Character from Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams
Mistress of Chambermaids — the woman who raised Simon, terrorized scullions, and kept the Hayholt clean through war, sorcery, and the end of the world, because dirt waits for no apocalypse.
Rachel rules the Hayholt's domestic staff with an iron hand and the unshakeable conviction that cleanliness is next to godliness and laziness is the devil's workshop. She calls Simon 'Mooncalf' with an exasperation that barely conceals fierce, protective love. She is devoutly Aedonite, obsessed with order, and utterly fearless when it comes to defending her domain. When Elias falls and Pryrates takes control, Rachel doesn't flee. She stays in the Hayholt, navigating the occupied castle with the intimate knowledge of someone who has cleaned every corridor for decades. She feeds the blinded Guthwulf in the tunnels. She attempts to assassinate Pryrates herself when she believes he killed Simon. Her courage isn't the dramatic kind — it's the stubborn kind. The kind that keeps scrubbing when the world is ending because someone has to, and she'll be damned if it won't be done properly.
An older woman whose exact features are less important than her presence — she fills a doorway with authority regardless of her actual size. The kind of face that has made grown men flinch when it appears around a corner holding a broom like a weapon. Dressed in practical servant's clothing, always spotless.
Also known as: Rachel, The Dragon, Mistress of Chambermaids