Vass
A novice who prays with her eyes raised
A young novice Maren has quietly watched for weeks — the one who prays with her eyes up rather than down, a small and dangerous inversion of the law that no one in authority has troubled to notice. She knows the passages that appear on no map, including the way behind the dye-house to a cellar that does not officially exist, and where certain sealed doors are to be found.
Description
Vass is easy to overlook, which is precisely why she has survived doing what she does. Among a hall of novices who keep their eyes lowered at prayer, she is the one who keeps hers raised — a tiny heresy performed in plain sight. She moves through the Pale's unmapped passages with the confidence of someone who has walked them many times.
It is Vass whom Maren follows to the cellar behind the dye-house, and Vass who knows where the guarded and forbidden places of the scriptorium can be reached. She is cautious with newcomers, as anyone in her position must be, but she is not without courage.