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Paige Eva Mahoney (born Paige Aoife Mahoney), also known as Pale Dreamer and later as Black Moth, is an Irish dreamwalker and the protagonist of the Bone Season series. Initially a career criminal and mollisher to the White Binder, she rises to become the leader of a revolution against the Republic of Scion.
Biography[]
History[]
Paige was born in Clonmel, County Tipperary to Cóilín Ó Mathúna and Cora Spencer. Her mother was English and died of placental abruption after giving birth to Paige. While Cóilín focused on his career as a forensic pathologist in Dublin, Paige grew up in the care of her paternal grandparents, Gráinne Uí Mhathúna and Éamonn Ó Mathúna, on a dairy farm called Feirm na mBeach Meala in the Golden Vale. She was able to sense the æther from a young age.
Early in 2046, Paige went to stay in Dún Laoghaire with her paternal aunt Sandra while her grandparents dealt with an outbreak of black mould on the farm. On St Brigid's Day, Sandra left Paige in the care of her son, Finn Mac Cárthaigh. Against his mother's wishes, Finn took the six-year-old Paige to central Dublin, where a large number of people had gathered to protest a visit from Abberline Mayfield, the Grand Inquisitor of the Scion Republic of England. Unbeknownst to them, Mayfield was not there, but Cathal Bell had seeded the rumour in a local newspaper to draw his opponents to Dublin, where Scion soldiers were lying in wait. Kayleigh Ní Dhornáin, Finn's fiancée, was among the first people to be killed. When Finn ran to take revenge, Paige hid from the violence under the statue of Molly Malone.
After escaping the Imbolc Massacre, a traumatized Paige remained with her surviving family in Tipperary while Scion began its invasion of Ireland. At some point, Cóilín was secretly conscripted by Scion. With assistance from Cathal Bell, he took Paige to Shannon Airport, where they boarded a plane to the Scion Citadel of London and moved into an apartment in the secure Barbican Estate. Now a key worker of Scion, Colin forbade Paige from speaking Gaeilge and anglicised their names to Colin Mahoney and Paige Eva Mahoney.
Paige attended the prestigious Ancroft School in Bloomsbury, where she was bullied by Clara Barnes, Evelyn Ancroft, and many other students and teachers due to the pervasive hibernophobia in Scion. Her only friend was Suzette Fortin. She had a kind French teacher, Madelle Alard, who helped Paige to keep learning Gaeilge in secret. French became one of the three subjects Paige excelled in, the others being Scion History and Physical Enrichment.
When Paige was nine, her father took her to a Cornish village called Arthyen, where she encountered a poltergeist in a field of poppies. It sliced her left hand and threw her away to bleed to death. Dr. Nicklas Nygård found her and recognized her wounds as spirit-made. In the years that followed, Paige had a recurring dream of poppies. Not knowing that it was her dreamscape, she ran farther each night until she reached the edge of the poppy field. On one occasion, she jumped off the edge and, unwittingly, into the æther, causing her to collapse and stop breathing.
Paige sees Nick for the second time in the year 2056 when she is sixteen and he is a guest speaker at her school. Dr. Nygård talks about his career and has a question-and-answer session. After the lecture, Paige catches up with him. Nick remembers her from when they met when she was younger. As they are walking by the school mistress, the woman suddenly gets a nosebleed. After the mistress leaves, Nick asks Paige if people often have nosebleeds around her. Paige tells him they do and asks if he knows why. Nick replies that he might know and that he will be in touch with her again in a few days. Before leaving, he tells Paige not sign up for university. Later, Nick introduces Paige to Jaxon Hall who takes an immediate interest in her. He hires her to be one of his Seven Seals.
The Pale Dreamer[]
Paige has been part of the Seven Seals for three months. She has been trying to master her abilities, but has not had much success. Nick has been teaching her how to use a knife and how to spool spirits. Her life becomes based at Seven Dials. Paige has claimed that her gift is instinctive and this is supported by the fear and anger triggers she uses when fighting with her spirit. After the events surrounding Anne Naylor and Sarah Metyard, Jaxon gives Paige her syndicate alias, the Pale Dreamer.
The Bone Season[]
On 7 March 2059, Paige leaves her workplace in Seven Dials to spend the weekend with her father. She goes to Leicester Square station, where Haymarket Hector threatens her, and boards a train to Inquisitors' Cross. On her next train, she and a seer named William Linwood are detected by a pair of Underguards. For the first time in her life, Paige is able to protect her spirit from her body, unintentionally killing one Underguard and driving the other into his hadal zone.
