At St. Aggie’s, Soren witnesses the hatching of a young female Barn Owl chick “named” 401-2. He later describes this hatching as the worst thing he ever experienced.
What if 401-2 grew up to be a good moonblinked soldier of St. Aggie’s? And what if one day while out looking in Ambala for eggs to kidnap her patrol was attacked by owls defending their young?
Several owls were killed, and several more escaped. 401-2 was taken prisoner.
Eventually, the owls of Ambala realized that 401-2 had been raised in St. Aggie’s since birth, and, as if that wasn’t enough, also moonblinked. And that was how they realized what the fate of their eggs and owlets would have been.
They kept her from sleeping under the full moon, and eventually, she was unmoonblinked.
They showed her that owls can be good. That there is a life outside St. Aggie’s. They told her stories.
And eventually, she chose a new name for herself, not a number. She was not an owl of St. Aggie’s anymore. She was her own owl.
She was Pellimore.
