised him with Tinker.
When going through some of her grandfather's files, shortly after her captivity by the oni, she discovered papers on her mother's genealogy. Her mother was Esme Skenske, which means that Lain Skenske is also her aunt. Due to some comments by Lain and Tooloo, it is possible but not confirmed that Tooloo may have lived in the Skenskes' home when Esme and Lain were growing up.
Tinker's grandfather made certain Tinker and Oilcan knew that the Dufae family is descended from Unbounded Brilliance, a Stone Clan domana that was stranded on Earth about 1780 when the natural gates between Earth and Elfhome were intentionally collapsed. Unbounded Brilliance took the name Guillame Dufae and lived as a physician in France, but was killed in the French Revolution. His wife and child escaped to America. The Dufae family kept a Codex of the family history, elf heritage, and Stone Clan esva that was passed down for centuries. Leonardo DaVinci Dufae drew heavily on this Codex when designing the gate.
Tinker married Windwolf a few days before he transformed her into an elf, but she did not know the implications of the relationship until later. Due to the manner of her transformation, Tinker is able to use both the Wind Clan and Fire Clan Spell Stones, just as Windwolf can. Two months later Tinker discovered she was also able to use the Stone Clan Spell Stones.
Though Tinker does not yet know it, she has other siblings from the same batch of embryos that were commissioned by Timothy Bell. These include Louise Mayer and Jillian Mayer, as well as four yet un-named babies, one boy and three girls. These have also all made their way to Elfhome.
Birth
Tooloo saw that Elfhome would need a Dufae descended in Pittsburgh to help with the future. Her friend, Esme Shanske, needed to be the mother because of her descendance from a intanyai seyosa. She went to Timothy Bell, Tinker’s grandfather, to have a child made with the sperm of his deceased son, Leonardo Dufae. Esme hired a surrogate for a million dollars and Tinker was born nine months later.
Childhood
Tinker was raised by her grandfather, Timothy Bell. He raised her on a small island away from the main part of Pittsburgh in a hotel. She spent a lot of time being babysat by her aunt, Lain Skanske; though she didn’t know that they were related. Lain encouraged her to learn some of human culture, and often pushed her to go to college, which Tinker vehemently resisted. She was also looked after by Tooloo, who taught her how to speak and read Low Elvish and the elf religion . Tooloo and Lain were the only ones who could keep up with Tinker because of their intanyai seyosa abilities. When she was six years old, her cousin, Oilcan, came to live with them. They grew up with Blue Sky Montana and would race in go cart at the hotel. She later created hoverbikes for them to play with.
The first time Tinker and Windwolf met was when Tinker was thirteen years old. A saurus had attacked the Faire and Windwolf attacked it. However, he was stunned and his sekasha, Lighting Strike, was killed. Tinker threw a crowbar at the saurus and saved Windwolf from being eaten. Windwolf was very angry that a child would put himself (he thought she was a boy) in such danger and during the battle marked her forehead with a spell to show her bravery. After the battle, she was taken to the hospital by a young police officer Nathan Czernowski. Windwolf tried to find her after the battle, but he thought she was a boy. No one knows what boy he was talking about so none of the elves could find her. Tinker was told by Tooloo that the mark was a life debt spell. If something happened to Windwolf, terrible things would happen to Tinker.
A year later, when Tinker had just turned thirteen, her grandfather died. She and Oilcan stayed under the radar of the police for a year because, as orphans, they would have been deported to Earth. When Oilcan turned eighteen, he became her guardian and wanted her to live with him. Tinker, however, liked to live on her own and got a separate apartment which she furnished using money from licensing her hoverbike design. Shortly after her grandfather's death, she started up the scrap yard business to gain independence.
Wolf Who Rules Wind
Just a few months after the eighteenth birthday, she met Windwolf again at the scrap yard. Just before shutdown, he was chased by Foo Dogs into the scrape yard. His sekasha guard had been killed and he was injured. Tinker canceled the spell on some of the dogs attacking Windwolf with a magnet. He was then able to easily kill them. However, she missed one and was attacked and injured. Windwolf saved her by shooting the last dog.
Windwolf, however, was severely injured. During the battle with with the Foo Dogs, Pittsburgh had returned to Earth leaving Windwolf stranded on Earth until Pittsburgh returned to Elfhome the following midnight at Startup.. Tinker got him into the trailer and covered his wounds. She also used a spell and some stored magic to treat his wounds and keep him alive. When the EMT, Jonnie B Good, came, he refused to bring Windwolf to the hospital because of the laws around elf genetic material. He decided he would only treat his wounds if Tinker slept with him. Windwolf heard this and threated to unman him if he tried.
