Orla Mercier

Orla Mercier runs the parts of Saint-Spire that the Superior Mother cannot be seen to touch.

Where Gwendlynn Dallur keeps the abbey's deeper counsel, it is Orla who keeps its daily politics — the diocesan letters, the inspectors' visits, the careful management of which truths reach the outside world and in what order. To the novices she is a brisk, kind, faintly tireless mentor; to Gwendlynn she is the trusted hand that lets a Superior Mother guard greater secrets by never having to mind the small ones.