Paige panics and goes to her registered address at the Barbican Estate, where she attempts to conceal what happened from her father. After a short conversation with Colin, she calls her employer, Jaxon Hall, to inform him of what happened on the Underground. Jaxon is delighted by her new ability, but advises her to stay out of sight, dispose of her phone, and make for the Thames at the first opportunity. An exhausted Paige falls asleep, only to be woken by the presence of voyants. Taking her emergency backpack, she flees across the rooftops, pursued by a group of people in uniforms she does not recognise, and is finally knocked unconscious with Fluxion 14. She falls a long way, but the backpack catches on a wire, saving her life.
Paige wakes up with no idea where she is. A woman with strange eyes soon appears, giving Paige a uniform and forcing her to take two pills. Paige is taken to a holding cell with several other clairvoyants, including Carl Dempsey-Brown, Julian Amesbury, Tilda Lee, and Ivy Jacob. The woman identifies herself as Pleione Sualocin, a Rephaite, though none of the prisoners know what this means. One of them is Sebastian 'Seb' Pearce, a young amaurotic, who has no idea why he has been detained among unnaturals. When Pleione leads them outside, Paige realises they are in Oxford, a city thought to have burned to the ground. In the Residence of the Suzerain, the large group of prisoners is addressed by Nashira Sargas, who informs them that they are now prisoners of the immortal Rephaim (often known among humans as Rephs), who created the Republic of Scion after the loss of their own realm, the Netherworld. Each voyant will be assigned to a Rephaite keeper, who will train them to fight the Emim, or Buzzers—violent creatures that frequently attack Oxford.
Paige is chosen by Arcturus Mesarthim, the blood-consort, who has never previously acted as a keeper. He takes her to the Residence of Magdalen, where she will live with him in the Founders Tower, and tells her that she must address him as Warden. She must also take three pills each day: green, white and red. That evening, Paige meets Gail Fisher, the night porter, who allows her to leave the residence and visit the Rookery. Paige speaks to Tilda, who offers to identify the green pill, which only Paige takes. She also befriends Julian Amesbury and Liss Rymore, a Scottish cartomancer, who specializes in aerial silks. Liss warns Paige not to reveal her gift, since Nashira has the ability to steal it by killing her. Paige takes food to Seb in Amaurotic House and has an unpleasant encounter with a Reph named Graffias Sheratan.
Paige falls asleep in Magdalen, only to be woken by Warden returning. She finds him in his bedchamber, unconscious and bleeding, and tries to save him. The next evening, he pretends that nothing happened and brings her to Nashira for her first test. To earn her pink tunic, Paige must use her gift to kill Seb. She refuses and tries to defend him. During the ensuing fight with Aludra Chertan, she unintentionally jumps into the æther, proving that she is a dreamwalker. Paige also realises that Rephs must feed on aura to survive. Nashira kills Seb, and Paige is branded by Suhail Chertan, who also injects flux into her femoral artery to punish her defiance, not realizing the danger it will pose to a human. A paramedic is called from the support outpost at Winterbrook, saving her life.
Now a pink-jacket, a weakened Paige leaves Magdalen to visit the Rookery, only to find that Liss now mistrusts her. She obtains supplies from Duckett, which helps win Liss over. A siren goes off, warning of a Buzzer incursion. The next evening, Warden trains Paige on Port Meadow for the first time. On their way back to Magdalen, they find an injured red-jacket whose arm has been severed by a Buzzer. They are then approached by the Overseer and an oracle named David Fitton, who arranges to meet Paige at the Townsend. He tells her about the Novembertide Rebellion, where a group of humans and Rephs rose up against the ruling Sargas family, only to be betrayed by one of the humans. The traitorous Rephs were punished and have been known as the "scarred ones" ever since. David propositions Paige, which irritates her. She returns to Magdalen to find Warden injured again, apparently by the Buzzers. Warden admits that he often goes to Gallows Wood to assist the red-jackets from the shadows. He shows interest in her, asking her questions about her life. Paige binds his wounds and offers to inform Nashira, only for Warden to reveal that he does not know about his excursions. An opportunist by nature, Paige blackmails him, extorting an unspecified favour in exchange for her silence.
