Fiona Campbell Warren

Fiona Warren was born Fiona Campbell Webster in 1903, the oldest child of Jessamine and Tobias Webster. Fiona is Sarah Parsons' great-grandmother.

Book I:  Amber House
Sarah first learns about her great-grandmother at her grandmother Ida's funeral. She is told by the guest that Fiona "threw wild parties" and "could tell your fortune with a deck of cards."

Throughout Amber House, Sarah often has visions of her flapper ancestor. Sarah also reads Fiona's book A Place In Time, a "fictionalized" account the history of Amber House that ultimately turns out to be a record of every vision Fiona ever had about the house and its inhabitants.

In two scenes, Fiona displays a heightened sense -- similar to Sarah's ability to sense the location of her brother Sammy. Fiona is aware when she is being "watched" by Sarah.

Fiona was evidently institutionalized for suspected schizophrenia, and may have been subjected to a lobotomy. Fiona was obsessed with the permeability of time, writing a cryptic sonnet that eerily turns out to predict Sarah's adventures in the house.

Relationships
Little is revealed about Fiona's relationships to her contemporaries in the first book, although one character shares a rumor that Fiona had "tons of lovers." This is corroborated by the fact that she is shown in two visions flirting with a young man named Edward (whom Sarah remarks resembles Richard Hathaway). Fiona ends up marrying a man named Dennis Warren.

Through reading Fiona's diaries, Sarah learns that many of Fiona's visions focused on Captain Joseph Foster's children, fraternal twins Sarah-Louise and Matthew. Visions usually have some sort of connection to personal issues affecting the seer's life at the time. The significance between Fiona and her ancestors in the 1770s is not explained in the first novel.

Appearance
Fiona was "stunning," according to Sarah. Fiona had red hair, a trait passed on to Sarah's mother Anne and Sarah's aunt Maggie.

Character traits and abilities
Fiona was vivacious, flirtatious, passionate and intelligent. She possessed a classical education, evinced in her poetry and her predilection for Greek mythological symbolism. She was also interested in the occult. Her psychic abilities included psychometry and extra-sensory perception.

Poetry
The books include poetry written by Fiona. Amber House features the poem "Otherwhen" and the sequel Neverwas features a poem of the same name, pre-released in special signed editions of Amber House.

Otherwhen
Drawn on by hope, pursued by history. By fortune we are soothed, by sorrows bruised, We stumble on, purblind, toward mystery. Yet Time hies round thee, hushed, on unshod feet, Lest hearing, thou should wake to Her, and rise To seek the point where past and future meet. Though choice seems chance, though happenstance belies Intent, learn thou that fate is in thy hands. Discern the joint that shatters Time, that bends Her flow, Her heedless whim, to thy commands. Thus heal the wound; thus make all good amends. Hast thou a chance to choose it all again,''
 * ''We chase the turnings of a maze confused,
 * Then take the path that leads to Otherwhen.

Neverwas
A restless hound intent to make her bed, Indiff'rent to the happenstance of men, Unheeding of the grieving and the dead. One chance there is to bring this bitch to heel, To wind back all the hours and the days And hand in hand uncover what is real -- A pas de deux, a dance inside the maze. What life, what light, what truth there is in Time Derives from what is whispered heart to heart, The hand that pulls us onward in our climb To find again the place where we must start. And if she glances backward as she does, She'll see twas just a dream that Neverwas.''
 * ''But Times turns round and turns round once again,