SERENA

Malakite Vassal of Dreams

Role: Sandra Ayers, Bookstore manager

Serena is Blandine's sole outpost in Dallas, although she is assisted by a Dream Soldier named MarkCheddwin. As an angel of Dreams in a hostile city with no support, Serena needs to be one of Blandine's toughest Servitors, and she is. As an accomplished Malakite, she has earned the grudging respect of most of David and Michael's angels, and has cordial relations with Laurence's. She's also dangerous enough that the demons in the city generally leave her alone. Since Beleth has little or no presence in Dallas, other demons don't want to make themselves a focus of Serena's attention.

Dallas has several authors, as well as an active (if acrimonious) civil rights community. While Serena can't personally guard each and every one of them, she spends a lot of time in the Marches driving away ethereals and demons of Nightmares from their dreamscapes. She also spends a lot of time during the day promoting books she considers inspiring and virtuous, especially to children.

In her Role as Sandra Ayers, she once owned a small, independent bookstore and coffee shop in downtown Dallas. Nybbas mistakenly thought this was a nascent Tether of Dreams, and assigned several demons to establish a nearby "mega-bookstore" to drive Sandra out of business. Although Sandra was sad to see her old shop go, she turned the tables unexpectedly on the diabolicals by selling it and applying for a job as manager at the new chain. Then she promptly killed or scared away the demons of the Media who were involved with it, and began making the bigger store her turf. For her cleverness, Blandine awarded Serena her Vassal Distinction.