Over the next few weeks, Paige forges a close friendship with Liss and Julian and continues to explore Oxford, searching for ways to escape. Guy Morrow and Cyril Foxworth warn her of the futility of trying, but she refuses to give up and enters the Old Library using a set of makeshift lockpicks. After oversleeping, she is dragged back to Magdalen by Suhail, who tells the red-jackets that they will be punished for not being able to find Paige sooner. She attacks him with her spirit in self-defence, earning his ire again. Warden shields her and takes her back to the Founders Tower, where he confirms that he is training her to die so that Nashira can turn her into a fallen angel and take her gift. He offers Paige a deal that if she will commit to training, he will be mindful of her wellbeing. She must also join him for supper once a month. Paige grudgingly agrees to his terms, hoping she can survive long enough to escape. She trains with Warden for the rest of spring and succeeds in possessing a butterfly, if only for a moment.
Throughout her time in Oxford, Paige dreams of her past in the Seven Seals, but puts it down to flux exposure. One night, she wakes from a dream of Ireland to find that she has been stranded in Gallows Wood. Warden has left her a note saying she must survive the night and return to Oxford before sunrise. Paige is pursued by a Buzzer and barely makes it back in time. When she wakes, she sees Warden speaking with Terebell Sheratan and wonders at their intimacy. Warden then interrogates her over supper, revealing that he has her backpack—including her copy of On the Merits of Unnaturalness, which implies a link to the clairvoyant syndicate of London. Paige bluffs, pretending to be nothing but a pickpocket, but Warden does not believe her. Nonetheless, he burns the pamphlet, puzzling Paige.
Now a red-jacket, Paige visits Liss, who does an ellipse reading for her. The cards are Five of Cups (the past), King of Wands inverted (the present), the Devil (the future), the Lovers (what to do), Death inverted (external influences), and Eight of Swords (hopes and fears). When Liss goes to show Paige her seventh and final card, they are interrupted by three red-jackets, who want revenge on Paige for the punishment Suhail had ordered for them. A fight break out as they attempt to cut off her ear. Kathy Lorimer taunts Liss and sets her deck of cards on fire, sending Liss into spirit shock, only to be killed by Kraz Sargas, who finds it presumptuous that Kathy thought she could punish Paige.
Warden takes Paige back to Magdalen. Once again, he asks about her role in the syndicate, but she refuses to reveal her identity as the Pale Dreamer. Paige is then invited to a summer feast at the Residence of the Suzerain, where Nashira questions her about Warden. Given that he burned On the Merits of Unnaturalness, and that he appears to be concealing her progress from Nashira, Paige decides to protect him. She also learns that she and Warden, along with several other voyants and Rephs, are being sent on an external assignment to London to apprehend Antoinette Carter and the Seven Seals, including Jaxon. Nashira has learned that the gang has a dreamwalker and suspects it may be Paige. The next night, the Seven Seals meet Antoinette in Trafalgar Square, only to be ambushed. Paige tries to protect her gang, shooting Amelia Denslow with flux and using her gift to save Nadine Arnett by possessing David. Thinking Paige is an agent of Scion, Nick Nygård stabs her, only to realize her true identity. Paige writes a message on the wall in her own blood, letting Nick know she was taken to Oxford, before Warden carries her to a trauma surgeon. Antoinette and the Seven Seals escape into the citadel.
Back at Magdalen, Warden informs Paige that Tertius Chertan and Situla Mesarthim—the other two Rephs on the assignment—informed Nashira that she possessed David. Nashira had intended to kill her at once, but Warden persuaded her to wait until the Bicentenary, when the Rephs will celebrate their two hundredth year on Earth. She finally confesses to him that she is the Pale Dreamer. In return, Warden confesses that he is one of the scarred ones. He is also an oneiromancer, able to see her memories, and that the green capsule was salvia, which clarified them for him. He has been looking into her past to judge her character, ensuring she will not betray a second rebellion. Paige is appalled by his intrusion, and Warden leaves her with the key to the Founders Tower, as well as a vial of pollen, which Paige does not understand. Seeing that Liss is close to death, she breaks into the House to find a new tarot deck, only to be caught red-handed by Kraz Sargas. She uses the pollen against him—pollen of the poppy anemone—and is shocked by its devastating impact. Warden comes for her, revealing that a golden cord has formed between them, allowing them to find each other anywhere. After seeing Nashira strike him and hearing him play the organ, which convinces her of his ability to feel, Paige agrees to lead a second rebellion for him.
On 1 September, Warden escorts Paige to the Bicentenary, where she sees Cathal Bell in person for the first time. She meets Warden in the trap room of the Guildhall, and they kiss. Nashira discovers them and strips Warden of his position as blood-consort. Alsafi Sualocin escorts Paige to the stage, revealing he is secretly working against Nashira. Before Nashira can execute her in front of the Scion emissaries, Paige possesses her and forces her to impale herself on the Wrath of the Inquisitor. Jaxon then appears in the doorway, and the windows explode as the Seven Seals arrive to rescue Paige. Gomeisa Sargas kills Liss, but Terebell, Pleione and Warden hold him off for long enough for the other humans to escape to Port Meadow and board the train to London. Before leaving, Paige quits her job with Jaxon, realizing that he has been manipulating and abusing her for three years.
