| Spoiler warning! This article contains plot details from the latest book. |
Fintan Pyren is the former main antagonist of Keeper of the Lost Cities. He is a former leader of the Neverseen and is currently in prison. He is a Pyrokinetic, an Ancient, and a former Councillor. He stepped down after Pyrokinesis was banned.
Appearance
Fintan has slender features that look almost fragile. He has sky blue eyes and messy blond hair. He has pointy ears, like all Ancients. In fact, his ears are pointier then Councillor Bronte's, meaning that he is even older than him. He is notably unscarred from the Oblivimyre fire. He, of course, wore the Neverseen uniform and cloak, while he was with them.
Involvement
Book 1: Keeper of the Lost Cities
Sophie suspects that the fires ravaging San Diego are actually Everblaze, leading her to bottling the flames. This served as evidence against Fintan, resulting in his arrest.
While Sophie and Dex were interrogated by the Neverseen, she believes that the Pyrokinetic interrogating her is Fintan, though this is later revealed to be Brant.
Book 2: Exile
Alden and Sophie go to Exile, where Fintan is being held, in order to perform a memory break. Fintan refuses to disclose information about the Neverseen despite being offered freedom by Alden. Sophie and Alden proceed with forcefully bringing down his mental barriers. While they’re searching his mind, Fintan creates fire from their body heat and burns Alden, breaking their concentration and forcing Sophie to stop. However, Fintan loses his sanity because of this, resulting in his mind being unsafe to search.
Book 3: Everblaze
Sophie managed to uncover the identity of the other Pyrokinetic, Brant. He never uncovered his ability, and as far as everyone knew and was considered Talentless. Truthfully, he was just hiding his illegal ability. Sophie attempted to heal Fintan's mind after the break, in an amethyst tower called Oblivimyre, and he retaliated, sparking Everblaze and supposedly killing himself, and Kenric, in the process. The fire also burned down most of Eternalia.
Book 4: Neverseen
It was revealed that Fintan survived the fire in Oblivimyre. He and King Dimitar gave threats to the Lost Cities and the Gnomes, giving them a choice of handing the antidote and serving under the Ogres or living without the antidote. It could be seen that the Neverseen and the Ogres were joining forces. He and Brant also trapped Sophie and her friends in a cage of Everblaze after their escape from Ravagog.
Book 5: Lodestar
During Keefe’s time in the Neverseen, he tells Sophie that Fintan is working on his vision, involving the Criterion and the Lodestar Initiative. He would frequently take Keefe to the Forbidden Cities and ask him questions about the humans they were observing.
Fintan is captured and talks his way into the Peace Summit in Lumenaria. However, it is revealed that his and other members of the Neverseen's capture was part of their grand plan, and, using their mental energy they bring Lumenaria crashing down on itself, killing Brant in the process. When this happens, Vespera escapes with them.
Book 6: Nightfall
It’s discovered that Vespera is working with Fintan. During the showdown at Nightfall, Grady mesmerizes Fintan into opening the door and knocking himself out. At the end of the book, Fintan is captured, but he has a bargaining chip: he knows where to find a reserve of the antidote to the Neverseen's weapon, soporidine. As levy for the information regarding the antidote, he makes a few demands: No Telepath can come near him, especially Sophie; He will be kept in a private prison, not a cell in Exile; and the Council must guarantee that no harm will come to him, including memory breaks. In return, the Council ordered that in the following days, Fintan must work with Councillor Bronte to access the secrets in his cache, which Keefe had stolen during his infiltration of the Neverseen.
Book 7: Flashback
It is revealed that the cache Keefe stole is a fake. Fintan demands a meeting with Sophie and Fitz, in which he tells them Vespera's plans for the Celestial Festival, in exchange for their promise to let him train Marella Redek.
Book 8: Legacy
Fintan starts training Marella in pyrokinesis. Linh comes to one of these lessons to extinguish any accidental fires just in case, and Marella says Fintan seems impressed with Linh.
Quotes
“That’s the funny thing about rebellions. You can’t stop them until they’ve consumed everything that fuels them. And from where I sit I see plenty of kindling.”
“Our world is broken, Alden—and all the Council does about it is condemn anyone brave enough to acknowledge that we have a problem. Break our minds, lock us deep in the earth, convince themselves that we are the criminals. But who are the ones ruining lives? Destroying families? Forbidding people from using their abilities, relegating them to working class?”
Trivia
- The name Fintan, in Irish, means "white fire".
- The last name Pyren is derived froyepppm the word Pyre, which means the "fire that is burned to bring the dead into the afterlife."
- Fintan can erase his memories, as Keefe says, 'locking anything dark but essential away.'