His name was Tomer, the man who'd pulled Tori away from her mother and the Nine–Day–Watch and found an empty room off the Great Hall for her to stay in; she couldn't remember what he did in the Glacier. He hadn't asked her what had happened, and for that alone Tori was grateful.
Tomer stayed with her while she cried, occasionally coughing or shuffling his feet so that she'd remember he was there. After a few minutes he left, and returned with a cup of water for Tori to drink.
"I didn't mean to–" she blubbered, "It was an accident, I didn't – I didn't–" She hiccupped and began to cry again, new tears streaming down her face as if they'd been dammed up.
"Shh, relax," he said, and pushed the cup into her hands. He'd flung his hand up as he entered the room, sending little balls of light flying to the edges of the room so that they could see without leaving the door open. She took the cup with both her hands and took a deep swig. She hiccupped again, forced the water down her throat and started to cry again.
"It's all right, you don't have to explain," he said. He patted Tori's back as she cried, but otherwise sat awkwardly next to her until her hiccupping subsided, and she could speak again.
She realized pretty quickly while she calmed down that there was yelling outside – her mother, to be exact. Tori leaned against the wall, taking sips from the never–ending cup, and listened to her mother shout at the Nine–Day Watch – this was their fault, they should have Seen this happen, but instead they were too preoccupied trying to See the Abhorsen–in–Waiting, when everyone knew she was un–Seeable and not a Clayr and –
The door opened a crack and one of the younger Clayr slipped in – Haretha, her odd name due to her father's insistence, or so Tori's friends claimed. She closed the door behind her.
"Tori," she said, "Can you tell me what happened?"
Tori started to look up at the woman and struggled to find the words; Tomer, though, spoke before she could.
"She had a fear incident," he said. Haretha frowned, and he added, "I gave it the name. She thought of something she was scared of, and it overwhelmed her mind."
"We all have fears," Haretha said. "I'm scared of falling off the Glacier, but thinking about it won't make me act like some Free Magic creature on a rampage."
Free Magic creature on a rampage, oh no no no no –
"It doesn't happen to everyone," Tomer replied, interrupting Tori's spiral. "I haven't figured out yet why it only happens to some people, but it, when it happens it seems to only get worse, but there are some treatments I've developed–"
"In any case, Junior Healer, I need to know if this – this 'fear incident' – will happen again."
Tomer shrugged. "Maybe. It might have happened before." He turned back to Tori, who had returned to staring into the cup. "Has it happened before?"
Tori began to shake her head, but changed it halfway to a nod. "I think so," she said slowly; her voice was hoarse, and it hurt to speak. "I locked myself in my closet and it stopped."
"When was this?"
"The day – um, the night before my Awakening."
"Two incidents in three weeks," Tomer muttered.
"Is that significant?" asked Haretha.
"Well, uh, no, but any information is helpful–"
"Then it won't happen again soon?"
"No – well, uh, probably not," Tomer stuttered, "But they're hard to predict and, well, sometimes they can last for an hour, but it appears that Tori's calmed down sufficiently–"
"It won't happen again soon," Haretha summarized. "She can explain what happened?"
Tomer stood up. "She needs rest and calm. Reliving the experience so soon after will make it worse – I'm betting this is what set this incident off –"
"Tomer, Tori, we'll worry about that later. We need to know what happened."
Tori finally looked up fully at Haretha. "I – I don't know if I can–"
Haretha smiled thinly, a watery smile that didn't inspire confidence in Tori at all. "You'll do just fine," she said.
Tori didn't agree, but she let Tomer help her up anyway. "All right." She brushed off her Librarian's waistcoat and took Haretha's hand.
The first thing Tori noticed was that her mother was being held back from her daughter by two members of the Nine–Day Watch. She wasn't trying to push past them – though Tori got the feeling she had been before – but none of them appeared particularly happy.
The other members of the Nine–Day Watch stood around the door; Tori could see other Clayr, mostly blue–clad children, peering from behind them. Less than a month ago Tori was one of them, but that comforting reminder didn't make the shame and anger that rose in her mind any less present.
"Tori went through something called a fear event," Haretha told the gathered group. ("Incident," Tomer muttered.) "She needs to be looked after by a Healer, but for now she should be able to explain what happened."