The Mime Order[]
After leaving Oxford, the Seven Seals and the surviving prisoners are forced to escape through the Tower of London, losing most of their group in the process. Paige lies low at the Lily Shallow in Soho, taking Nightcaps to help her recover from her confrontation with Nashira. The flowers in her dreamscape transform into poppy anemones, the plant that can harm Rephs. She visits Camden Market, where she finds that four other voyants from Oxford—Ivy Jacob, Felix Coombs, Eleanor 'Nell' Nahid and Joseph 'Jos' Biwott—have taken shelter in a shop called Camden Lockets, protected by Ivy's old kidsman, Agatha Lamb. Paige tries to call a meeting of the Unnatural Assembly to tell them about the Rephs, but Haymarket Hector will not agree to it and beats her for her insolence. She goes to see Nick in Grub Street, where she meets Alfred, the literary agent who represented On the Merits of Unnaturalness. When Scion broadcasts her face to the whole of London, she realizes that her only real option for safety, money and influence is to go back to Jaxon. She returns to her duties as his mollisher, but keeps thinking of ways to get word out about the Rephs. She comes up with the idea of a penny dreadful called The Rephaite Revelation, which Jos and Nell agree to write.
Cutmouth, mollisher supreme of the syndicate, corners Paige to ask where Ivy is hiding. After a disagreement at the Garden, Hector confiscates one of Eliza's valuable paintings, and Paige is sent to retrieve it. Upon arriving at his den on the Devil's Acre, she discovers his decapitated corpse and the mutilated bodies of his gang. Only Cutmouth is missing. As Paige investigates the crime scene, a poltergeist attacks her. Using a pendant Warden gave her, she is able to force it out of her dreamscape, but is left with a phantom blade in her arm. Jaxon and Nick rescue her and brings her back to the den. They deduce that the poltergeist was the London Monster, which protected Hector, and that Paige must hide the wound to avoid being implicated in the murders. Not long after, Jaxon announces his intention to participate in the scrimmage, the competition to choose a new Underlord. Meanwhile, the Abbess takes over as interim Underqueen.
In Seven Dials, Paige is accosted by Terebell and Errai Sarin, who identify themselves as the Ranthen, a faction of Rephs who oppose the Sargas family. They inform her that Warden had come to London to find her, but disappeared without a trace. They want Paige to use the golden cord to find him. Paige discovers that Warden left two vials in her backpack—one full of ectoplasm, the other containing amaranth. After drinking his ectoplasm, she is able to track him to the Camden Catacombs, the territory of the Rag and Bone Man. With help from Nick and Jos, she rescues Warden from the Rag Dolls and takes him to a dosshouse named Blossoms' Inn in Holborn. The next evening, in the Minister's Cat, Paige pays for a reading from an astragalomancer, who sees a vision of a skeletal hand. Paige immediately spots this image as a tattoo on a Rag Doll, who is playing cards with the Nightingales. Not long after, on her way back to Warden, she is attacked by two more Rag Dolls. Paige kills Moreen and knocks the other unconscious. She finds a red silk handkerchief like the calling cards at the crime scene, which she assumes the Rag Dolls were going to plant on her to frame her for the murder. Warden finds her on Wild Street and takes her back to the dosshouse, where they discuss the history of the Rephs and the fall of their original ruling family, the Mothallath.
As the days pass, Scion becomes more aggressive in its pursuit of Paige and begins to arrest Irish denizens at random. Paige meets the Ranthen in the Old Lyre, and Terebell reluctantly agrees to pay for The Rephaite Revelation to be published at short notice. Once the penny dreadful has gone out, Paige discovers that it has been edited without her knowledge, supposedly by the other Bone Season fugitives, to glorify the Sargas. Fearing for their lives, Paige and Eliza go to Camden, where Paige follows a secret tunnel to Kensington and sees the Abbess shoot Agatha. She realizes that the Abbess helped kill Hector and now intends to kill Cutmouth. Paige rushes to Jacob's Island, where Cutmouth and Ivy grew up, but is too late to save her life. With her dying breath, Cutmouth warns Paige about a "gray market" and mentions the rawhand, the tattoo borne by all Rag Dolls. Wynn Ní Luain Jacob, one of the augurs who live in the slum, agrees to act as a witness if Paige can get her out. Nick picks Paige up from Savory Dock, along with Eliza and Zeke.
