"And everyone else."
Ashes is a liar first, a thief second, and a beggar when nothing else will do the trick. He's one of hundreds of gutter-rats living under the rule of the brutal slum-lord Mr. Ragged. But Ashes has a secret: his best friend and ward, Blimey, is a fugitive hiding from Mr. Ragged.
They need a way out—and they find one when Ashes attracts the attention of Candlestick Jack, an enigmatic magician in search of a burglar. Soon Ashes falls in with Jack's crew of magician-thieves: Juliana, Jack's aristocratic wife; William, his exacting business partner; and Synder, his genius apprentice.
Under Jack’s tutelage, Ashes studies the magic of Artifice as well as the arts of the upper-class criminal in preparation for Jack's greatest caper yet: he wants to steal a cursed magical artifact from one of the richest men in the city, and he needs Ashes' unique skills to do it. But
Together, Ashes and Jack prepare for the most audacious caper their city has ever seen…while Ashes sets his newfound talents toward a private war with Mr. Ragged.
The Facefaker's Game provides examples of:
- Amnesiac Hero: Ashes is one: a rasa, he woke up in Teranis one day with no name and no memory. Rasa seem to be pretty common in Teranis, though in the upper classes, they're conflated with the (far more dangerous) Ravagers.
- Badass Boast: "When is the single most dangerous man in the room even more dangerous? When there are several of him."
- The Chess Master: Candlestick Jack, with shades of Manipulative Bastard. Some examples:
- As a training exercise, he orders Ashes to steal aether out of another Artificer's pocket. : A few hours later, disguised as a smuggler, Jack sells that same Artificer his own aether for profit.
- To keep the Guild of Artificers from learning about his clandestine dealings, he masquerades as a mediocre-at-best pompous windbag, and keeps everyone in his crew from showing off how skilled they are (a restriction Synder chafes under). This keeps attention off of them while also letting them stockpile aether without arousing the Guild's suspicions; more skilled Artificers need less aether, so pretending to be hacks lets them store the excess and sell to Artificers who need the supplement for their work.
- Even after taking Ashes on as an apprentice, he keeps him in the dark regarding his plans. His letter to Tuln makes it clear why: he's almost certain Ashes is a spy, working for someone who's figured out Jack's schemes.
- Claustrophobia: Ashes has shades of this after his time in the sewers.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Ben Roamer.
- Determinator: Ashes prefers to be sneaky and clever, but when those fail him, he's also willing to endure significant physical pain to meet his goals.
- The Don: Bonnie the Lass is the unquestioned ruler of the Teranis underworld. Until she and all her lieutenants get blown up.
- Every Proper Lady Should Curtsy: A sticking point between Juliana and Synder. Juliana is well-versed in high society manners and customs due to her upbringing, while Synder has no patience for the rules at all.
- Identity Amnesia: This is so common in Teranis that it has its own term: 'rasa', children who pop up seemingly from nowhere without names, memories, or identification. Where they come from is left unanswered.
- Little Professor Dialog: Blimey spends most of his time reading, since he can't go outside for fear of being identified; his favorite book is a dictionary Ashes stole. His vocabulary is consequently quite large.
- Multilayer Façade: In spades. Because Artifice can be made to malfunction (through contact with iron, a seeing stone, or passing over water), Jack frequently uses more pedestrian disguises underneath his false face. Ashes picks up the habit.
- Never Mess with Granny: Batty Annie has an nigh-impenetrable aura of intimidation, such that Ragged doesn't bother her even though she lives within Burroughside. Ashes has no evidence to indicate she's a witch, but also would not be the least bit surprised if that were the case.
- The Nondescript: Central to the Rehl Company's mode of operation: they're all exceptional Artificers, but pretend to be talentless hacks to keep the Guild of Artificers from suspecting they're responsible for Artifice-related crimes. Of course, in the Guild, part of being a talentless hack is boasting about how skilled you are, so in public, Jack constantly implies he has untold skill at magic
- Secret Secret-Keeper: After a Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure, Blimey reveals that he's figured out that Ashes is also Mr. Smoke. Ashes has no idea how this happened (since Blimey has been confined to a basement for months) but has no time to dwell on it.