When Oilcan showed up he and Tinker decided to bring Windwolf to Lain at the scientist compound next to the Alleghney Observatory to be treated since the magic that was keeping him alive would not last that long. Windwolf gave permission for Lain to treat him, he trusted Tinker that Lain would follow the law on not taking a samples from him. During the move into her lab, they ruined her flower garden, but got Windwolf in alive and set up the spell again. Lain pulled Tinker aside and wanted her to go to college on Earth as she had been accepted to one. Tinker was mad because she intentionally got all the questions wrong. However, in the end she did agree to one semester.
They stayed there for most of the day until the magic ran out. It was close enough to start up that they moved him back to the trailer, so they could wait on the border. During this trip, they were stopped by EIA officers who wanted to kill Windwolf and then kill Tinker and Oilcan tothe murder. Tinker was able to fend them off with a gun and they fled. Tinker and Oilcan sped to the border ignoring all traffic lights and signs, destroying onf of the cars pursuing them in the process. When Start Up came, they went right through the gate to Elfhome and headed to the hospice, the elf hospital.
At the hospice, they were forced out of the trailer by EIA officers who were then surrounded surrounded by elf warriors. Some of the elves were laedin warriors for the hospice. The others were Windwolf’s personal guard sekasha warriors. Windwolf had ordered the sekasha to make sure Tinker and Oilcan weren’t hurt.
Windwolf was taken to be treated; Oilcan and Tinker had a talk with the head of the EIA, Derek Maynard. The elves had made it clear that they would be most displeased if criminal charges were to be filed against Tinker and Oilcan, so Tinker and Oilcan were free to go. Maynard explained that the EIA guards who attacked them were not real EIA guards.
Tinker went to see Windwolf to try undo the life debt spell, but decided to throw it away because it might harm him. She then went back to the trailer and fell asleep. Windwolf later found the spell in the trash and went to see Tinker about it. When she didn’t answer to door, he broke in. Tinker explained it was her at the saurus battle and that they were even on the life debt. Windwolf explained to true meaning and, seeing that her injured hand was infected, brought her back into the hospice to be treated.
She later went back to the science compound for dinner and met up with Nathan Czernowski. He was interested in dating her but thought she was too young. However, Tinker really wanted to go on a date and forced the issue.
Elf Gifts
She later got a call from Lain to come back to the Compound. Windwolf had ordered the elves to dig up what was left of Lain’s Earth flower garden and plant new plants. While it looked nice and was meant as a gift, it was not her Earth garden. She warned Tinker to beware elf gifts because they see humans as children and will do what they please. She apologized for making Tinker agree to go to college because she was doing the same thing the elves had done. She said that Tinker didn’t have to go to college if she didn’t want to.
Windwolf later came to Tinker’s scape yard bearing gifts. He gave her some kava beans. They then played some horseshoes and talked about family and their plans for the future. Windwolf then gave her a brazier and asked her to accept it, she said yes. Unbeknownst to Tinker, by accepting it she was accepting a marriage proposal. He kissed her on the forehead, marking her with a dau and left. Since elves don’t have weddings, they use the dau to raise an elf up in caste and denote marriage.
Tinker went to Lain to explain what happened and then saw the dau. Not knowing what it was she went over to Lain’s house. They looked at the pictures of the original elf and human meeting and saw that some of those elves had a dau. Tinker also learned that Windwolf was the Viceroy of the Westernlands. She also met Riki and hired him to work at the scrap yard.
When she returned to her house, she realized that the security system was not active. However, it was too late; she was captured by Briggs and Durrack, two NSA agents. They were looking for Alexander Bell, who they believed to be a mid-thirties man. Tinker said that she was his girlfriend for three years and was called Lain. They told her that Bell was in serious danger and that they had found blood at the scrap yard so he could be dead, so stop being uncooperative. She explained that an elf had been hurt at the scrap yard and Bell had been hurt, so was at the hospice. They had gotten the college application that Bell was the child of Leonardo Dufae and the placement tests that showed that Bell knew how the bridge gate worked. He was in danger because of this, everyone else that had figured out how the gate work was dead. They wanted to put Bell into protective custody on Earth and even if they couldn’t find in then they would put her in protective custody also, whether she liked it or not.