Paige follows the golden cord to Highgate Wood, where she hopes to find Warden, only for a Buzzer to attack the group and injure Zeke. They retreat to the Wax Seal, where Paige convinces Warden to save the fugitives from the Chanting Lay, convinced that Ivy knows something about the gray market. He agrees, and they commit to a relationship, even though contact between Rephs and humans is forbidden.
During the scrimmage, Paige and Jaxon fight as a team in the Rose Ring and defeat all of their opponents. As Jaxon is about to be named Underlord, Paige challenges him for the crown. He comes extremely close to defeating her, but she is able to beat him at the last minute by possessing him and forcing him to issue a surrender. Jaxon leaves, warning Paige that he will find other allies. In her address to the Unnatural Assembly after being crowned Underqueen, Paige exposes the gray market, and the conspiracy is revealed. The Abbess is revealed to bear the rawhand and attempts to kill Paige with a poltergeist, but is shot dead. Just as Paige is about to drop the bombshell that Scion is nothing more than a façade, Warden and his allies show up with the fugitives, nearly throwing the crowd into pandemonium. Paige introduces the Ranthen to the syndicate and declares war on Scion, only for Scion to show her that is has three Bone Season survivors—Ella Giddings, Lotte Gordon and Charles Lanvin—and threaten to hang them if she refuses to surrender. Possessing a Vigile for protection, Paige goes to the Westminster Archon to negotiate, only to see Jaxon among the Rephs.
The Song Rising[]
Jaxon reveals to Paige that he was XVIII-39-7, the traitor in the Bone Season XVIII uprising. He tells Paige that she has fallen for Warden's "seduction" hook, line, and sinker, and that everyone can see she’s being emotionally manipulated into working with the Ranthen. Paige is fully aware of Jaxon’s own abilities as a manipulator, and logically she knows that Jaxon is using psychological warfare to destabilize the Mime Order. However, it still effectively plays on her fear of being controlled and her doubts about what Warden may or may not feel for her.
Warden tells Paige and her high commanders of the Mime Order that the core of Senshield is likely a form of ethereal technology, which harnesses the energy created by spirits. He also tells them his hypothesis that Senshield learned to detect aura through exposure. Thus, any of the higher orders of voyants could be used to improve its ability to detect aura. The Mime Order holds Ivy Jacob's trial for her participation in the gray market. Paige is forced to find her guilty, but only sentences her to three months of house arrest.
When the sudden curfew in the citadel keeps Paige from meeting her, Terebell and the Ranthen come to Paige's safe house. Terebell attacks Paige and tells her that she is a poor investment. She claims the curfew doesn't supersede Paige's duty to meet her. Warden arrives and defuses things. Terebell informs Paige that the Ranthen are leaving. They have found pockets of Rephaim who are willing to confront the Sargas with them, both on Earth and in the Netherworld. She gives Paige her “approval” to destroy Senshield but expects her to get authorization before taking any action. She tells Paige that she can contact her through Lucida who will be staying behind while the rest of the Ranthen join her in the Netherworld to find allies. They will be starting with Adhara Sarin who is rumored to have Ranthen sympathies. Before leaving, Terebell informs Paige that she is ending Warden's training of the syndicate and that if Paige needs help training to ask Lucida.
A few days later, Warden rescues Paige from Hildred Vance's trap. Wanting to be back on good terms with him before he leaves, Paige tells Warden about Jaxon's manipulation of her feelings towards him. Warden tells Paige that hiding what he feels for her and being forced to do nothing to support her in public is the price he is willing to pay for change. They give in to their feelings and spend the night together, but don't go beyond kissing.
Paige makes a deal with Styx, the king of the toshers, to hide the syndicate in the Beneath. The Mime Order goes into hiding in an underground crisis facility as Senshield and ScionIDE are unleashed on London. The night before leaving for Manchester, Paige tells Warden that she can't continue the romantic aspect of their relationship. She tells him that he is what change will cost her. She swore that she would sacrifice everything if it meant taking down Scion and freedom for clairvoyants. Warden understands that she doesn’t want to do this and accepts her decision. Paige is heartbroken.
