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As the sun rose over Belisaere, Nicholas washed and dressed and came out on the balcony of the rooms he now shared with Lirael, to watch as the mist burned slowly away.
'So', said a voice, 'This is the morning after for Nicholas Sayre, newest member of the family Abhorsen. In over his head, as usual, and trying to reconcile new things with old and old with new, and also as usual, getting nowhere with it'.
Nicholas turned, to see a white cat on a seat nearby, where (he thought) none had been before. 'You must be Mogget' said he; 'but I thought Sam said you'd gone away'.
The cat answered: 'I am; I went; I came back. You Abhorsens have relied so long on my advice, you'd be lost without me. I thought I'd come and see you all once in a while, on and off over the years, until I was sure you could do without. Besides, I haven't many places else to go anymore. I've been a house-cat too long to really enjoy the wild life, at least for now, and pretending to be a lovable village stray isn't as much fun as it sounds. Not that I wouldn't do it again, but I wanted a change of scene, and stopping here didn't take me too far out of my way. Don't just stand there; you might as well do something useful with your hands. I'd like a light scratch in that hard-to-reach place behind the ears'.
Nicholas, bemused, dutifully scratched, and the cat arched his back and purred. Beneath the soft fur, Nicholas could feel the surging, inexhaustible power of the ancient creature's true form, and he hesitated.
Mogget looked up at him and said: 'You feel it, don't you? The Mischievous Mongrel's meddling makes it most difficult to miss'.
Nicholas guessed: 'Lirael's friend? The Disreputable Dog? Or whatever she really was'.
Mogget answered: 'Obviously. You bear a Great Charter now, like the Five that usually protect the Kingdom: like the Wall, like the Abhorsens; like the Clayr, and the Great Stones; like Touchstone, and his daughter Ellimere, and all their ancestors'.
Nicholas asked: 'A Charter? Which one?'.
Mogget answered: 'A new one. Don't stop scratching. A Sixth Charter, as Great as any of the other Five. You could do almost anything with it: set up more Great Stones, though that's really Sam's expertise, or extend the Charter into other continents, at present untouched by any magic, or resynchronize time between the Kingdom and the world beyond, or lodge a new Charter in all the people and animals of the Kingdom, so if Touchstone's bloodline should fail, there'll always be another (no saying whom, until it happens) to take command. You could do all of those and more'.
Nicholas asked: 'Well, what would you want me to do?'.
Mogget answered: 'I don't particularly want any. Nor do I particularly oppose any. I'm just telling you a few of the things you can do. Do any of them, or all, or something else if you please; I only thought, having got so far, it seems a pity to waste it'.
He fell silent, and Nicholas went on stroking him. 'Pangur Ban', he murmured, recalling a poem he once memorized at school.
'Yes', said Mogget'; 'Also Cat Palug, who once chased Artorius and his Round Table up the mountain; and Great Athask, as Ferin's people say, and many other names. Speaking of names, I don't suppose she'll be called "Ferin" long; it was a good name while she had it, but I expect she'll need another, when and if she marries Sam'.
Nicholas asked: 'What'll she be called, then? And, Were you Tivoldo, too?'.
Mogget answered: 'As for your first question: I don't know. As for your second: No; but I was there, when I advised him not to take sides with Gorthaur the necromancer. Unfortunately, he didn't take my advice'.
Nicholas asked: 'What happened?'.
Mogget answered: 'He was slain by your newly-acquired ancestors, the Abhorsens, of course. Tinúviel was her name. She went against Gorthaur, with her familiar, and Tivoldo got caught in the middle and died fighting. Her sweetheart was there, too; an absolute innocent, of course, like Touchstone, or you. It seems to run in the family: more than half the Abhorsens marry an innocent, for some reason'.
Nicholas asked: 'Innocent of what?'.
Mogget answered: 'Of all but the simplest intelligence. As well as of all ambition. I suppose it's endearing, in a way. Sabriel's mother was a bit of an exception, but most of the Abhorsens' spouses, and certainly nearly all the men among these, were just like you; fearless, big-hearted, and empty-headed. That's why I called the one before you by the name of Touchstone. It seemed to fit. At any rate, another like him was there, protecting Tinúviel (or so he thought), while her familiar fought Tivoldo and killed him, and she herself banished Gorthaur from his stronghold and cleansed the Necromancer's Isle, as it was then called, of the Dead and Free Magic'.
Nicholas asked: 'What familiar? Not you?'.
Mogget answered: 'No; it was before my time. Dyrim, actually, or a remnant of him, just as I am only a shadow of my former self. He was her companion all through their adventures, which I haven't the time to tell you now'.
Nicholas asked: 'And was that the end of Gorthaur?'.
Mogget answered: 'Surprisingly, no. They never found him. He was next heard of as the Lord of the Hill of Secrets, south of the Black Forest on the Continent, where he spent many years summoning the Dead and Free Magic creatures, and sending them out to wreak havoc. So great was his mastery of the dark arts, and so fearsome his reputation, people in those days spoke of him simply as The Necromancer. He was finally overcome by the seven greatest mages of the day. Not the Abhorsen line, for a change. Nonetheless, the five greatest Charter Mages then living, and perhaps ever to live, and two more who mastered both Charter and Free Magic and used them together, as you must if you want to outlive your parents'.
Nicholas asked: 'Why seven? For the Seven Bright Shiners? Your brothers and sisters or whatever-they-were-to-you, I mean?'.
