| “ | Because if I learned one thing in the camps … it’s that you stand with the winners. | ” |
— Vick to Tallow
| ||
Victarine "Vick" dan Teufel grew up in the brutal work-camps of Angland, but has since become a member of the King's Inquisition. She specializes in espionage and intrigue, staking her life on her lies for Arch Lector Glokta.
Appearance and Personality[]
Vick appears to be chiselled from flint, with scarcely a gesture towards femininity anywhere. Her chin and cheekbones jut, her nose is blunt and slightly bent, her eyes permanently narrowed in a frown. Her dark hair is shot with grey and usually bound back tightly.
Vick constantly mulls over the hard lessons learned in penal camps: to lock away her feelings; to never allow herself to be weak, or vulnerable; to lie, even to herself; to relish every morsel of food. It has made her hard, taciturn, and dispassionate. She tricks and tortures to betray causes she halfway believed in, for the sake of one she doesn’t at all. But then that’s another lesson from the camps; to stand with the winners.
History[]
Vick is the daughter of Sepp dan Teufel, the Master of the Mints who Sand dan Glokta convicted on trumped up charges early in The Blade Itself. He was sent to the penal mining camps of Angland with his entire family; his wife, son, and daughters, including eight-year-old Vick. Vick spent twelve years in the camps, girl and woman. Her parents and her sisters died there; her brother, too. Vick tried to save her sick sister, going through sweat and pain to get medicine, but too late; she returned to find her stiff and cold. It is revealed in The Trouble With Peace, that her brother was planning a prisoners’ revolution, but Vick betrayed him to buy her freedom. She ended up working for the Inquisition, and eventually became Inquisitor Exempt directly under Arch Lector Glokta. This parallels Glokta's own career under Sult; she even lives in his old cramped rooms in the Agriont.
A Little Hatred[]
Vick dan Teufel has infiltrated the Adua cell of a dissident group known as the Breakers, led Collem Sibalt; the pair are secretly lovers. They plan to blow up the Hill Street Foundry with Gurkish Fire, which has been acquired from the mysterious Weaver in Valbeck. Before the mission, Vick conspicuously asks each of them, “You’re sure this is what you want?” At the Hill Street Foundry, the Inquisition immediately converging on them from all directions. Sibalt takes his own life rather than betray the cause to the Inquisition, dying in Vick’s arms. In her cell, Vick gets a visit from Arch Lector Glokta, who congratulates her on a job well done. She will continue to root out the truth in Valbeck. She also persuades him to let her take on young Tallow as a protégé, with his sister unknowingly acting as hostage.
Vick and Tallow travels to Valbeck with Savine dan Glokta, with the two women making a stark contrast. They get out well before the city, and make their way onwards as desperate commoners. Vick has prepared subtle questions to winkle out news of the Breakers, but it proves entirely unnecessary; the Breakers are an open secret. They are quickly pointed to an ongoing meeting in a warehouse. She’s expecting a dozen conspirators hiding in a cellar, but instead finds five hundred people, armed, organised, and preaching open rebellion, led by Superior Risinau, head of Valbeck’s Inquisition. Vick immediately sends Tallow back to Adua to warn the Arch Lector.
As Valbeck erupts in city-wide insurrection, Vick rises to a position of leadership in the Breakers. The Superior is a pompous dreamer, and it’s clear someone more formidable organised this; indeed, Risinau admits he’s not the Weaver. Hearing that the Burners have taken prisoners, Vick fears for Savine and offers to get the prisoner, claiming they’ll be useful hostages. However, by the time Vick arrives, Judge has already hanged almost all of them.
When Prince Orso’s army surrounds Valbeck, Risinau and Judge flee, leaving Malmer to face the consequences. Vick attends the negotiations with him, passing Orso a secret message that helps him orchestrate the peaceful surrender of the city. Although the Breakers were promised amnesty, the Inquisition arrests them. Inquisitor Teufel goes to Malmer’s cell, hoping to get enough information to save a man she’s come to respect. However, Superior Pike interrupts the questioning, and she has to give him up as a lost cause.
