Zachary (6)

*This article is about the chapter. For the character, see Zachary Ezra Rawlins.*

## Order

### Preceded by

There are three paths. This is one of them (3)

### Followed by

Lost cities of honey and bone

> Zachary Ezra Rawlins checks his watch three times while he waits to retrieve his coat from the coat check.
>
> Book I: Sweet Sorrows **Zachary (6)**

**"Zachary (6)"** is the sixth chapter from Zachary's perspective, and the fourteenth chapter overall.

## Summary

In this chapter, Zachary has recieved the following note: "*Patience & Fortitude 1 am. Bring a flower*" from the mysterious storyteller who told him of Fate and Time in Zachary (5), Patience & Fortitude being the landmark lions outside the New York Public Library. He takes a flower made from the pages of a book with him, as the note tells him to. As he is leaving the building, he bumps into a tall woman in a silvery coat with white hair. Zachary, surprised, refers to her as "a very polite polar bear". She fusses over him for a moment, but before she can draw him into conversation, Zachary realises it is nearing 1am, so he goes on his way.

He gets to the statues, and realises that *Sweet Sorrows* is missing. Dorian returns it to him, emerging from the woodworks. Zachary accuses him of taking it from him, and he replies with "No, someone else took it from you and I took it from them”. Dorian is the storyteller from the darkened hallway, and he convinces Zachary to come with him with the reminder that the people who originally took the book will try to take it back. Along the way, Dorian regales Zachary with a list of things he knows about him, from his birthplace to his anxiety diagnosis.

Dorian is taking Zachary to "their" U.S. headquarters, thought he still hasn't told Zachary exactly whose headquarters they are. He explains to him a plan to swap a copy of *The Age of Fable or Beauties of Mythology* with another book from inside the headquarters.

> "“We don’t have time for this, we’re almost there. I’m going to need you to listen very carefully and follow instructions. (...) You are going to tell whoever answers the door that youhave a drop off for the archive. Show them the book but do not let it out of your hands. If they do not allow you entry immediately you will say that Alex sent you. (...) You will be led through a hall and up a flight of stairs to another hall with several locked doors. A room will be unlocked for you. At approximately this time the doorbell will ring. Your escort will need to attend to it. Assure your escort that you can handle the book drop yourself and you will see yourself out the back, this is customary and will not seem odd. Your escort will depart. (...) The room will have books on shelves and in glass cases. You are concerned with the cases. In one of the cases there will be a book bound in brown leather, with faded gilding around the page edges. You will know which one it is. You will swap your Bullfinch’s mythology for that book. Place that book in your coat while in that room, there are cameras in the halls. (...) Return the way you came, down the stairs but when you reach the main hall go around to the back of the stairs. From there you can go down to the basement and out the back door. That door leads to the garden and there’s a gate at the back, go out the gate and turn right. Proceed to the end of the alley and back to the street. I’ll be waiting across the street, when I see you I’ll start walking. Follow me for six blocks and if you are certain no one has followed you, catch up with me. (...)"
>
> **Zachary (6)**

The chapter ends with Zachary ringing the doorbell to the building Dorian has directed him to. There is a plaque by the entrance that reads '*Collector's Club*'.

## Characters

### Major Characters

* Zachary Ezra Rawlins
* Dorian

### Minor Characters

* The coat-check lady
* The polar bear woman
* Mirabel (mentioned)

*Proceed at your own risk if you have not yet finished the Starless Sea.*

## Trivia and Connections

* The polar bear woman that Zachary bumps into is Allegra, though Zachary doesn't know that yet.
* Zachary asks who Mirabel is on multiple occasions, not knowing that she was the one dressed as Max from *Where the Wild Things Are*.
* Dorian mentions that *“They are quite strict about their protocols but some are more strict than others, (...) Always answer the door is one of the stricter ones and it will take priority"*. This is probably because of the significance of doors and their connection to the Harbours. You never know what is on the other side of these doors.

## Quotes

* *Zachary looks up, blinking, his eyes stinging from the cold and his post-cocktail vision insisting that he is being addressed by a very polite polar bear.*

* *“I’ve not had a man fall at my feet in some time regardless of the circumstances, my dear, so thank you for that.”*

* *“Who are you?” Zachary asks when he catches up with the man at the street corner.*

* *“You can call me Dorian,” the man says.*

*"Is that your name?”*

*“Does it matter?”*

* *“You forgot I’m a Pisces,” Zachary says through gritted teeth.*

*“I thought that was implied with the inclusion of your birthdate,”*

* *“Correct, ten points to Ravenclaw. Though it wasn’t very clever of you to gather up all those books only to leave them unsupervised because you wanted a muffin.”*

* *“A quality muffin is just a cupcake without frosting,”*

* *"At what point during all this covert activity am I allowed to go back to my hotel to get my face windows? Eyeglasses. Spectacles.”*

## References

1. ↑ From: Book I: Sweet Sorrows, Zachary (5)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 From: Book I: Sweet Sorrows, **Zachary (6)**