Chapter 1: The Climb

Beginning in Zilvaren City, Saeris is being held by a guardian (Queen Madra’s guard) on suspicion of thievery. We learn that her mother was murdered by a guardian and that countless others have the same fate all the time for lying. The composition of Zilvaren is modeled after the shape of a wheel, the city’s outer limits are composed of different spokes with fifty meter high walls to keep the citizens contained to their wards. There are dual suns, Balea and Min.

Saeris is from Third, a ward of Zilvaren that is supposed to be quarantined under suspicion that all the residents are plagued. The citizens of the other wards carry around plague bags that they believe ward themselves against the dirty people from Third. After Saeris tells him that she is from the Third, the guardian freaks out and begins to beat her. She starts to beg, pretending to have the rattles and he holds her at sword point. He hesitates, because they are in the Hub, where the rich live, and if he killed her there he would have to remove her body from the streets – risking catching her rattles. He takes off his armor that had touched her and throws it on the ground. Saeris makes the decision to steal his golden gauntlet and begins to run away. The guardian is unable to appropriately chase her because he is bogged down with so much armour. She runs to the wall and climbs to the top. The guardian tries to get her to drop the gauntlet but she refuses, thinking about the much needed money she could get for selling it. Once she gets to the top of the wall, the particles of quartz in the sand and the gauntlet begin to vibrate and whisper to her. She is able to make them stop and climbs down the other side with the gauntlet.

Chapter 2: Glassmaker

Saeris shows up at Elroy’s forge where he refuses to let her melt the gauntlet. He tries to convince her to return the gauntlet to the guardians in their ward but she refuses. Saeris is tired of her ward being so repressed while the rich have lavish parties in the Hub and they have no food or water. The residents of the Third have resorted to barter and trade or whispering secrets about their neighbors to a guardian. We learn that Elroy was in love with Saeris’ mother. Elroy has given up fighting against Madra’s rule, becoming content just dealing with his situation. He used to make illicit weapons for the rebel gangs who fought to overthrow Madra’s thousand year reign but once Saeris’ mother was killed, he spiraled. We learn that Saeris can affect metal, sometimes metallic objects would shake when near her and one time she was able to spin one of Elroy’s daggers without touching it. All her thieving she does because of her brother Hayden.

Saeris finds Hayden sprawled out and bleeding in front of The House of Kala, one of the only places that would trade food and drink for goods instead of money. Hayden has used the money Saeris gave him to buy water to gamble with Carrion Swift, to which he lost and Carrion is the reason he is bleeding in the sand. Saeris enters the tavern to confront Carrion because he promised that he wouldn’t entertain Hayden’s gambling anymore. She gives Hayden her bag that has the gauntlet and tells him to go wait outside, she doesn’t want the gauntlet anywhere near Carrion because he could easily steal it from her. Carrion convinces her to sit down with him for one drink where he tells her that he knows she stole the gauntlet from a guardian and that she has to get it out of Third before the guardians discover it is there and kill everyone for her actions. She eventually agrees to fix her mistake and when she leaves Kalas, Hayden is gone and so is the gauntlet.

Chapter 3: The Kindest Purpose

Saeris tries to track Hayden down, bringing attention to her by running through the streets of the Third. She finds Hayden being cornered by at least thirty guardians, holding the gauntlet. Attempting to save his life, she claims that she is the one who stole the gauntlet. Hayden tries to help her by saying that she is lying and that he is the one who stole it. The captain orders his men to restrain Saeris, she pulls a blade out of her boot and begins to fight the guardians. Saeris fights off three guardians, killing two and maiming one. She is taken by the captain of the guardians, says some really cruel things to Hayden to get him to leave, and tells him to not come looking for her.

Chapter 4: The Price

Saeris recalls how she used to dream about Queen Madra noticing her and deciding to take her as a lady’s maid. She’d be given beautiful dresses, exotic flowers for her hair, hundreds of bottles of perfume, and endless feasts. She is taken to the palace with her hands bound behind her back, her ribs bruised and cracked, and a blossoming black eye. Saeris was tossed into a tiny cell by Captain Harron for six hours to await the queen. Harron takes Saeris to go meet the queen, along the way, Harron gives her a water canteen and she begins to chug. On their walk, Saeris tells Harron that Madra gives the Third six ounces of water every day, water that comes from a standing reservoir that fills up from the palace’s run-off. Harron argues that there’s a filtration process, but Saeris bites back that there’s only a grate to catch the solids. She decides to not disclose that she’s been stealing from the Hub’s water reservoirs her entire life. Saeris tells Harron that the people in the Third aren’t there because they are diseased but because they dare to dissent against Madra.