Back in Adua, Arch Lector Glokta suspects the conspiracy goes deeper, and expands her mission to investigating members of the Open Council, especially Lords Heugen, Barezin and above all Isher.
The Trouble With Peace[]
Following the ascension of High King Orso the First, The Union continues to face trouble on several fronts. A new concern is the possible secession of the Protectorate of Westport. Arch Lector Glokta dispatches Inquisitor Teufel to the Westport, to ensure the Aldermen do not vote to leave The Union and join Styria; at any cost. Superior Lorsen is rather dubious that she can help with the very sensitive politics. When buying and threatening votes fails, Vick turns to intrigue against the leader of the pro-Styrian faction, Solumeo Shudra. She stages a fake attempt on Shudra's life by the infamous assassin Shenkt, claiming that Monza Murcatto had planned to kill him and blame The Union, in order to secure the forthcoming vote. Shudra swings the vote in favour of the Union by a landslide.
Preparing to leave for Adua, Vick and Tallow are ambushed on the docks. Their assailant has impossible speed and strength, and the pair find themselves captives in a gloomy shed before the real Casamir dan Shenkt, and Shylo Vitari, Styria's Minister of Whispers. Vitari is irked at having lost the vote, but rather impressed with Vick. She tries to persuade her to join Styria by explaining how Bayaz and Valint & Balk are the real power behind The Union. Vick almost surprises herself by refusing, saying she owes Glokta, which Vitari accepts while giving her a contact in Adua if she changes her mind.
After the assassination attempt against the king at the demonstration of Honrig Curnsbick's steam engine, Vick interrogates the surviving Burners and learns that Yoru Sulfur is an Eater; confirming what Vitari had told her. Summoned to the Arch Lector's office, she intends to confront Glokta, but is diverted by the presence of King Orso and the news of Leo dan Brock's plans to overthrow the government. With the rebels intending to enlist Styrian support, Vick uses the contact she received from Vitari to organizes a meeting between King Orso and King Jappo to keep them out of it.
Later, Orso spring a trap to expose the spy on his Closed Council, by dramatically announcing his knowledge of the plot, and having Inquisitor Teufel follow the member who goes to warn the other conspirators. She discovers Lord Marshal Brint plotting with Lord Heugen in a bathhouse. Realizing that he's been exposed, Brint reveals the grievances he's been nursing: his bitterness at the sacrifices he's had made for The Union, including his arm and his wife; his resentment that the Closed Council abandoned Angland against Scale Ironhand; and his belief that The Union is controlled by Valint & Balk. Vick takes his ring, the one that had once belonged to his wife, and later uses it to trick the other conspirators into believing that she is a messenger sent by Brint.
Meanwhile, Arch Lector Glokta resigns since his daughter, Savine, in clearly implicated in the plot. Before leaving Adua, he meets with Vick on a bench in the park. He wants to thanks her for her loyal service, to which Vick finds herself reacting angrily. Glokta nods knowingly, and gives her one piece of advice; to forgive herself for betraying brother’s prison revolt, in order to buy her own freedom.
At the Battle of Stoffenbeck, Vick is with new Arch Lector Pike on the left flank, where the royalist cannons maul the Open Council's forces. Curiously, there has been none of the expected trouble from the Breakers. After the royalist victory, Vick accompanies Pike to Valbeck to make sure the city is secure. Entering Valbeck, Pike is suspiciously talkative, speaking about his experiences in the penal camps, about sympathy for the Breakers, about his loyalty to Glokta. Vick feels the hairs stand on the back of her neck. Pike then reveals that he was the previous Superior of Valbeck. Finally reaching the main square, there are armed men everywhere, and outside the rebuilt branch of Valint and Balk two familiar faces; Superior Risinau and Judge. Vick has fallen into a trap; Pike is the Weaver - the mastermind behind the growing wave of social unrest. With the King's Own distracted at Stoffenbeck, the Breakers have taken control of Valbeck, Keln, Holsthorm and many of the smaller cities; Adua will be next. Pike invites Vick to join them, and with little choice, she agrees. As the bank goes up in flames once again, Pike speaks of "A Great Change".