- On the Ancelstierre side of the Wall, security is really tight, and modern technology and medieval weapons are mixed up in a weird kind of jumble; Sabriel notices soldiers "carrying spears rather than rifles" (2.18). Due to the backward weather forecast, even though it's sunny, Sabriel has skis for the trip.
- Sabriel has to go through the equivalent of Customs to pass through to the Old Kingdom, and while she's showing off her papers, she casts a spell. This is a major faux pas in front of the paranoid guards, and Sabriel realizes too late that the medieval weapons at the Wall are used against magical attacks. Whoops.
- The commanding officer, Colonel Horyse, knows a thing or two about Charter Magic, though, and once he convinces the rest of the soldiers that Sabriel isn't a zombie, he takes her aside to ask about her father and her trip to the Old Kingdom.
- Horyse is not happy to learn that Abhorsen may be dead, since he once met Abhorsen when Abhorsen helped set up magical protection for the Wall.
- Sabriel delivers news that's an even bigger bummer: if Abhorsen is truly dead, all of the protection he set up for the Wall will stop working.