Mogget answered: 'Yes, to both. Gorthaur fled into Death, and it was thought he might never return. But he hid behind the Fifth or Sixth Gate, and returned only a few score of years later, as one of the Greater Dead. Greater even than Kerrigor, perhaps. In the end, though, he came to an end when a disciple or two of the seven greatest mages destroyed the artifact that kept him in Life. Gorthaur's spirit fled beyond the Ninth Gate, never to return. I saw it all (from a safe distance, of course)'.
Nicholas asked: 'Artifact? What artifact? Wasn't it his body, the way Sabriel said about what's-his-name;–– Kerrigor, whom you mentioned just now? Didn't she say it needed to be his body, or the trick wouldn't work at all?'.
Mogget answered: 'Sabriel said what she knows. It wasn't as if his body wasn't there, anyway; he carried it about, or had it carried, from headquarters to headquarters, even when he didn't have the artifact on him. The seven greatest tried to find and destroy it, and failed, and it was only found and destroyed after the artifact met its end. Not that they didn't know where it was; it was always in his tower, whichever tower he happened to be in. He always kept it close at hand. And I was also there many years later, when Myor, the Great Cat, in spite of himself brought about the births of the last Remembrancers before Lirael'.
Nicholas asked: 'Last Remembrancers? Who were they?'.
Mogget answered: 'As you should know, a Remembrancer is half-Clayr, half-Abhorsen. She can see the past, just as the Clayr see the future; a little more accurately, in fact. Certainly more reliably. Some say it's because the past is fixed and the future isn't; but I'm sure that's not why'.
Nicholas asked: 'So why, then?'.
Mogget answered: 'I don't know. I wasn't there when the Charters were made. I was off minding my own business and wishing the others would mind theirs, instead of tying themselves (and me) down to this single little world. By the time I knew anything about it, it was fixed that way, and the Seven never explained it to me.
But I was telling you about Myor, who came into the title of Great Cat and decided to take revenge on humanity for taking over most of the world and forcing other animals into the remotest corners of all the lands. His idea was to capture a Clayr, as the most numerous of the really powerful Charter Mages, and bend her powers to his will; and then another and another, until he had a circle large enough to challenge the rest. Stupid of him, but he was enamoured of the idea and wouldn't let it go. It often happens that way. When people get a mistake in their heads, they cling to it beyond reason. So did he, but at least he had the sense to barricade her mind from the Sight of all her sisterhood, and her Sight from theirs, so she could neither find them nor be found.
In her desperation, Callista (as she was called) sent a distress-call to just everyone and anyone who might hear it; and it was heard by a visitor from Ancelstierre, or somewhere else in the world beyond, name of Andrew. Wonder of wonders, he believed his dreams and came to the Kingdom, where Callista's Sight led him, in spite of all his blunderings, right to her twin sister, and that sister's not-so-secret admirer, Damiel, who was one of the Abhorsens at the time. There were a dozen brothers sharing the Gift in those days.
I might add (because it's important), the Clayr of the day believed that each of their sisterhood, in order to retain her own Gift, must be a virgin, and celibate'.
Nicholas asked: 'Why? Just because it's holier?'.
Mogget answered: 'Nothing so airy. A too-enthusiastic love-life drains one's power, whether Charter or Free Magic, if one isn't careful to keep a reserve. It's like dipping two ladles into the same basin at the same time. Too many bed games, and a mage exhausts its strength and isn't much use, as a mage. It isn't strictly necessary to be celibate to the death, but the Clayr at the time thought it was, and so any Clayr who wished to share a bed had to leave the sisterhood and marry, and give up the use of her Sight for ever. If any of her daughters or granddaughters etc. had the gift, they were sent back to take their foremother's place. To cut a long story short, that's almost what happened to Callista's twin. She and Damiel married, and she mistakenly thought her Sight had perished. I admit that can happen, but mostly after years of disuse, or after a violent shock. But in this case, with neither, and with a husband strong in his own kind of magic, her gift mixed with his and did not die.
Meanwhile, Andrew and Damiel came to Callista's rescue, and slew Myor; and of course, Andrew and Callista were married. But she didn't lose the Sight either. As it turned out, Andrew had a talent for Charter Magic himself, or at any rate a gift for strengthening the gifts of others around him: enhancement, it's called. With the way the four of them lived, it was often hard to say (which they preferred not to say anyway) who was the father of which child; but Damiel himself and all their children were Remembrancers, and the last, as far as I know, before Lirael. There was quite a scandal when Callista and Ellimere retained their Sight;––'.
Nicholas asked: 'Ellimere?!'.
Mogget answered: 'Her twin. Didn't I mention her name? O, dear, how careless of me. Yes, that was her name, the same as that of your newly wedded niece'.
Said Nicholas: 'But I thought Sabriel named her after a schoolfriend who died fighting Kerrigor, Touchstone's treacherous brother'.
Mogget answered: 'She did. But that schoolgirl was named after a great many Princesses, Queens, and heroines of legend and history, including this one I've just told you about. I mentioned Artorius; one of his council, King Anselo, was the son of one Queen so named, and the husband of another. There were many more. The Clayr made a great fuss about the very idea of two of their own keeping their Sight after marrying;–– and worse, after leaving the sisterhood;–– and threatened to have their Sights destroyed, and Damiel's Abhorsen gift, too. They were finally convinced not to, but it was still quite the scandal, and it was many more years before the rules were made that a Clayr need not remain a virgin all her days, as long as they kept their affairs few and far between, and decently behind closed doors'.
Said Nicholas: 'So the story does have a happy ending, after all. Happily ever after, as they say'.
Mogget answered: 'A story only ends Happily ever after, if one stops telling in the right place;–– which I just did', and leapt off the balcony to the next floor below. Nicholas looked over the stanchion and watched him go; but very soon he was out of sight.