Upon meeting Elspeth Lin in the Scion Citadel of Edinburgh, Paige discusses the ellipse reading Liss did for her in Oxford. The cards were the Five of Cups, King of Wands inverted, the Devil, the Lovers, Death inverted, and Eight of Swords. The Five of Cups is the past and represents Paige's father in mourning, presumably for his wife. The King of Wands inverted is the present and represents Jaxon and the hold he once had over her life. The Devil is the future and represents hopelessness and fear, but according to Liss, Paige had chosen that path willingly and it is something she can escape. It symbolizes someone who controls and manipulates others. Elspeth explains that the Lovers card will show Paige what to do. She tells her, "There's tension between spirit and flesh, too much tension."[1] Paige think the Lovers card could represent Warden, but she worries he could also be the Devil card. Elspeth finishes by telling Paige that she must follow the path of the Lovers card. She should stay close to the person she thinks the card might represent, and make sure she's identified that person correctly. If she strays from whoever it is, Elspeth believes Paige will make herself vulnerable to the person represented by the Devil card.
Vance uses Paige’s weak spots against her in Edinburgh by executing her father by recreating the scene of the Molly Riots, intending to trigger Paige’s traumatic childhood memories and make her surrender out of despair. Paige does surrender, just not for the reasons Vance intended. When Paige realizes that Senshield’s core is hidden inside the Westminster Archon, she surrenders to Scion on the spot, hoping that as a prisoner she’ll have a better chance of destroying it.
While imprisoned in the Archon, she learns from Jaxon that Hector was the one that ordered her sold to Scion. He also informs her that the Rag and Bone Man killed Hector on Jaxon's orders. During time in the Archon, Paige is routinely beaten, waterboarded, drugged, starved, and mentally tortured by Suhail. On New Year's Eve, Paige battles the poltergeist powering Senshield's core in the glass tower of the Archon. In the fight, the glass shatters and Vance and Paige are seriously injured. She is rescued by Scarlett Burnish and Alsafi. Before he can follow her to safety, they are met by Nashira. Alsafi sacrifices himself so that Paige can escape. Before leaving her, Scarlett tells her that she is an agent of the Domino Programme, and now Paige is one too.
The Dawn Chorus[]
Paige and Warden are in the Scion Citadel of Paris, staying in a safe house on Rue Gît-le-Cœur so that Paige can try to recover physically and mentally from her torture in the Westminster Archon. She has learned that she was imprisoned in the Archon for twenty-three days, and knows she spent an entire week lashed to the waterboard and tortured by Suhail. She had only been able to wash once, just before her meeting with Jaxon. Paige is struggling to deal with the words Suhail told her, that Warden sees "the damp rot of mortality" in her.[2] Because of Suhail's mental torture, Warden's very presence fills her with self-loathing, and she can't bear for him to touch her even though his touch brings her comfort. Warden is giving her Scimorphine for the pain, and since she can't handle being near water, even to drink it, Warden offers to set up an IV instead, which Paige agrees to.
Paige survived her time in the Archon by dividing her imprisonment into steps. She wonders if she can do the same with her healing. She asks Warden if he ever gave up on her, and he says that he didn't. He was willing to propose a hostage exchange, his life for Paige’s. Terebell and Ognena Maria forbade it. He might have done it anyway, but an alternative plan arose, the rescue conducted by Scarlett Burnish and the Domino Programme.
She is going through withdrawal from the drugs constantly injected into her. A specter has appeared in her dreamscape as well, a smoky, Rephaite-shaped reminder of her ordeal, staring out from the darkest circle of her mind. While battling with her body and mind, still unable to bear Warden's touch despite how badly she wants it, she realizes what Suhail has done through his mental torture. Nashira must have ordered him to keep invoking Warden, to chisel away Paige's ability to take solace in him, so that even if she escape, it would always hurt to be in his presence. Paige is determined to not let Nashira take Warden from her. Throughout the whole recovery process, Warden remains calm, supportive, and understanding.
Paige thinks about the last card in Liss' reading for her, the Eight of Swords. It represents her hopes and fears. She thinks perhaps her torture is represented by this card. While Paige is now considered an agent of the Domino Program, Warden is not. He is Paige's auxiliary, or supporting role.
The Mask Falling[]
Paige and Warden are living in the Domino Program's safe house. With Warden's support, Paige is working through her PTSD and her convalescence. Domino has given her a month to heal. Their safe house is on the Rue Gît-le-Cœur. Paige and Warden also work on the new dynamic of their relationship. For the first time, neither is in a position of power over the other. They celebrate Paige's twentieth birthday. He tells her that she should call him Arcturus going forward instead of Warden. She dyes her hair a rich copper to try and disguise her identity. Paige convinces Warden to help her locate the Paris syndicate, which is called Le Nouveau Régime. They meet the equivalent of the Underlord and Underqueen, called the grand ducs.
