- Fast-forward in time: we're at a place called Wyverley College, and Sabriel, now eighteen years old, is standing over a dead rabbit. She has the goth thing nailed without even trying: pale, cute black haircut, preppy school clothes, and a morbid accessory. But Sabriel's an upstanding young goth, and she pops into Death to bring the bunny back for Jacinth, a cute pigtailed schoolmate. Trips to Death are clearly no big deal for Sabriel, although she thinks maybe it wasn't quite ethical to bring back Bunny, even though Jacinth's pigtails are awfully cute. Look out, Sabriel. Maybe resurrected bunnies are the first step on the road to raising a zombie army?
- This is Sabriel's last term at Wyverley and she's an excellent student, complete with sparkling report card and Prefect status. Wyverley is right near the Wall, so they teach Magic there, even though it's not strictly in the fine print. They love Sabriel at Wyverley and pretend not to notice when she mentions that little thing about being able to talk to her dad without her dad actually, you know, being there.
- One night, as Sabriel waits for the magical equivalent of FaceTime with her dad, she hears a scream from the girls' dormitory—a girl named Olwyn has opened an outside door, which is a bad idea so close to the Wall at night.
- A black figure enters the dorm, "as if someone had cut a man-shaped figure out of the night" (1.42); it's carrying a sack. As the dorm residents scream and cower, Sabriel subdues them with a spell and then heads into Death to check out this mysterious figure. (Incidentally, Wyverley has electric lights—it's a much more modern world than the Old Kingdom.)
- In Death, Sabriel can tell that this creature is being controlled by someone else, like some sort of disturbing puppet—and when Sabriel tries to talk to it, the figure drops the sack it's carrying. Abhorsen's voice calls out to Sabriel to get that sack, and she manages to grab it out of the Death river. This is a good thing, because the sack has her father's sword and set of bells in it—but it's also a bad thing, because if these items aren't with her father, it's likely something bad has happened to him.
- The Magistrix at Wyverley, who's watched this whole event, guesses that Sabriel is going to leave. It's a good guess. Sabriel needs to check out this situation in the Old Kingdom.