She tried to get the elf at the guard station to the hospice to help her by mouthing High Elvish to him. At the hospice, she tried again by asking one of the guards to help her in High Elvish. Briggs shut her up and told them she was in a lot of trouble and their prisoner. The elf drew his sword and Briggs and Durrack reacted by drawing their weapons. Tinker ran until she ran into a group of EIA officers. The EIA officers pointed their guns at the NSA agents following her and the NSA agents did the same. Tinker ran off into another room and hid. Maynard found her, he explained that the dau gave her the rights and privileges of the elf caste, in this case domana. The NSA agents had violated this law and had been arrested for kidnapping an elf. The elf at the guard station had called the EIA, when the NSA agents had claimed Tinker as their prisoner.
Later Maynard called to tell Tinker that the agents were released. Since elves are very black and white, it was release them or execute them. In the morning the NSA agents showed up on her doorstep with a box of donuts. They still wanted her to go into protective custody, but they backed off when she made it clear she wouldn’t.
Tinker got ready for her date by buying some new clothes and getting a makeover. She then met Riki at work and received a letter from Windwolf. However, it was written in High Elvish, which she can’t read. On the date, Nathan and Tinker went to the enclave to eat. All the elves were being super polite and formal. They were wishing her merry, praising the gods, throwing salt on her and giving her presents. They left and Nathan got very forward by groping her, but she put a stop to it so they went to the Faire. Nathan was not impressed when Tinker prayed to an elf god; he had thought she was Christian. Nathan began talking about moving in together, getting married, having children and such, freaking Tinker out.
She left to go find the bathroom. She ran into Windwolf, who had been looking for her. He wanted Tinker to leave with him. She wanted too, but she had to go tell Nathan that she was leaving. Nathan was angry and wanted her to go with him, but she called him out on going way to fast. She left with Windwolf. In his car, they made up and he took her to the hunting lodge where he lived while near Pittsburgh. At the lodge, Windwolf explained that Tinker was dying and he wanted to save her life by ding a spell. Tinker agreed to do the spell. The spell was done in a magic free area with a giant spell drawn on the floor. The spell was during sex with words spoken at certain times.
Now an Elf
She woke up alone at the lodge and felt very floaty. She felt almost immediately guilty for running off on Nathan. She put on her clothes and went to find a ride home. She found a dark elf, who had been left at the hunting lodge to guard her, he also would drive her home. At her home, he tried to follow her inside but she nixed the idea. She checked her messages as she took a shower. She got out when the door rang and found Nathan there. He was angry because she had been gone for three days. She had also been turned into an elf. Windwolf had meant that she was dying as a human, as an elf she wouldn’t die. Nathan was upset and decided that they should have sex because no one will think Tinker is too young because she will look the same age for a very long time. During the fight, the elf came in with sword drawn. They were going to fight but Tinker broke it up. The elf’s name was Pony and he was to guard Tinker. Oilcan came in and ordered them out. Nathan left, but Pony was still on guard. Oilcan explained that he was Tinker’s cousin and then Pony go get food. They ate and then went to Oilcan’s apartment to sleep because there were more beds.
In the morning, they all went to Lains. They wanted to know if they were still genetically cousins. They also wanted to know what had been done to her. As the tests were running, Tinker went to Tooloo’s shop. Tooloo freaked out when she saw Tinker and was made at Pony. She explained the Skin Clan, the origins of the domana and the oni, while they collected eggs. They returned to Lains and found out that they were still cousins. They had some questions about the oni, so Tinker asked Pony. He explained about Onihida, how the elves discovered it, and the closing of the gates. They went to go see Maynard to warn him of the oni. Maynard explained to Tinker that she was married to Windwolf.
Royal Court
They went to the scrap yard where they met Riki. He had been badly beaten and blamed the elves. He told Tinker it was better for her to run. He covered for her and she snuck away from Pony. She ran to her apartment and met three red-headed elves in red armor. They want her to come with them, but they were talking in High Elvish, so she couldn’t really understand what they were saying. When they tried to grab her, she ran. At Tooloo’s farm, she hit the honey bee boxes, sent the geese after them, and set up a trap. It failed because of the magic tattoos the sekasha had and Pony showed up just in time to stop her from being punched in the face. Pony talked to them and found out that they had been summoned to join Windwolf at the royal court by the queen.
On the way there, Pony asked if she wanted him to be her guard. Not wanting to be alone and having to come to like Pony, she said that she wanted him. She was then taken to get ready to meet the queen. At court, Windwolf was arguing about if there was an oni human connection and what should be done. The oni are the ones that wanted the gate built, but Windwolf pointed out that a door couldn’t be on Earth to Onihida because the oni would invade Earth. The queen’s intanyai seyosa, Pure Radiance, said that there was a door, but it was open half open. She explained that the pivot would win if they stayed true. When asked who the pivot was she pointed at Tinker. Windwolf was angry at that. The queen, Soulful Ember, wanted to know about Tinker. When she found out Tinker was only eighteen, she was angry at Windwolf for not saying how young she was. He explained in human terms she was an adult.
