Appearance
Source chapters: Chapter 1She wore a shawl against the morning cold and later wore shoes during her evening wait. Maren tucked a loose piece of her hair behind her ear while responding to her account of the bell.
Personality
Source chapters: Chapter 1She believed that careful attention to minor duties would earn the elders' confidence for larger responsibilities. She kept this belief private and worked at being good, quiet, and watchful, although her reward so far was more baskets. An elder's explanation that the ancient bell had acquired habits failed to satisfy her curiosity about its two voices. She kept her question private after recognizing that dissatisfaction did not establish that she was correct.
Life and world
Source chapters: Chapter 1On her early morning walk, she touched damp foliage along the descending path and stopped to examine the bell, as she usually did. When sounds announced that the orchard was waking, she returned uphill to work. She considered the bell more significant than the orchard's fruit, planted rows, or elders. She kept that judgment unspoken because she believed the elders would laugh at it.
In Chapters 1-4
Source chapters: Chapter 1| Chapter 1 | Maren assigned her to watch the gate while the other workers were needed higher in the orchard. She was allowed to ring for the expected boy bringing supplies, and recognized the assignment as the responsibility she had wanted. At the gate, she positioned herself inside the posts with her hands together and watched the nearby bend. She rehearsed the greeting mentally, planning to allow the expected visitor some progress uphill before using the rope. After a lengthy wait, she heard the bell sound without pulling its rope. Its slight movement accompanied the familiar tones, while the rope remained motionless and her hands stayed together before her body. She saw no visitor on the road immediately after the ringing. While her heart pounded, she counted involuntarily, and a figure appeared near the stone after a count she could not identify precisely. The newcomer was an unfamiliar woman carrying a pack and walking stick beneath a broad hat. Wenna left the bell alone as the woman approached, and could not explain why she refrained from ringing again. The woman credited Wenna with noticing her early and thanked her for the welcome. Wenna did not explain the ringing to her, but offered a greeting and guided her uphill to the elders. Later, she told Maren that the bell had sounded before the traveller appeared, without wind or contact with the rope. She rejected the suggested explanations, then stopped arguing and helped with the racks without telling anyone else. That evening she deliberately rang the bell and waited until stars appeared and her feet became numb. Nobody arrived, so she rejected her earlier possibility that the sound could draw travellers up the mountain. She instead concluded that the bell had recognized an approaching traveller before she could detect her. The unanswered question did not frighten her, and she wanted to remain beneath the bell despite her own expectation of fear. She privately promised to observe future ringing and subsequent arrivals, keeping her attention quiet and careful. Before returning to supper and her sister, she briefly touched the bell's discoloured rim and carried her question back uphill. |
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Quotes
Source chapters: Chapter 1“I'll mind it well”
“Come up. The elders are in the high rows. I'll take you.”
Gallery
