The Mirror of Her Dreams



The Mirror of Her Dreams is the first installment in Stephen R. Donaldson's series, Mordant's Need. Terisa Morgan is a Shrinking Violet living in a mirror-covered condominium. Obsessed with the idea that she is vanishing and that she exists to no one, she works the toneless days away until the night she meets Geraden. He comes through one of the mirrors in her room and persuades her to accompany him back through the mirror to his world, Mordant.

Once in Mordant, Terisa realizes that she is there for a reason — the mirror-wielding magicians, called Imagers, believe she is The Chosen One to bring peace to Mordant, which is about to be attacked and is slowly deteriorating under the control of a mad king. Terisa thinks they are mistaken, but she cannot go back, especially after one of the most powerful Imagers, Master Eremis, begins to notice her.


 * Abusive Parents: Both of Terisa's parents, but especially her father, who is described as a cold, sarcastic man.
 * All Love Is Unrequited: Elega, to Nyle.
 * Anachronism Stew:
 * Apologises a Lot: Geraden. Almost anything he says in the first half of the book is followed by "sorry." Terisa puts her foot down.
 * Terisa: If you apologise more than three times a day, I'm going to kick you.
 * Arranged Marriage: Almost, between Elega and Geraden, before the events of the book. Elega put her foot down, because of Geraden's lack of drive and talent.
 * Badass: Artagel.
 * Bash Brothers: Argus and Ribuld. They are introduced at the beginning of the story and then treated almost as the same character. They are reasonably good at fighting, at least able to hold off  for some time. And the moment they're separated
 * Batman Gambit: Master Eremis seems fond of these, but they don't always succeed ...
 * Betty and Veronica: Geraden (Betty) and Eremis (Veronica), in a gender-flipped example. Geraden is a loveable, innocent man who trips constantly, has an infectuous smile, and is treated as an "amateur" by many. Eremis is a Casanova, and, while not handsome like Geraden, has no trouble with women. He oozes sexiness, power, and dominance.
 * Big Brother Worship: Artagel gets this a lot from Geraden,
 * Big Labyrinthine Building: The castle, Orison, with its secret passageways, dead ends, and misshaped architecture.
 * Black Sheep:
 * Blue Eyes: King Joyse. Type 1 when Terisa first meets him, but revealed to be more of a Type 3.
 * Bookcase Passage: In a non-bookcase example, the secret passage in the Peacock Room. It's used at different times by Terisa, Master Quillon,
 * Castellan Lebbick knows about it and attempts to use it to
 * Saddith knows about it as well, and
 * Brilliant but Lazy: Artagel. He is the best swordsman in all of Mordant, among other things, but he never rises in the ranks of the army.
 * Brown Eyes: Terisa and Geraden.
 * Chekhov's Hobby: For both Myste and Elega, it is  Elega uses this to   Myste uses it to
 * Chekhov's Skill: Geraden's constant clumsiness. It may inconvenience him throughout the book, but
 * For Terisa, knowing how to play checkers hop-board.
 * The Chosen One: Geraden and Terisa, but no one knows how ... yet.
 * They are both suspected of harboring hitherto unknown powers of Imagery, and it's said outright that  and that Geraden features prominantly in the augury.
 * The disbelief in Terisa and Geraden's powers causes the Congery to pick who they think is The Chosen One.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Myste, with her romantic notions.
 * Conflicting Loyalty: Hoo, boy, lots of this.
 * Terisa has to choose between Geraden and Eremis, and Eremis even
 * Geraden's choice is the King's orders ... or Terisa.
 * The Corruptible:  No one knows by who yet, but he is.
 * Fantasy World Map: Subverted. A distinct lack of one, actually. Justified in that the story is told through the eyes of Terisa, and when names of places are thrown at her, the reader is as confused as she is.
 * Gambit Pileup: At first the book looks like this, both to Terisa and the reader. However by the end it's pretty clear there's only factions.
 * Neatly pointed out by Terisa to Master Quillion in quite a touching moment. When Quillion asks Terisa why she didn't tell anyone about Gart trying to kill her again Terisa asks, quite fairly, who Quillion expects her to trust.
 * Heroes Want Redheads: Terisa.
 * Ho Yay: The scene where.
 * I Have Boobs - You Must Obey!: Oh, Saddith knows how to use this to her advantage, and even lectures Terisa on it.