Paige meets Isaure Ducos, an amaurotic agent of the Domino Program. Ducos tells Paige about Domino and informs her of her new role in it. Paige will be part of Ducos's sub-network called Mannequin, along with four other agents. Paige's mission is to infiltrate L’Hôtel Garuche and extract the information regarding why Georges Benoît Ménard has been avoiding contact with the government in England. Domino wants to know why Ménard is not accepting Weaver’s overtures and why he is avoiding a fellow Scion leader. To accomplish this mission, Paige will use her dreamwalker abilities to possess Luce Ménard Frère, the wife and advisor of Georges Benoît Ménard. Paige will use Frère’s influence to find out what England has done to rankle her husband. While carrying out her assignment, Paige meets the two other members of her sub-network, Stéphane Paquet and Eléonore Cordier. Paquet is a courier while Cordier is a medical officer.
After learning the location of Sheol II, Versailles, Domino gives Paige another assignment. This time, they tell her to infiltrate Sheol II and assassinate the Grand Overseer, Jaxon, and make it look like it was done on Ménard's orders. Upon finding Jaxon in Sheol II, Paige is ultimately unable to kill Jaxon. She offers Arcturus the opportunity, but he doesn't want it. While escaping Versailles, Arcturus engages in a fight with other Rephaim, which weakens him. He is unable to stand, but Paige begs him to come along, confessing she still has feelings for him. After returning to the safehouse in Paris, Arcturus and Paige spend intimate moments together and reveal their feelings to each other. Since Arcturus' stock of amaranth has run dry, his scars begin to hinder him. While he is asleep, Paige leaves the safehouse and during her brief absence, the hideout is raided by Scion Vigiles. Arcturus is captured and taken to Île de la Citadelle, where La Forteresse de Justice is located. Paige makes an attempt to rescue Warden, but when she gets to him, he disregards her and reveals that he has been a double spy all along, and that in reality he intends to reveal every piece of information he extracted from Paige to Nashira. Nashira arrives with Situla and Graffias Sheratan. Nashira taunts Paige with Warden's betrayal. She tells Paige that Arcturus has been reinstated as blood-consort. Situla and Graffias attempt to take Paige into custody, but she is somehow able to channel her overwhelming emotions into her dreamscape and attack the Rephaim. She escape with the help of Le Prince Creux.
Paige is utterly heartbroken and devastated by Arcturus's betrayal. She begins thinking he is the Devil from Liss's reading, not the Lovers like she thought. She immediately sends Nadine Arnett, Zeke Sáenz, and Ivy back to London to warn the Mime Order, let the Edinburgh and Manchester syndicates know what's happened, and move the London voyants to the shadow houses. Paige gives Nadine and Zeke the money from the Ranthen to use to smuggle themselves out of Scion. Finally, Paige tells them that Eliza and the Glym Lord need to make it their priority to destroy the Senshield scanners. When Zeke asks if they should tell the the Ranthen about Warden's betrayal, Paige says yes. Ivy says she doesn’t want to go back to the Mime Order, instead she wants to become a perdue. Paige understands. Once Ivy is done getting Nadine and Zeke to Eliza and Glym, she will come back to Paris, but asks Ivy to bring someone with her. Nadine and Zeke say goodbye to Paige, and they part as friends, with Nadine and Zeke part of the Mime Order and planning on getting to the free-world to tell the truth about Scion.
Ducos visits Paige in another Domino safe house. Ducos tells Paige that she has been kicked out of Domino. However, Command agrees with Ducos that the Mime Order has great potential. Paige will be an associate of an intelligence network going forward. This means she will not have to have her memories erased. If Paige can provide proof the Mime Order is ready to fight, Domino will give them financial support. Paige invites Ducos to attend the trial of Le Latronpuche and meet Le Vieux Orphelin who is allying with Le Nouveau Régime with the Mime Order. Ducos attends and is impressed. She gives Paige a burner phone with her contact information in it and tells her they will be in touch. Ducos tells Paige that Mannequin has been disbanded, since Warden's capture and Albéric's presumed death make it clear the group has a mole, but Ducos will stay and rebuild.
Paige and Le Vieux Orphelin announce the official alliance between the Mime Order and Le Nouveau Régime. She also forms a temporary truce with Ménard. In exchange for focusing the attention of the newly aligned London and Paris syndicates on England and bringing down Weaver, Ménard will suspend all capital punishment of clairvoyants. Ménard accepts her truce but tells her that he only gives her two years of clemency.