Harron escorts Saeris into a locked hall, where she is drawn to a platform in the distance with some sort of a lever. As Harron lights the torches around the room, she sees dour faces of long-forgotten gods chiseled into the stonework of the walls, recognizing two of them being Balea and Min. Madra enters the room, looking flawless for being a thousand years old. She demands Saeris give her details of who taught her to wield a sword in exchange for a commuted sentence. Madra accuses the fae of training her, something Saeris thinks is insane because the fae don’t exist anymore. She tells Saeris that the fae were warmongers, cannibals, beastly creatures with no temperance, sense of morality, or mercy. Madra believes they sent Saeris to kill her so they can take Zilvaren. Saeris denies this but Madra doesn’t believe her, she orders Harron to kill Saeris and then kill the rest of the people in the Third.

Chapter 5: Heretic

Madra orders Harron to make Saeris sing, she tries to fight Harron but with her hands tied behind her back she’s helpless. Harron stabs her in the stomach, twists the sword, then stabs her in the shoulder with a dagger, and then goes to stab her in her other shoulder. Somehow, she’s able to hold his blade away from her and then unmakes the dagger. It liquifies and begins crawling over Harron’s body. She’s able to make it to the platform and saw her hands free on the sword buried halfway into the ground. Saeris grabs the sword out of the ground and slices into Harron’s shoulder. The ground begins to liquify and she starts to pass out from blood loss. The room begins to blacken and a huge man emerges from the silver pool. Harron starts going insane and the man asks him where Madra is, realizing the Captain is too far gone, he returns to the platform. He places a chain around Saeris’ neck and carries her into the pool.

Chapter 6: Everlayne

Saeris awakens in a bed, thinking she is still in the palace. Everlayne enters her room and gives her a full cup of water, something that Saeris believes must be a joke, even more shocked to find that the water is clean. Everlayne introduces herself, Saeris notices that her ears are pointed and realizes she’s fae. Saeris tries to deny that Everlayne is real and that the fae are myths. She tells Everlayne that the fae are scary bedtime stories told in Zilvaren to scare children. Saeris then realizes that she has been completely healed and that she is not going to die. Everlayne tells her that she is now in Yvelia, in the Winter Palace. Renfis barges into the room to get the chain back from Saeris. After he leaves, Everlayne tells her she needs a bath since it’s been at least ten days since she’s had one. Saeris argues that she needs to go back to Zilvaren to save Hayden and her friends, Everlayne tells her that she is not able to go back because she is too important to her father. She tells Saeris that her father is Belikon De Barra, King of the Yvelian Fae.

Saeris takes her first ever bath, shocked at the amount of resources she has available to her, thinking of what Hayden and Elroy must be going through if they were even still alive. Everlayne comes in and puts Saeris in a dress, something that heavily displeases her since she’s used to wearing pants and a shirt. Everlayne gives her some lip balm and they leave to go meet the king.

Chapter 7: The Dog

As Everlayne is bringing Saeris to see the King, they pass a series of statues and at each one Everlayne bows her head to each one. She tells Saeris they are the Corcoran, the gods. Saeris tells Everlayne that they don’t worship the Corcoran in Zilvaren, that they worship Madra as a god, believing that carrying strands of her hair in leather pouches will ward them against plague and give them never-ending life if they’re worthy enough. Everlayne tells her that Madra is human, who is well aware of the gods but has chosen to let them vanish from her people’s history. The gods are Styx, god of shadows, Kurin, god of secrets, Nicinnai, goddess of masks, Maleus, god of dawn and new beginnings, and Balmithin, twin sisters, goddesses of the sky. Balmithin legend says they were once one god but a mighty storm came and lashed her with forks of lightning that split her in two, becoming Bal and Mithin. Bal is the goddess of the sun/day and Mithin is goddess of the moon/night. Saeris realizes that these goddesses are the same twins as in Zilvaren, Balea and Min. The last statue is Zareth, god of chaos and change, believed that to look upon Zareth’s face is to draw his focus and very few people enjoy his attention. Everlayne says that they pray to each member of the Corcoran in hopes that they will return to Yvelia someday. 

