September Morning Bell

"'I am reckless. You have to be, in my line of work.'"-September Morning Bell

September Morning Bell is the main character of the Fairyland series. Though she is first introduced at age twelve, throughout the entire book series she eventually ages to seventeen years old. She has a romantic interest for Saturday.

Personality
Although September is often described as "ill-tempered and irascible" she is also brave, loving, and determined. She has a reputation for being a bit of a trouble maker as well and has deposed three rulers of fairyland, The Marquess, Halloween (September's rogue shadow), and Charles Crunchcrab I.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland
The first book in the series finds twelve year old September living with her family in Omaha in a house were she washes the same pink and yellow teacups every day. She is visited by Mabry Muscat, or The Green Wind who offers to take her to Fairyland via his steed, Imogen, The Leopard of Little Breezes. September accepts, and is whisked away to the closet between worlds, a sort of airport customs. After being assigned a persephone visa by Betsy Basilstalk and informed of the odd and sometimes tyrannical rules of fairyland she performs the required tasks prompting Latitude and Longitude to allow her into fairyland.

Betsy flicks fairy ointment into September's eyes and pushes her through a wall and into a foamy ocean where she nearly drowns, saved only by her skilled swimming abilities. September arrives on a beach covered with glittering fairy gold and jewels. She comes across a sign with four odd direction choices and chooses "To lose your heart". The sign leads her to the house of three witches, Hello, Goodbye, and Manythanks. They beg her to retrieve Goodbye's Spoon from The Marquess, current ruler of Fairyland. September agrees, and sets off on her quest towards the city of Pandemonium, where The Marquess lives.

On her way to Pandemonium, September encounters a Wyverary, named A-Through-L, who agrees to accompany her on her journey.

September and Ell (A-Through-L's nickname), soon come to The House Without Warning, where all travelers must be scrubbed before entering Pandemonium. September is assisted by Lye, a soap golem, and has her courage, wishes, and luck, thoroughly scrubbed. September learns a little about the former queen of Fairyland, Good Queen Mallow, and how all of fairyland wishes that she would return.

To cross the river around Pandemonium, September and Ell must take a ferry boat driven by Charlie Crunchcrab. On the ride, September encounters a pooka girl in distress and sacrifices her shadow to save her. September and Ell at last arrive at Pandemonium.

September and Ell go to a movie theatre and watch a pre-show news report concerning Fairyland news. At the end of the report, The Marquess appears on-screen and, oddly enough, speaks directly to September, ordering her to go to the Briary, where The Marques lives.

Arriving at the Briary, September experiences an audience with The Marquess, in which she is given Goodbye's Spoon and ordered to journey to the Autumn Provinces to obtain a sword in return. September tries to decline but The Marquess threatens to kill Ell so she at last agrees.

Leaving the Briary, September and Ell discover several lobster cages, one containing a human-like marid boy. He introduces himself as Saturday and tells them how he was taken from his family and forced to grant wishes for The Marquess by being wrestled. September breaks his cage with her Spoon and all three of them set of for the Autumn Provinces, after a quick bite to eat.

On their journey, September, Ell, and Saturday meet a fairy named Calpurnia Farthing and her ward, Penny Farthing, who are the owners of a herd of velocipedes. Calpurnia lends them a few velocipedes and they ride to the Autumn Provinces. September, Ell, and Saturday meet some spriggans, two of which are named Rubedo and Citrinitas. September leaves her friends with the spriggans and journeys into the woods. She begins to transform into a tree and soon meets, and sings to sleep, her Death, which in this case is an actual person. Pulling her Sword from the mouth of her Death, September discovers that the Sword has transformed into a wrench for her because her mother is an engineer. She runs back to the Spriggan's village and is reunited with Ell and Saturday, only to have them kidnapped by the Two Blue Lions belonging to the Marquess. September, almost completely a tree, falls asleep and dreams an odd dream in which she wonders if losing Saturday is what the sign"To Lose Your Heart" really meant.

September is woken by Citrinitas, and discovers that she is once more a girl. She begins a new journey to The Lonely Gaol to rescue Ell and Saturday, and encounters Mr. Map, an old friend of Queen Mallow.

September returns to the beach covered with jewels and, realizing that the jewels are really only wood, uses them to build a raft. She sets off on The Perverse and Perilous sea, to rescue her friends. She stops at two Islands, at the second of which she encounters a group of vicious live household items which imprison her in a deep cavern. She makes friends with one item, a paper lantern named Gleam, and is rescued by The Green Wind, after refusing his offer to return home and abandon her friends. She sets off on her raft once more and meets a shark which turns out to be the pooka mother of the girl she rescued.

September at last arrives at The Lonely Gaol only to discover that the Marquess was expecting her all along. The Marquess uses her magic to to part the sea revealing The Gears of the World and asks September to uncouple them with her wrench in exchange for the freedom of Ell and Saturday. September refuses, so The Marquess tries to convince her that a clock containing September's time in Fairyland has nearly run out. September discovers that the clock is actually not hers but was The Marquess's from when she was the human girl Maud Elizabeth Smythe. It is revealed that Good Queen Mallow and The Marquess are the same person, gone crazy from scratching her way back to Fairyland. September tries to send Mallow back to the human world, but Mallow uses magic to put herself to sleep, so that she will stay in Fairyland.

September finds Saturday and Ell, who are both very weak, Ell on the brink of death. The Lonely Gaol, disturbed by The Gears of the World, begins to collapse. Iago, The Marquess's panther suggests that September wrestle Saturday in order to wish them all to safety.

September and Saturday engage in a long and fierce battle, falling from the tower onto The Gears. Eventually, because Saturday is still weak from imprisonment, September wins and wishes them all back to safety and health. Just before the magic takes affect, September and Saturday catch a glimpse of the marid-human daughter they will one day have together, for many future marids visit their relatives in the past.

The friends arrive in a field outside the city of Pandemonium, completely healed and well again. The Green wind appears, and explains to September that because she came to Fairyland on a persephone visa and ate fairy food she will have to return to Fairyland every year from now on. September is sad to go home but delighted to know that she will see her friends again. She says goodbye to Ell and Saturday and winks out like a candle, back to her home in Nebraska.

September falls asleep on the couch and her mother returns from her day at the factory, for Fairyland time runs differently than human time. Her mother never notices that September has no shadow.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland
September longs to return to Fairyland. One day, when she goes into her family's field to read, she sights a peculiar pair of individuals rowing through the field in a rowboat. Knowing that this is a very Fairylandish occurrence, she follows them and falls through, into Fairyland again.