Neverwhere

When the darkness claims Anaesthesia’s life on the bridge to the Floating Market, a bead falls off her necklace, and this is the only remaining sign that she ever existed. This moment stands as a crucial turning point for Richard, who realizes that the young girl willingly risked her life to guide him and ultimately lost everything for his sake. He is also deeply struck by the pragmatic and callous attitude of London Below’s denizens, for those who were part of Anaesthesia’s community see her death as a normal occurrence, and Richard realizes that she was only tasked to guide him because they considered her to be expendable. Faced with the knowledge that his actions indirectly led to the girl’s death, Richard keeps the bead as a form of remembrance, honoring her courage and self-sacrifice: two traits that Richard will eventually need to exhibit in order to pass the Ordeal of the Key that the Black Friars set him to complete. In this later scene, he is faced with a vision that tries to convince him to die by suicide, but just as he is about to heed this suggestion, he touches the bead and is reminded of Anaesthesia’s sacrifice.