After court, Pony job was taken over by Sun Lance while he slept. Tinker wanted to speak to Windwolf, so she climbed out the window. She ran into more sekasha, but because she was Windwolf’s domi, they let her pass. She found Windwolf next to the spell stones. She was angry at him so she through her shoes at him. He understood her angry, and let it run its course. Sun Lance had caught up with them and they went back to their room.
For the next few weeks, Tinker got to know Windwolf better along with his sekasha. They couldn’t leave the royal court because the queen wouldn’t let them. She was worried that Tinker didn’t know enough about being an elf. Finally, she gave Tinker protection for a hundred years and Windwolf had to move his household to Pittsburgh. Tinker thought he wouldn’t do it because all the Wind Clan elves she had met were a part of his household except Pony. It turns out when Pony asked if he could be her guard, he became a part of her beholden. Windwolf agreed to move his household to Pittsburgh.
Oni Compound
When they arrived back in Pittsburgh, it was shut down. Tinker realized that if Pittsburgh was gone all technology was gone. In a panicked frenzy, she started to build a computer center on Elfhome. Lain knocked some sense into her by telling her that Tinker and Windwolf needed to talk about dealing with the oni and future together. As she was on her way to talk to Windwolf, she was captured by the oni. They told her she was on Onihida and that there was nowhere to go. The leader of the oni was Lord Tomtom. He wanted Tinker to build a gate bridge. She was under guard by Riki and a kitsume called Chiyo. Riki had used to job to copy her computer system and set up a workshop in the oni compound. Tinker was so angry at him she nearly beat him to death with a crowbar.
She read the research of another human, Russell, who had been prisoner to the oni. He had been stubborn and refused to help the oni and was tortured to death. Tinker went along with project and decided to scale it down in size. She needed ironwood or the Onihida equivalent to do so. While building it one night, she took a brake to look at the sky. She thought that it would look strange and unusual, because that is what the Earth humans always said about the Elfhome sky, but it was the same sky. She realized she was still on Elfhome. She realized that Chiyo was there to make illusions in her mind, and so she hatched an escape plan. She stunned Chiyo and made a run for it. She got out of the compound and ran into one of Windwolf’s cars. In it was his assistance Sparrow. However, she was working with the oni and brought her back to the compound.
Sparrow was angry at Lord Tomtom for letting Tinker escape and for not killing Windwolf yet. She said it was getting harder to fool him while he was looking for Tinker. Lord Tomtom punished Chiyo for letting Tinker escape by breeding her with a warg. He also decided to get a whipping boy for Tinker. Awhile later, she was summoned and it was Pony. He had been badly beaten, but was overall fine. Tinker promised that she would finish the gate in a month, if Lord Tomtom didn’t hurt Pony anymore. She got a group of carpenters and worked them to the bone. Pony and her realized that opposite on the world was a small island that was getting zapped back and forth to Onihida Earth every start up and shut down. She decided to build a second gate across the compound. They used this to get an idea of the oni number and hatch an escaped plan. When the gate was finish, Tinker started it up and went to the other one. While the guards were distracted by the start up, Tinker and Pony took out the rest of the guards and ran.
While running, the earth started to shake and the air buzzed. Tinker explained that her gate was resonating with the one in space. They were going to destroy each other. Then foo dogs came after them, Pony fought them off but Tinker was almost dragged off. In a human supply camp, Pony treated her wounds and left to look around. Sparrow came with a gun to kill Tinker, Tinker dodged out of the way and Pony killed Sparrow.
Lord Tomtom and his guards attacked, but Pony’s shield protected them for a time. When it failed they fought. When Pony was going to lose, Windwolf flew in. He attacked with lighting and covered Tinker and Pony with a shield. Lord Tomtom was using a magic shield and mind magic to make him invisible. Tinker tried to get away, but Pony had been knocked unconscious and Tinker couldn’t drag him. Even when Windwolf told her to, she would leave him. She took the bow and spell arrows she had took off Sparrow, felt for magic, and had fired through Lord Tomtom’s shield. Windwolf then struck him with lightening. Windwolf’s sekasha showed up a few minutes later and help chase and kill the oni. The hospice workers treated Tinker and Pony’s wounds. Tinker knew that Pittsburgh was going back to Earth for good, and was trying to decide where she wanted to go. She decided to stay on Elfhome with Windwolf. When he came back the oni compound had become unstable by shifting between universes. Tinker explained what was happening and they slept together. When they woke up the gate was gone but Pittsburgh was still there.