"The Abhorsen will arrive by the morning," Sanar – or Ryelle, right now she didn't really care – announced with that glazed–over look that Tori hadn't understood until she had her first vision.
With that, the Nine–Day Watch gathered around Haretha, Tomer and Tori, and it was agreed that Tori would stay in the Infirmary – currently located in two rooms off the Great Hall – until the Abhorsen arrived. Tomer, Haretha and Tori's mother stayed with her.
The Abhorsen arrived by mid–morning. The Mages, who were in charge of all lighting in the Glacier, had adjusted the lights in the Great Hall so that they would mimic the sun's path through the day; the Mages had also created the temporary, cushioned ground and the feeling of blankets that had let most of the Clayr, especially the children, fall asleep together in the Great Hall the last night.
Tori had refused to sleep, but at her mother's insistence Tomer had cast Charter marks for sleep and dreamlessness over her. Still, she awoke with a bad taste in her mouth and a knot in her stomach, only slightly lessened by the hot tea Tomer handed her with her breakfast bread.
The Voice announced not long after Tori awoke that the Abhorsen had arrived, and two members of the Watch escorted Tori back to the dais to wait.
The main doors, carved with scenes from the creation of the Five Great Charters and the history of the Clayr, swung open with dramatic slowness. They never opened quickly, but it occurred to Tori that the marks on the door understood the dire circumstances, and acted accordingly.
Three figures stood in the doorway, shadowed by the bright light outside in the hallway. According to an elder in the Watch, who leaned over to whisper to her colleague, the Mages had raised the lights to the brightest level so that the guards wouldn't be ambushed by the creature. Another Clayr nearby, though, whispered that the creature was invisible; a third that it created its own dark cloud; another that it could cut through the gethre that the Rangers wore; and another, and another and another, till Tori decided to stop listening.
The visitors' features became visible as they walked further into the hall: Three young adults, a woman flanked by two men. The woman shared her dark hair with the man to her left, and light skin with the man to her right, marking her as a member of the Abhorsen line.
Tori thought she looked too young to be the Abhorsen Sabriel, who'd been Queen for more than twenty years.
"Lirael," Kirrith said, surprised.
Lirael, daughter of Arielle. The Clayr who never received the Sight, the woman who never left the library, the one who'd left the Glacier mysteriously almost a year ago and never returned. The dark–haired, pale–skinned woman who never fit in, never talked, never smiled.
She was smiling now, an easy, wide smile that only became wider. She quickened her pace, walked down the raised aisle to the dais and stepped down to embrace her aunt.
That was right, Tori remembered. Kirrith was Lirael's aunt.
Lirael and Kirrith withdrew from their embrace, and the Abhorsen–in–Waiting beckoned to the two men to come forward, who'd been standing awkwardly by on the dais.
"Aunt, this is Prince Sameth, the Wallmaker" Tori heard Lirael say. "And this is Nick Sayre."
The Guardian of the Young gave a firm handshake to the former and a curt nod to the latter. She moved aside to let the Voice come forward.
"Sanar, Ryelle," the Abhorsen–in–Waiting said, and hugged each in turn. She looked around at the mass of Clayr and added, "How about we move this to a smaller room."
"An excellent idea," one of the twins said.
"It's egg–shaped," the blond man – Nick Sayre, why did his name sound familiar – said, randomly. He turned to Lirael. "You never said it was egg–shaped. I thought they'd all be rectangular."
Tori looked around and realized he was talking about the Great Hall.
All of the Nine–Day Watch turned to him. "Nicholas Sayre," one said.
"Nephew of the Chief Minister of Ancelstierre," another added.
A third said, "Attempted to raise the Ninth Bright Shiner."
"Received a late baptism in the Charter."
"Attacked by a Hrule at the Wall."
"Under the custody of the Abhorsen–"
Lirael ended the chain of Sighted statements. "All right, that's enough," she said. She glanced back at Nick Sayre, who, judging from his expression, had clearly been put off by the Watch. Like every Clayr, Tori was accustomed to the group–thinking nature of the Watch, but for the first time she realized that it might seem odd to outsiders.
"Let's get going," said Lirael.