They reach the Grand Hall of the Yvelian Court which contains the skull of the last dragon, Omnamshacry. Saeris notices that the King has the sword that she had drawn in the Hall of Mirrors. She is disrespectful to Belikon but he lets it slide as she is new and he considers her a guest for now. Belikon tells her that the queen has put an end to her home and all that reside in it, hoping that she will give up her notions of wanting to go back to Zilvaren. He tells Saeris that she owes the Fae of Yvelia a debt of gratitude and that her task will repay her debt. Belikon charges her with awakening the quicksilver and reopening the pathways between this world and others. 

Belikon orders to bring in the dog. They drag up a male, thrashing like a rabid animal, up to the dais and Saeris recognizes him as the one who brought her through the pool of quicksilver. Belikon baits the crowd into wanting to kill Kingfisher for his acts at Gillethrye, painting him as a monster. Everlayne begs Malwae to stop Belikon, she decides to stand up and tell Belikon that the sword calls to her with a prophecy, indicating the sword still retains some power. She grabs Belikons wrist and exclaims “The gods must be obeyed, lest House De Barra fall!” and tells him that Kingfisher shall not die by his hand. Belikon decides that he will not risk the wrath of the gods and will not kill Kingfisher today. A man screams from the crowd to send him back to the front and to make him finish what he started. General Renfis emerges from the crowd, telling Belikon that he has come to collect Kingfisher and bring him back to the Cahlish to fight. Thinking that things are as dire in Cahlish as Renfis explains and hoping that Kingfisher will die regardless in a couple days, he agrees to let him go back to the war front as punishment. Since Kingfisher knows so much about the quicksilver, Belikon orders him to stay a week in the Winter Palace to help Rusarius and Saeris, once she’s able to wake the pool of quicksilver by herself, he will banish Kingfisher from the court. Renfis puts the silver chain around Kingfisher’s neck and takes him out of the Grand Hall, Everlayne and Saeris follow. 

Everlayne berates Renfis for not getting Kingfisher out of the Winter Palace before her father found him. Saeris realizes that Kingfisher is the most beautiful male she’s ever laid eyes on before. Everlayne then begins to chastise Kingfisher for going through the quicksilver again without his chain on. She escorts Saeris back to her room and tells her that even in times of peace, the Fae are always at war and to always watch your back around them.

Chapter 8: Alchemist

Saeris realizes that in Yvelia, there is day and night, unlike Zilvaren where it is always daytime, and that Yvelia has only one sun. On their way to the library, Saeris notices it’s snowing outside, something she has never seen before, along with so many full trees. Saeris reflects back on a time when her mother worked in a library in an underground warren of tunnels and hollowed-out caves. It had a tiny number of books, half eaten by mold. Her mother’s position as a clerk allowed her to come and go as she pleased. When Elroy accepted her as his apprentice, she combed through the library’s information on metalwork. We meet Rusarius, the librarian, who is fascinated with Saeris being a human in Yvelia. He realizes Saeris is an Alchemist and is baffled to hear that she was holding Solace. They realize that Saeris must have at least a drop of Fae blood since she is an Alchemist and only Alchemists were Fae, and enough to stop Solace from burning her hands off. Kingfisher comes out and has some witty banter and lots of sexual innuendos with Saeris. Saeris is adamant that she doesn’t care about learning about the Fae customs. Kingfisher tells Saeris that Madra used Solace to seal the pathways a long time ago, Saeris tells him Madra’s army is probably around one or two thousand. With Belikon’s arm being at least thirty thousand, he guesses that Madra would not have eliminated all those in the Third but have conscripted them to her army instead. This gives Saeris some hope that Hayden could still be alive. Everlayne scolds Kingfisher for giving Saeris the pendant when they went through the quicksilver and he argues back that he still had the ring, but conceding that he took in more quicksilver. Kingfisher says there’s nothing to fix about him and once he teaches the human to use the quicksilver, puts Madra in the ground, then they can all move on with their lives and Saeris can go back to Zilvaren and his work will be done. This upsets Everlayne. Kingfisher asks Saeris if she has ever channeled a metal’s energy before, she realizes that she has when she spun Elroy’s dagger, and he asks her if she has experience working in a forge, which of course she does. 

