| Gabriel Silk | |
|---|---|
|
Born |
1991 |
|
Family |
|
|
Hair colour |
Mouse-brown |
|
Eye colour |
Gray |
|
Endowment (if a child of the Red King) |
Psychometry |
|
Affiliation(s) |
Good |
|
Ancestor (if a child of the Red King) |
|
|
Department (current or past) |
Music |
|
Gender |
Male |
"Not to mention that drip Gabriel."
Gabriel Silk (b. 1991) is an endowed student at Bloor's Academy and a friend of Charlie Bone. A gifted pianist, he is in the Music department and is one of the few students who take lessons with and likes Mr Pilgrim. His endowment allows him to feel scenes and emotions through clothing, but as his family is poor and cannot afford many new clothes for him, he is often effected by second-hand sadness and is thus a rather gloomy person. In times of great need, however, Gabriel often rises to the occasion and becomes strangely confident and powerful.
Gabriel lives in the Heights, not far from Lysander Sage, Tancred Torsson and the Looms. He has three sisters; April, Mai and June. His father, Cyrus Silk, is a crime thriller writer. He also has a large number of gerbils; his favourite is named Rita.
Ancestry[]
Gabriel is descended from the Red King's fourth child, Guanhamara. His ancestors, the Salutatis, lived in Venice, and one of them, Luigi Salutati, painted the portrait of the Red King which now hangs in the King's Room at Bloor's Academy. The Salutatis eventually moved to England and changed their surname to Silk. The Bloors managed to wrest possession of the Red King's portrait away from the Silks, but they maintained possession of the Red King's cloak, which Guanhamara took with her when she fled the Red Castle for Italy. Gabriel wore the Red King's cloak on at least one occasion and it granted him immunity to Count Harken Badlock's magic, but his father soon passed the cloak on to Lyell Bone.
Biography[]
Gabriel was one of the first students Charlie Bone met when he began studying at Bloor's Academy. A Music student, he shared a dormitory with Charlie, Fidelio Gunn and Billy Raven. Forced to wear a second-hand cape provided by the Bloors the term that Charlie started because his gerbils ate his previous one, Gabriel switched his and Charlie's capes without permission because the previous owner of his new cape had been killed by the beast and it filled him with horror. Gabriel's actions got Charlie in trouble, but he later made it up to him by using his endowment on Lyell Bone's old tie and revealing to Charlie that his father was not dead, only 'lost'. When the Bloors tried to have Charlie killed during the ruin game as revenge for freeing Emma Tolly, Gabriel brought Lysander and Tancred to his aid.
Gabriel often suffered due to his endowment, which has the obvious downside of hurting or even crippling him should he accidentally wear the clothing of someone who was badly injured. One such case was when he wore a glove belonging to Dorothy de Vere, whose hand was crushed in the academy's front doors by Manfred. Due to the amount of time he spent in the Music Tower for his lessons with Mr Pilgrim Gabriel often encountered Dorothy, and when Mr Pilgrim gave him the Time Twister Gabriel passed it on to her so that she could escape the academy and her sad life with the family who hated her.
Gabriel's musical studies took up a lot of his time during Charlie's third term, so he was not directly involved in the hunt for Ollie Sparks. However, he was the one who began the tradition of Charlie and his friends meeting at The Pet's Café on weekends, and he would often loan his gerbils to his pet-less friends so that they could gain entry. During the Night of Wind and Spirits, Gabriel wore Mr Boldova's cape so that he would gain the teacher's courage for his confrontation with Yolanda Yewbeam.
When Billy Raven fled from The Passing House chased by Florence and Usher de Grey, he took shelter in Gabriel's gerbil house. Gabriel, Charlie, Tancred and Lysander gathered there to plan their next move, but they were attacked by Florence de Grey's oaths and Gabriel was forced to take shelter indoors. Lysander managed to defeat the oaths by summoning his spirit ancestors, but the Bloors were determined to punish the boys for rescuing Billy and had Dorcas Loom curse a cloak which Gabriel unwittingly put on. Gabriel lost consciousness and might have died, but thankfully he was discovered in time and taken to hospital, where he recovered.
After Harken Badlock was summoned out of the Red King's portrait by Titania Tilpin, Olivia Vertigo stole The Mirror of Amoret she used to do so and Gabriel, Charlie, Tancred and Lysander went to her house to protect her. During the subsequent battle with the Count, Gabriel wore the Red King's cloak and discovered that it protected him from Badlock's spells. Shortly afterwards, Gabriel was one of the ten children who performed a ritual to reawaken the Red King, causing Badlock to be banished.
Physical description[]
Gabriel is described as a tall boy with a long face and droopy mouse-coloured hair.