Chloe Oliver

**Chloe Oliver** is the Keeper of the Alvalaithen.

## Background

By the events of The Box and the Dragonfly, Chloe lives in a house with her father Matthew and sister Madeline. She attends Thomas Paine Middle School and is likely in sixth grade.

## Personality

Chloe has a strong, confident personality; she is often described as "fierce". She is unselfish and heroic in action but not in words; there she is intensely sarcastic and can sometimes be condescending and mean.

She can be curious, and will go to great lengths to find answers to her questions, as seen when she breaks into Horace's house to find out his personal information. However, her curiosity is limited; she isn't naturally inquisitive about everything, like Horace is. She sees the dragonfly and, by extension, her own abilities as magical.

She is insistently self-sufficient and doesn't easily trust people.

She's very confident and never seems to feel self-conscious. She sticks by her decisions and doesn't get embarrassed. She acts casual even about serious things, including her myriad scars.

At the beginning of the series, Chloe is deeply scared of using the Alvalaithen to go underground.

She seems to steal things and break into buildings regularly, using the dragonfly. She mentions that snooping around in other people's houses is "a habit."

She moves quickly and stealthily, and can hold her breath for a long time. However, she's also jumpy and easy to surprise. She becomes angry when people are able to follow her despite her best measures.

She curses often and genuinely.

## Description

Chloe is small but solid. She is very short and slight for her age, with small limbs and intense dark eyes. She is about six inches shorter than Horace. Her skin is pale, and her hair is jet-black; it is originally long, but after the Oliver fire it is cut short. She often wears a dark green hoodie when sneaking, and usually carries wintergreen mints in her pocket. She wears the Alvalaithen as a pendant, hanging vertically from a cord around her neck.

Due to a long history with the Alvalaithen, Chloe has a great number of scars. She has a number of mottled, burned patches around the base of her neck from letting the dragonfly's cord slip into her skin. She has a patch of irregular scars near her left elbow from falling into gravel; a long, jagged, purple scar on her right upper arm, from backing into a curtain; and a faintly raised, fan-shaped scar on her thigh, from melding into a book. She also has many thin, light-colored scars on her legs from going thick as she ran through long grass.

## Relationships

### Horace F. Andrews

Chloe originally distrusts Horace. However, she soon comes to realize that he's not working with Raka, and becomes more curious about him. She has respect and interest in Horace's abilities. As they become closer, she quickly becomes more open and casual with him, sharing long-kept secrets about the Alvalaithen. She thinks he's clever; she also enjoys teasing him and taking him by surprise.

### Ja'raka Sevlo

Chloe is genuinely confident that she can handle Raka, and has a lot of experience escaping from him. However, she's very worried about him hurting her family, who could not get away as easily.

## History

Despite not knowing Horace, Chloe saved him from an encounter with Raka. After he failed to acknowledge her help and tried to lie to her, she insulted him and left.

Several days later, Chloe snuck into Horace's toolshed for unknown reasons. He was already there, which surprised her, causing her to run away. At some point Raka noticed her and began chasing her, which led to an encounter between them and two versions of Horace. Raka was lured away, which allowed Chloe to escape; Horace followed her home.

The next day, Chloe confronted Horace in his school bathroom, trying to find out how he'd followed her. Upon finding out about the box's abilities, she was shocked and impressed. They planned for her to come to his house at midnight so they could talk more. They spent that night sharing stories and information about their instruments; Chloe finally admitted that Raka had been at her house.

## Trivia

* Ted Sanders has stated that Chloe's first name "just felt right" for the character, and therefore doesn't have a hidden meaning.

## Gallery

Pre-Oliver fireMeeting with Ja'raka SevloConfronting GroomaCrossing the lake in the Warren, with Mrs. HapsteadeHolding April Simon's daktanRiding the mal'gamaInaccurately depicted with long hair. By Chris RiddellEarly draft