Chapter 9: Righteous Purpose

The group makes their way to the palace’s forge, Renfis arguing that the door is guarded and there’s no way they will let Kingfisher in. Because everyone is Fae and much taller than normal humans, Saeris has to run to keep up with Ren and Fisher. She contemplates attempting an escape but she’s too curious about the forge, and realizing she has no idea where the quicksilver pool is or how to activate it. As they pass the statues of the gods, Everlayne bows, Ren grumbles and gives a cursory nod, and Kingfisher flips each one off. Everlayne argues that they need to consult the books before jumping into the forge but Ren agrees with Kingfisher because there are no written accounts of the Alchemist’s processes, along with no existing elders to consult. Kingfisher decides to rudely give Saeris a cliff notes version about the history of Yvelia. He nicknames her Oshellith, telling her she is the only living human in all of Yvelia and that she is not safe there, their ancestors were cursed a millennia ago, resulting in their elongated canines that were used to drink human’s blood. They drained millions of humans before the blood curse was lifted but the canines still remain. Kingfisher’s crass retelling of history heavily upsets Everlayne. We find out the Kingfisher and Everlayne are siblings and because she is upset, she runs away. Ren agrees with Everlayne that Kingfisher is being an asshole but he doesn’t care, saying that being cut off from civilization and summarily forgotten has a way of changing someone after a while. Renfis argues that they never forgot about him and he has no idea what they went through trying to get him back. She asks him what Oshellith means and he says it is a type of butterfly that hatches, lives, and dies all in one day. Ren goes after Everlayne and Saeris decides to go with Kingfisher to the forge.

Kingfisher kicks the door down to the forge, revealing a severely abandoned forge. The King’s royal archivist, Clements, has been receiving a royal stipend for the past two hundred years or so and was charged with figuring out how the Alchemists used to activate the quicksilver. Fisher allows Saeris to ask him whatever question she wants, she asks him about his pendant and why he is completely unhinged without it. He tells her that the quicksilver pools are pathways that connect different realms, that the quicksilver itself is volatile, and that some elders believe it possesses a low level of sentience. Saeris discovers that Harron’s dagger contained some quicksilver and that is why she was able to control it and why it made him go mad when it came in contact with his skin. The Alchemists used to forge quicksilver into weaponry for Fae warriors. Fisher tells her that his mother gave him the pendant, relic, when he was eleven, the night before they left for the Winter Palace. Later, when he became of age, he joined Belikon’s army and was called upon to travel between Yvelia and other realms because his pendant was one of the most powerful. One time, he was forced to travel through the quicksilver without and took him. A healer was able to get most of it out of him but not all of it. Wearing the pendant is the only thing that calms the noise in his head, without it, the line between what’s real and not blurs very quickly. He gave the pendant to Saeris when they went through the quicksilver because otherwise she would’ve died. Fisher tells Saeris that the only reason he saved her was because he could use her as a bargaining chip for his freedom. After spending hours manually cleaning the forge, Renfis showed up and was shocked that they hadn’t even started cleaning. Kingfisher decides to use his magic to clean the entire forge in seconds, pissing Saeris off.

Chapter 10: Crumbs

Saeris apologizes to Everlayne for not following her the day before. She lets Saeris know that her and Rusarius collected all the information they do have relating to the Alchemists and their processes. When they arrive at the library, Rusarius is yelling at Kingfisher for eating in the library. Fisher leaves them and tells Saeris he will be waiting for her in the forge. Renfis defends Kingfisher, saying he deserves some grace since he has no rooms there, nowhere to eat, nowhere to sleep, no provisions, and having been gone and alone for the past hundred and ten years. 

Alchemy was a form of magic, forgotten, long dead, old magic that essentially is a myth to the Fae. There were three branches of Alchemists, Fae who sought to discover the path to immortality, Fae who sought to create and invent by transmuting various metals and ores, and Fae who sought to cure illness and disease. Everlayne and Rusarius believe Saeris is like the Alchemists who transmuted metals. Thousands of years ago, the Alchemists used their magical gifts to alter the state of compounds and transform them into precious metals, but there are no records on how. 

