Helen Richardson was a real estate agent in 2016 who became trapped in the domain of The Spiral. While showing a house, a being implied to be Michael appeared and tricked her into going through a door that had not been there before, whereupon she spent three days lost inside of Michael's labyrinth. She managed to free herself, and after recovering from dehydration and trauma, gave a statement to the Magnus Institute. She expressed gratitude to Jonathan Sims for believing her story and promising to help her, but as she left she went through a door conjured by Michael, and was implied to be lost inside of his realm once more. (MAG 47).
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This article contains information from later episodes of The Magnus Archives, and may contain major spoilers for the setting and plot. |
Some part of her survives in that realm, and appears to have usurped Michael's place as an avatar of The Spiral. When Michael was going to kill Jonathan Sims, he screams and is replaced by Helen who says she's not sure what she is, but remembers that Sims was kind to her, and helps him to escape. (MAG 101)
In MAG 115: Taking Stock, Helen comes back to Jonathan, asking for help and saying that she wants to feel better.. Jon accuses her of pretending to be Helen, to which she replies that she is Helen, but she isn't sure if she was meant to be. When she implies she and Jon have something in common, as he is becoming The Archivist, he gets angry and shouts at her to leave.
However, she seems to become more confident in her identity. In MAG 131: Flesh it is revealed that she helped the institutes during the Flesh attack, and has been assisting the Archives since. She insists that she is still Helen Richardson, and that people change. She gives Jon access to the Boneturner, and says she supports what he is doing and plans on continue to help in the future.
Jon goes to Helen to ask if she will bring him to the center of the tunnels to stop whatever Peter is doing with Martin, but she refuses. She says that it will be more fun if he doesn't know. He tries to compel her to tell him, but she threatens to stab him again, and promises that if he tries to compel her again that one of them would not survive the confrontation.
