Seren of Esk
A tidecaller from the northern islands of Esk.
Seren of Esk is a tidecaller from the northern islands of Esk who helps Mira Osk escape Port Hallow with the Brass compass.
Appearance
Seren looks about thirty, with cropped white-blond hair, a pale chin and a face that looks tired in a way sleep won't fix. She wears a hooded sea-cloak the colour of wet slate. She wore a thin silver ring through her lower lip until she used it to call the tide; now only the empty hole remains.
Personality
Calm and economical with words, Seren moves silently and speaks with a soft northern accent. She is frank about the price of her power and refuses to treat it as a trick.
Abilities
Seren is a tidecaller. Holding the silver ring from her lip in her fist and speaking "a word that wasn't a word", she can make the sea draw back and return. Each call takes one of her memories at random; it has already taken her sister's face, and using it leaves her exhausted and bleeding from the nose.
Background
Seren comes from Esk. By her account, her grandmother's grandmother was born the winter after Ilith sank. She knows the Esk telling of Ilith's fall and was able to tell when the Patience was sailing over the drowned city.
History
Episode 1 The Brass Thief
The hooded woman appeared in the alley behind the net-mender's shed, warned Mira Osk that the Brass compass points at drowned things and should not be held bare after dark, and admitted she had meant to steal it herself. She identified Varr Dane, told Mira to board the salt barge at the Weir landing before the second bell, tossed her a blue-sealed letter and vanished.
Episode 2 The Salt Barge
Seren waited aboard the Patience and named herself as Seren of Esk, confirming that she is a tidecaller. When Varr Dane's cutter blocked the Gull Gate, she drained the harbour, grounding the cutter, letting the barge pass over the sunken chain and smashing the cutter when the sea returned. Afterwards she collapsed with a nosebleed and told Mira that each call costs a memory.
Episode 3 What the Water Keeps
Seren recognised the waters over Ilith and told the Esk account of its drowning. Shown the unsigned letter, she said she remembered the alley and the wax but not writing it, and could not say whether she never wrote it or the harbour call had taken the memory. When Bettany insisted the Wardens were only two hundred years old, Seren answered, "Then everyone's wrong."
Relationships
| Who / what | Relation | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mira Osk | Ally | Warned her about the compass and got her out of Port Hallow. |
Quotes
“It points at drowned things. If you hold it naked after dark, eventually it will point at you.”
to Mira · Episode 1
“Someone who was going to steal it before you did.”
when Mira asked who she was · Episode 1
“Tidecalling is real. I'm a tidecaller. Don't ask me to do tricks.”
aboard the Patience · Episode 2
“I don't remember. That's the cost. Every call takes a memory. You don't get to choose which one.”
to Mira, after the escape · Episode 2
“I used to know my sister's face.”
to Mira · Episode 2
“We're over it. Ilith. Under us.”
aboard the Patience · Episode 3
“I gave you a letter. I remember the alley. I remember the wax. I don't remember writing it.”
to Mira · Episode 3
“Then everyone's wrong.”
to Bettany, about the Wardens' age · Episode 3
Appearances
Trivia
- She was unnamed ("the hooded woman") in Episode 1 and introduced herself by name in Episode 2.