 * I Will Protect Her: Geraden, to the point of assigning two guards illegally to watch over her, and then, after that, his brother Artagel.
 * Insane People Play Hop-board: King Joyse and Adept Havelock. All. The. Time.
 * Inept Mage: Geraden
 * Instant Messenger Pigeon:
 * Keeping Secrets Sucks: As Terisa finds out the hard way ...
 * The Mad Hatter: Adept Havelock. He went insane after following Arch-Imager Vagel through a flat glass, and now spends his days playing checkers hop-board and talking about sex.
 * Magic A Is Magic A: A strong point of the series, the rules of 'imagery' are well defined, interesting and major elements of the plot. Essentially mirrors in Mordant's world don't show whats in front of them but rather show what's happening at a specific point in the same world (if they're flat) or another world (if they're curved). Those with the talent can step into the mirrors themselves, teleporting themselves to the location shown, and potentially pass back through the mirror if they didn't step through completely (which is how Gareden enters our world and brings back Terisa. They can also do the reverse, teleport a creature or object visible in the mirror to where they are. Working with flat glass carries two dangers: stepping through a flat glass sends you mad unless you are an arch-imager, and should you happen to look in a flat mirror focused on where you're standing and thereby see yourself in the mirror your mind is permanently erased of everything, meaning you are for all intents and purposes dead. Most imagers focus on working with curved glass. This is both to avoid these dangers and because the number of weird and dangerous stuff that can be potentially found and summoned from curved mirrors makes an imager one of the most powerful people found in fiction - if they have the right glass.
 * It's also worth mentioning however that
 * Magic Mirror
 * Geraden believes that Terisa is The Chosen One because she keeps a houseful of mirrors that show her own image and hasn't been harmed.
 * Medieval European Fantasy
 * Missed the Call: Verdict's still out on who:  or  .   fate seems secure, though.
 * Mordant Maid: Saddith.
 * Nice Guy: Oh, Geraden ...
 * Pinball Protagonist: Terisa, all the way.
 * Really Gets Around: Saddith and Eremis
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Given by both
 * Rebellious Princess: Elega.
 * Royal Blood: Played straight with Elega, Torrent, and Myste. Subverted in Alend, where heirs - and not necessarily the king's sons - have to fight over who gains the throne. This provides the (innocent) reason why Prince Kragen arrives in Orison.
 * Sleeps with Everyone but You: In a rare male example, Eremis is this to Terisa. She dreams about him and even dresses up in her sexiest gown and goes to his room,.
 * Snow Means Death: An interesting inversion on this trope. When Terisa arrives in Mordant, it's near the end of winter. All of its inhabitants are hoping for a late snowmelt, because the longer that the snow is on the ground, the harder it is for
 * Super Soldier: The High King's Monomach, Gart. He is the most skilled swordsman there is out there, and his Apts are no less deadly. For Mordant, this exists in the form of Artagel, Geraden's eldest brother,
 * Thicker Than Water:
 * Triang Relations: Type 7, with Terisa as A, and Geraden and Eremis as B and C.
 * Trickster Mentor: Adept Havelock, being a blend between this and a Mad Scientist
 * The Unfavorite: Eremis -- although he's able to work around it with his wits -- and
 * The Vamp: Saddith. She sleeps with men to rise in social position.
 * Snow Means Death: An interesting inversion on this trope. When Terisa arrives in Mordant, it's near the end of winter. All of its inhabitants are hoping for a late snowmelt, because the longer that the snow is on the ground, the harder it is for
 * Super Soldier: The High King's Monomach, Gart. He is the most skilled swordsman there is out there, and his Apts are no less deadly. For Mordant, this exists in the form of Artagel, Geraden's eldest brother,
 * Thicker Than Water:
 * Triang Relations: Type 7, with Terisa as A, and Geraden and Eremis as B and C.
 * Trickster Mentor: Adept Havelock, being a blend between this and a Mad Scientist
 * The Unfavorite: Eremis -- although he's able to work around it with his wits -- and
 * The Vamp: Saddith. She sleeps with men to rise in social position.
 * The Vamp: Saddith. She sleeps with men to rise in social position.