The Delve

The Delve is the underground dwelling of the piskeys in the The Flight and Flame series. All the piskeys have the ability to make their skin glow brightly at will, so they’re never in the dark unless they want to be.

Geography
The Delve is located in one of the many abandoned tin mines that dot the landscape of Cornwall. It is a bright, bustling underground city comprised of a series of tunnels. Each passage is unique, having been carved by the piskey miners (or knockers).

Long Way
Long Way is where Ivy lives with her family. It is a passage carved from polished granite.

Upper Rise
Upper Rise, where the piskey children have their lessons, has delicate mosaics of plants and animals.

Other notable locations

 * Elders' Way
 * Market Cavern
 * Potter's End
 * Silverlode
 * The Earthenbore – tunnel of packed clay
 * The Great Shaft – human mineshaft
 * The Hunter's Stair
 * The Narrows
 * Treasure Cavern

History
TBA

Notable residents

 * Betony
 * Bramble
 * Cicely
 * Copper
 * Daisy
 * Elvar
 * Fern
 * Flint (deceased)
 * Gem
 * Gossan
 * Hew
 * Ivy (formerly)
 * Jenny (deceased)
 * Keeve
 * Marigold (formerly)
 * Mattock
 * Mica
 * Nettle (deceased)
 * Pick
 * Quartz
 * Shale
 * Teasle
 * Thrift (piskey child)
 * Yarrow

Occupations

 * Droll-teller
 * Known droll-tellers: Hew
 * Healer
 * Known healers: Yarrow
 * Hunter
 * Known hunters: Shale
 * Joan the Wad
 * Known Joans: Betony
 * Jack O'Lantern
 * Known Jacks: Gossan


 * Knocker
 * Know knockers: Flint

Trivia

 * R.J. Anderson spent nine years living in a nickel mining town in northern Ontario, and her grandparents were mining folk. This led to her making the home of her Cornish piskey heroine one of the many abandoned tin mines that dot the landscape of Cornwall.
 * For inspiration, Anderson looked at pictures and videos of real-life underground chambers and cities — including Coober Pedy, an opal-mining town carved out of the rocks of the Australian outback, and the “Diefenbunker”, a Cold War-era complex built to protect the Canadian Prime Minister and his cabinet in the event of a nuclear attack.