Kamil/Story

Kamil is born shortly before Myne was attacked by Count Bindewald and thus has no memory of his sister.

While he may remember seeing the High Bishop on numerous occasions when his family went to watch her, he is unaware of his relation with her. With the secrets and the pain surrounding Myne's supposed death, her family as good as never talks about her. This led to Kamil not even knowing her name when he was three years old.

He loves the toys and books that Lutz brings him, but is unaware that they were actually made by Rozemyne.

When he was very young, Kamil believed that the books and toys came from Lutz himself, but when he gets older his parents tell him that they come from Lady Rozemyne. They say it is because Lady Rozemyne feels partially responsible and sympathetic to his family, because she was the target of the noble from another duchy that killed Myne. Despite this nice gesture, his parents are still wary of nobles and thus forbid him from discussing these gifts with anyone.

The only exception to this are Lutz and the orphans from the temple. He occasionally meets the orphans while out foraging in the forest and is quite happy to being able to finally have someone to gush about the books and toys with. On such meetings, he also became friends with Dirk and Konrad. He even sometimes takes his karuta deck with him to the forest to play with them. Dirk is a very tough opponent that he only rarely manages to beat, but Konrad was easy prey at first. Only recently has Konrad's skill grown considerably, which Kamil chalks up to getting far more practice than him. As a result, he starts to play against his mother, and when she visits, with Tuuli as often as he can.

Something his parents forbid him from talking about to anyone - including the temple orphans - is his older sister, which is not particularly difficult for Kamil since he knows practically nothing about her anyway, due to his family basically never talking about her in his presence.

At some point after turning five, Tuuli takes Kamil along for a visit to the Gilberta Company, where he plays with the children Renate and Knut. He is easily able to win against the young boy, but the girl is roughly equal to him, resulting in them having roundabout a 50% win rate against each other. This prompts Renate to declare he should join the Gilberta Company, so she could play against him all the time until her win rate got to 100%. Ever the doting father, Otto immediately latches on to the idea and begins to pressure Kamil to really join his store. Benno intercedes and states that since Kamil likes books and toys far more than hairpins and clothes he would be far better off jointing the Plantin Company instead, and the brothers-in-law begin a heated discussion about it. Eventually, Tuuli breaks them up wishing to leave the decision to Kamil himself, rather than the two far too forceful adults. For his part, Kamil is quite in favour of joining the Plantin Company once he is baptized, since that would allow him to see how the books and toys he likes so much are actually made in the Rozemyne Workshop, and he could work together with Lutz, Dirk, and Konrad.

Lutz offers to take him under his wing and train him at the end of winter to prepare him for the life of a merchant. Since Lutz is still not experienced enough in noble etiquette to visit the castle, his winter work pretty much ends with the preparations for the yearly book-fair, and he has plenty of free time while the other leherls are at the castle, which he offers to use to teach Kamil, so he will have a smoother entry into the profession than he had himself.

Kamil is very willing to take him up on that offer and later tells his parents that he wants to become a merchant and join the Plantim Company to spread books far and wide. For reasons he can't figure out this causes his parents to react shocked, and Effa even cries a little, but against his momentarily flaring up fears, his parents readily agree to his choice and allow it.

To give his potential future apprentices a better idea of what the Rozemyne Workshop is like, Benno inquires whether it's possible to give the children - Kamil included - a tour of the place even before their baptism, but due to un-baptized children being forbidden from entering the temple, he is denied.

Even before his baptism, Kamil already as good as realizes his dream and has a guarantee from Benno, that he will be hired by the Plantin Company, and will be given the position of a leherl.

According to Tuuli, Kamil is glad to have chosen to work for the Plantin Company and allowed to go with them, when they move to Lady Rozemyne's new home in the coming spring. If he hadn't, he would have needed to find a new job without any connections at the new living place, he and his parents are going to follow Lady Rozemyne to, or stay behind in Ehrenfest all on his own to become a live-in apprentice.

Despite the winter baptism being performed by the future High Bishop, Lord Melchior, the spring baptism is once again held by Lady Rozemyne. When she enters the chapel, the children are all surprised, since they have been told about how tiny she was supposed to be, but the person stepping on the altar before them looks almost like a full adult. Once outside the chapel again, Kamil is fussed over by his family and Lutz, to his mild annoyance.

< Kamil