After her final meeting with Cade Fitzours she recalls that Warden once told her there was "something that proved that he was always on her side. Something that would betray him if anyone but her could see." She realizes he meant the red drapes in his dreamscape that only a dreamwalker could see. Warden feels safest in the place he had first held Paige in his arms. A moment so powerful it had transfigured his dreamscape. This makes Paige realize that Arcturus had not betrayed her. He is possessed by another dreamwalker. She thinks that person is Cade. Paige tries to get back to la Forteresse de Justice, but she is stopped when bombs begin falling on Paris in retaliation for Scion's Operation Madrigal. La Forteresse de Justice is one of the first places to be bombed and Paige is left not knowing if Arcturus is alive or dead, she fears not even a Rephaite could survive such injuries. Cordier somehow finds Paige outside the Forteresse de Justice. She uses a drug to knock Paige unconscious and the last thing Paige hears is Cordier saying this is for her own good.
Physical Description[]
Paige is 5"9' and has gray eyes and a serious look to her face. Her identification card describes her as having "no distinctive features but dark lips, probably caused by smoking."[3] She has never smoked in her life. Her hair is white-blonde and curly. She is not someone who would usually be described as fashionable. Paige is light, with a slim and narrow build. She has a cluster of scars in the middle of her left hand from the poltergeist attack she survived when she was nine. After being imprisoned in Oxford, Paige has her slave name and identification number, XX-59-40, branded on her shoulder. After Paige banishes the spirit that powered Senshield, she has another scar on her palm with her childhood poltergeist scar. The scars now form the word kin. Her hands are callused from climbing and handling weapons. As Jaxon's mollisher, he makes her wear a red cravat over her lips and nose when she carries out her duties. When she and Warden are physically close, their auras intertwine.
Personality[]
Paige is fiercely independent, driven, loyal, and possibly the most defining aspect of her character is her sense of doing the right thing. Paige believes that all clairvoyants have the right to freedom. She is driven to destroy Scion's doctrine of tyranny or die trying. While she says that "head down, eyes open" is her motto for staying alive, she has a borderline suicidal habit of provoking her enemies and entering into dangerous situations. Both in Oxford and London, Paige is told to follow strict rules or risk death, but she never listens. She would rather risk her life fighting for what she and her fellow voyants deserve than keep her head down and be grateful for what she's got. She is reckless and not very patient.
Not only is Paige physically tough, but she is also mentally tough. No matter how injured, exhausted, or in pain she is in, she always gets back up and keeps going. When she's made a slave in Oxford, she refuses to lie down and take it. Instead, she plots a mass jailbreak with the other prisoners, and they stage their revolt on the very day that the Sargas were supposed to celebrate the consolidation of their power. After having been mentally and physically tortured for weeks in the Archon, Paige manages to escape her cell, sneak into Victoria Tower, and face down both Hildred Vance and the Senshield poltergeist. The experience nearly kills her.
Paige tends to doubt herself on many levels, especially once she becomes Underqueen and has to deal with the pressures and responsibilities that come with the position. She cannot abide anyone trying to make a fool of her. She fears others using her gift for their own gain. Like Warden, she is proud, emotionally guarded, and deeply loyal. They both have a strong sense of responsibility to the people who depend on them. When Warden and Paige touch foreheads, it makes flames dance in her dreamscape.
When Paige chooses the Black Moth as her new alias, it is an echo of the speech Gomeisa Sargas gives Paige about how humans are like moths. At the time, Gomeisa was pointing out the weak, pitiful, self-destructive nature of humanity, but Paige appropriates it for the allusion to a short-lived life that ends in fire, matching her determination to bring down Scion even if it means sacrificing herself.[4]
Etymology[]
Paige is a name for both males and females. The name is of English origin that means "young helper" or "young child." In medieval times, a page was usually a young boy whose service was the first step in his training as a knight. Eva is the Latin form of the name Eve, derived from the Hebrew name meaning "life" or "living one." It is the standard biblical form of Eve in many European languages. Mahoney is the Anglicised form of the Old Gaelic O'Mathghamhana, which means "descendant of Mathghamhain," and an Irish surname.
Trivia[]
- Nick calls Paige sötnos, which means "sweetheart" in Swedish.
- Colin's childhood nickname for Paige is seileán, meaning "honeybee" in Irish.
- Paige's favorite flower is the wild oat blossom. In the language of flowers it means "the witching soul of music."
- Paige is demisexual, meaning she only experiences sexual attraction to people with whom she has an emotional bond.[5]
- Her favorite food is sugar-roasted chestnuts.
- She speaks three languages: English, French, and Gaeilge.
- Eliza taught Paige how to pick locks when she first joined the Seven Seals.
- Paige likes sleep.
Appearances[]
Gallery[]
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