Kimberly Ford

Kimberly Ford is one of the main characters of Guy Gavriel Kay's epic fantasy trilogy "The Fionavar Tapestry"

Kimberly is best friends with the only other female of The Five, Jennifer Lowell. Kimberly is quiet, kind and introspective but when pushed she diplays a will of iron and unwavering resolve in the face of even the most powerful opposition. Upon arriving in Fionavar, Kimberly discovers a power passed down in her family and is eventually named "Seer of Brennin". She plays a crucial part in recruiting allies in the war against Maugrim the unraveller.

Kimberly appears to have been the child of some magical force. Her mother apparently had a vision of the young man who would become her husband and Kim's father, and when that man arrived in her life, she immediately set out to snare him. Within a very short time, the couple were married and expecting the future seeress.

When Kim is shown in "The Summer Tree", she is studying to be a doctor, has curly brown hair, and seems both confident and mischievous. She is planning to attend a special reading by a man she believes to be a famous author and philosopher called Lorenzo Marcus, but who is actually a mage, Loren Silvercloak, from Fionavar, the world that all other worlds are based on.

Loren focuses first on Kimberly, because he somehow senses that she has some magical power within her, although he comes to realize that Paul and possibly the other three friends are equally important to Fionavar in some unknown, unpredicted way. Jennifer and Kevin readily agree to join the magical mystery fantasy tour, with only Dave Martyniuk being reserved. When Loren casts the spell to pull the five Canadian students to Fionavar, Dave tries to pull away, but Kimberly reaches out (physically and magically, perhaps) and keeps Dave connected to them long enough that he also arrives in Fionavar.

Kim eventually finds herself taken to a cottage at the edge of a lake by a white-haired seeress, Ysanne. Ysanne shows Kim the spirit who lives in the lake,Eilathen, a magical creature who holds a special ring with a powerful gem bound to it. The ring is called the Baelrath, and Ysanne forces Eilathen to yield it to Kimberly. She then explains that she had dreamt that the Baelrath, also known as the Warstone, would be Kim's, just as she had dreamt that Kim would come to Fionavar.

Ysanne also tries to show Kim two treasures that she keeps in a secret chamber beneath her house: the Circlet of Lisen, and the dagger of Lokdal. But Kim runs away before Ysanne can show her the dagger, frightened by the imminent destiny that the seeress seems to be forcing on her. Unfortunately for Kim, she has already started having prophetic dreams about the Warrior, King Ailell, and her friend Paul. Ysanne finally uses the dagger to pass her soul and all her knowledge on the Kim, despite knowing that this will prevent her from having any kind of after-life.

Kim awakes the morning after Ysanne's sacrifice, and finds her hair has gone white, and she can sense the presence of Ysanne's knowledge within her. Kim tries to accept what has been done, although at times she finds it difficult to balance the demands of being a seeress and the bearer of the Baelrath against her instintive compassion and empathy as a healer. As the keeper of a powerful magic ring that inherently connects to war, she uses the ring to locate the Wild Hunt, to force the Warrior to return to a cursed life, to break the pacifist nature of the Pariko, and so on. She hates the lengths she finds herself driven to, but justifies her actions to preserve Fionavar against the destructive chaos of Rakoth Maugrim.

Near the end of "The Summer Tree," it is Kim who senses where Jennifer is, and that her best friend is close to dying. She uses the magic of the Baelrath to take herself, Paul, Kevin and Dave to rescue Jennifer, and then takes herself and the other four back to Earth. However, she also sends a telepathic warning to Jaelle, the High Priestess, that the new King Aileron should not attack because Rakoth is waiting for the forces of Light in his stronghold.

Kim moves in with Jennifer after their return to Canada, because Jennifer had been raped by Rakoth and is pregnant as a result of that. Jennifer insists on having the baby, although they are all aware that the child of a god will be incredibly powerful, and possibly evil. Kim argues against this choice, until she has a seer's dream that shows her the name this child will have, although she continues to think the baby will be dangerous to the forces of Light. After Jennifer has the baby, and the child has been handed over to a family in Fionavar, Kim starts to arrange things to locate the Warrior, who will be needed by the forces of Light. She has to do a lot of very harsh things that are against her nature, and when she finally raises the Warrior from the dead, calling on him by a secret name, she uses the Baelrath to bring him, herself, and the other four back to Fionavar to aid the forces of the Light in the war against Rakoth.

Her war-like measures continue until a point in "The Darkest Road," where the Baelrath seems to be exhorting her to bind the Crystal Dragon of the Dwarves to the service of the Light, and she finally rejects the ring's power. But on rejecting this demand, the ring rejects her; she no longer can use its magic in any way. She continues to wear the ring, however, so only those closest to her become aware of this break with the Warstone.

Although she loses the power of the Baelrath, she remains a seeress, and so is unsurprised when only Dave Martyniuk is returning to Earth with her after Rakoth is finally annihilated. Dave asks what Kim is doing next Friday, hinting that he would like to date her, and when she replies that she doesn't even know how much time may have passed on Earth since their return to Fionavar after she summoned the Warrior, Dave teases her by saying, "How about Saturday then?"

It is revealed in the 2007 novel Ysabel that Kimberly ends up marrying Dave Martyniuk after they return to Earth