The Nine–Day Watch was larger, much more intimidating, than Tori had ever appreciated – seven people who, for a whole nine days, joined their Sight and their thoughts together and acted sometimes as one person. All together they were very powerful.
Tori had found the room almost overwhelmingly large last night, when she was alone with Tomer and Haretha; but now, with ten Clayr, an Abhorsen–in–Waiting, a Wallmaker and an Ancelstierran crammed into the same room with her, it didn't seem large at all.
"This is the Librarian?" Lirael asked once they had shut the door, looking at Tori.
"Torethele, daughter of Edishi," the Voice said. "She Awoke three weeks ago."
Lirael raised her eyebrows. "A Librarian, at thirteen?" How did she know – no, that was right, she'd never left the Hall of Youth. She would have remembered Tori, even if Tori never remembered her.
"We had an opening, and a Third Assistant position didn't seem all that dangerous," Haretha explained. She was a Second Assistant, though she wasn't currently wearing her red waistcoat.
She was also tasked by Guardian Kirrith to look after Tori for the time being; Tori had overheard them talk while she was pretending to sleep. She suspected that the Charter marks she liked to draw on her arms, pretending they were tattoos, had cancelled out the effects of Tomer's spell.
"She was barely Awoken, and the Library is still dangerous," the Abhorsen–in–Waiting replied. "She should have stayed with the Teachers, or gone to the Art Studios–"
"I wanted to!" Tori said, almost shouted. She caught herself quickly as everyone turned to look at her, and almost decided to be silent again; but she wanted to set the record straight.
"I wanted to go to the Art Studios," she repeated. "I love art, I love painting and drawing and making murals. And I asked if I could go, and the Chief Artist said I could! But then Guardian Kirrith and my Teacher told me I had to work in the Library, that there weren't any openings in the Art Studios. I tried to tell them I could go to the Studios, but they just said no," she added, mumbling that last bit. She looked to the Abhorsen–in–Waiting, pleading silently. Please understand, please don't be angry.
Lirael turned to Haretha. "Who was her Teacher?"
"Adera," replied the young woman. "But she and Kirrith thought it best if–"
"I was asked by her mother," a strong voice in the back interrupted. Adera separated herself from the Watch and walked to the Abhorsen; Tori hadn't realized she was part of the Watch. "Edishi asked me to recommend the Library for her daughter. She said that Torethele wasn't old enough to take on duties in the Studios, and that an Assistant Librarian position would help her learn discipline and responsibility."
Everyone else had looked to Teacher Adera while she spoke, but from the moment she had named Edishi, Tori had watched her mother, as her expression faded from objection to resolve. "Mom?" she asked, and heads turned to Edishi.
"Well, I –" she spluttered. "My daughter loves to make art, but she needed to learn that there were more serious things, and I thought a year or two in the Library would teacher the lessons–"
"Your 'lessons' have unleashed a monster onto our Glacier," Tomer said, with a confidence that distracted Tori from her mother's betrayal. "We are all born with our own gifts, our own paths that we must follow to help the world grow and thrive. Tori's gifts led her to the Art Studios, but you refused to let her take her own path."
Tomer let his words, so different from his haltering speech yesterday, hang in the air for a long moment.
"Edishi, you may leave," said the Voice.
"I – she's my daughter, she's just Awoken," Tori's mother objected. Her mother, who'd changed suddenly the day before, her silent anger and disappointment fading into steady, quiet support and nothing but platitudes to comfort her daughter; her mother, who must have realized that this was her fault as much as it was her daughter's. "I have to be here, I may have made a mistake but she's my daughter and she's barely a woman–"
"Edishi," the Abhorsen–in–Waiting said. "Thank you. You may go now."
Tori's mother stared at Lirael, twenty years her younger but now her superior; Lirael, with the serious expression Tori remembered, held the Clayr's eyes. It occurred to Tori that, as Abhorsen–in–Waiting, Lirael had to deal with dead creatures and Free Magic creatures and all those things that scared Tori to death; one Clayr wouldn't have been very frightening to her.
Edishi dipped her head in defeat and left the room without another word.
"Now," Lirael said, and turned back to Tori, "Please tell me what happened."