The Starless Sea

Pink-haired and outspoken, Mirabel is never predictable. She insists on calling Zachary by his middle name and he returns the favor by calling her Max in reference to the costume she wore when they met at a literary masquerade. Born in the Harbor at the Starless Sea—the immortal daughter of Simon and Eleanor, conceived outside of time—she has the talent of painting doors that lead to her home.

Mirabel is an agent of change who draws Zachary and Dorian to the Harbor. She challenges Zachary’s preconceptions and flaws, and fights for her own happy ending. As the newly immortal vessel of Fate, Mirabel guides the story to its end, so that she can resolve the remaining plot holes and permanently reunite with her lover, Time.

The man who calls himself Dorian was once a member of the Collector’s Club until one of his many assassination missions failed due to his target’s immortality. Failing to kill Mirabel turned his world upside down, causing him to question everything. He did horrible things in the name of the protection of a magical world he has never been to, and now wonders whether he had any right to do so.

Dorian’s misadventures lead him the Harbor on the Starless Sea and to Zachary. Despite his guilt over his previous dealings and his belief in his own unworthiness, he finds himself falling for the younger man and living out a story beyond his own imaginings in a place beyond his wildest dreams.

The Keeper appears to be an older man with braided hair, perpetually writing in a notebook. He is tasked with the keeping of the Harbor on the Starless Sea and always has been, forced to remain in the Heart of the Harbor for as long as it exists. Immortal yet powerless, he awaits his freedom, which is brought about by the story’s end. His unflappable affect is belied by hidden depths of emotion, revealed by his own tragic love story. As the manifestation of Time, he continues to wait for Fate to return to him. When Fate does arrive, their love is doomed by her mortality, which forces them apart once more. He is caught in the cycle of waiting and losing his love until the story can finally end.

Initially introduced as the “polar-bear woman” due to her white hair and white fur coat, Allegra is the leader of the Collector’s Club, a secret society hell-bent on removing access to the Starless Sea by destroying all doors—and, if necessary, those who would open them.

Allegra’s unexpected path to villainy comes from a place of love for the Starless Sea, where she lived as a child. She gave one of her eyes to become an acolyte and painted scenes from the stories taking place around her. She has a determination to never see the Starless Sea change, or for the story to wind its way to its end. Her deadly crusade literally shakes the temple of stories as she tries to stop Fate from guiding it to its conclusion.

A child-explorer who considers herself a bunny, Eleanor grows up in the Harbor at the Starless Sea. Her love of stories lead to far-reaching consequences when she lends her favorite book to her unexpected love, Simon. The book is then dislodged from the timestream and storyline, complicating the story’s ability to end. Her trans-century love story results in the birth of the first immortal vessel of Fate: Mirabel.

An unloved ward of his uncle, Simon longs for love and acceptance. He finds more than he expected of both when he finds his way to the Starless Sea—and when he falls in love with Eleanor, a bunny-eared woman from the future. His determination to reunite with her takes him beyond the limits of his own story.

Simon’s unsanctioned decisions cause him to lose himself in time and eventually come to record and understand the larger story as much as possible. Although he fails to truly comprehend the events and the characters, his superior grasp of its meaning, including his observation that the owls move the story along and they should be trusted, guides Zachary to make the decisions necessary to lead the story to its conclusion.