Abigail “Abby” Eburt (AB-i-gayl EE-burt)

Race: Human Role: Performer, Musician

The first time most people meet Abby Eburt, they do not meet her at her best. Disheveled, sharp-tongued, and considerably less than sober, she is not an immediately sympathetic figure — and she knows it. She has enough self-awareness to be ashamed of herself in the morning, and not quite enough to stop herself the night before. She is gruff, coarse, and occasionally belligerent, and she will be the first to tell you that she can’t cook.

And then she walks onto a stage.

The transformation is total and immediate. The woman who needed two people to hold her upright an hour ago sits down in a single chair with a fanciful lute across her back, and without preamble or warmup, begins to play. The room goes quiet. By the time she starts to sing, grown adults are crying without quite knowing why. By the end of her set, the entire building is on its feet. She is, when the music takes her, one of the most gifted performers in Tevec — possibly anywhere — and the contrast between who she is offstage and who she becomes the moment she begins to play is one of the most arresting things about her.

She arrived in Tevec nearly four years ago as part of a traveling show, alongside her husband Kell. Their son disappeared shortly after they arrived. The rest of the troupe eventually moved on. The Eburts stayed. They are still looking.

The loss hollowed something out in Abby that has never refilled — or rather, something dark has begun filling the space instead. Her moods shift as rapidly as her setlists. There are days when the warmth that Glyruss says she once radiated all the time still surfaces, brief and genuine. There are other days when it doesn’t.

Interesting Facts:

• When she drinks, her voice changes. Not worse — different. Glyruss, who has known her for years, can tell immediately from her opening notes whether she has been drinking that evening. He finds it both remarkable and heartbreaking in equal measure.
• She works for Glyruss at both The Griffon’s Nest and The Griffon’s Aerie. She has done this to keep close to him, as she suspects the worst of him, and is waiting for her chance to prove it.