Everlayne tells her that they are not sure how Madra has maintained her immortality but that it must be some form of magic. They are also not sure how she discovered the quicksilver could be stilled with an Alchimeran sword. Everlayne tells Saeris that is one thousand four hundred and eighty-six years old. She asks how old Kingfisher is and she says he is one thousand seven hundred and thirty years old, to which he corrects that he is one thousand seven hundred and thirty-three years old.

Kingfisher takes Saeris to the forge and tells her that if she is curious about him, to ask him not anyone else. He tells her that if she asked him something worthy of a reply, that his answer will always be the truth. She decides to test that theory by asking him how big his cock is. He responds with “It’s big enough to make you scream and then some.” She accuses him of lying and tries with another question. She asks him if what Belikon accused him of, razing an entire city to the ground, was the truth. He says yes, because he didn’t have a choice. Then proceeds to call her weak because she’s human. Saeris asks him where he was banished to after destroying the city, he says hell. He has her hold out her hand and he puts something in her hand and closes his over hers. Whatever it is, is so cold that it burns her hand, he tells her to listen to it. Eventually, she hears a million voices chanting “Annorath mor!” secretly scaring Kingfisher. He opens her palm revealing a tiny ball of quicksilver in the liquid state. She’s safe to touch it so long as he is touching her because of his pendant. Kingfisher then tells her to make the quicksilver still. She tells it to sleep, it responds that it does not want to sleep because it has slept for so long. She orders it to sleep more firmly and it obeys. Kingfisher is happily surprised she was successful and she punched him in the mouth. 

Chapter 11: Swallow

Everlayne scolds Saeris for punching Kingfisher and she tells him he deserved it. Layne tells her how her mother was married to a Southern lord before she married King Belikon. Her mother had Kingfisher with her first husband (Finran), when Kingfisher was ten, the king sent his father on a mission to Zilvaren. He never returned and that was when the gateways were closed. The king accused Finran of being responsible for stilling the quicksilver and declared him a traitor to the Fae. Less than a year later, Belikon announced his engagement to their mother, without her having ever even met the king before. He told her the only way for her to prove that she wasn’t a traitor to the crown was to marry him. Finran had been very wealthy and Belikon needed money to pay for the conflict breaking out with Sanasroth. Belikon ordered their mother to report to the Winter Palace and bring all of her assets and money with her. When she arrived with Kingfisher, Belikon was furious. He wanted a son of his own and he didn’t want Kingfisher as his heir by marriage. It took a long time for her mother to fall pregnant with her, blaming Fisher for ‘using her mother up.’ He blamed Fisher for her not being strong enough to produce another male heir. Their mother passed away shortly after she was born. Layne blames herself for her mothers death. Layne leaves to get breakfast for the two of them and Kingfisher enters her room with breakfast instead, hungover. Fisher flashes his canines which gets Saeris feeling some feels and he lets her know that the Fae have an excellent sense of smell, embarrassing Saeris. Saeris starts choking on a piece of cheese and Layne comes back in asking why it smells like a brothel. Fisher leaves, telling Saeris to be ready to practice more of what they did yesterday.

Saeris complains about the cold temperature in the library. She tells Layne that she wants to learn more about the quicksilver today instead of covering Sanasroth and the courts. He argues that knowledge of the courts will be vital when she starts to travel outside of Yvelia. Rusarius agrees with Saeris, thinking that if they can show she is capable of activating the quicksilver it will help Kingfisher from possible punishment. Saeris questions if there’s any documentation about how the Alchemists used the pathways to travel from one place to another specifically, making sure they ended up where they wanted to be. Rusarius says there are no books on that because it was common knowledge, they just fixed their intentions on the place and focused very hard. If they wanted to explore somewhere new, they would think of the kind of place they wanted to go. In some instances, an Alchemist would think of a kind of place they wanted to go, step into a pool, and never be seen again. Saeris asks about the pool at the Winter Palace, Rusarius says it’s the largest pool ever documented. Belikon had it crafted so that it could transport whole armies if needed. It’s located deep in the bowels of the palace, nearly every tunnel down there will lead to the pool. Saeris continues contemplating her plan while noting information about the Sanasrothian pool, located at the center of the court’s council halls. The Gilarian, Fae in the mountains to the east, kept their pool in a hall perched upon the highest peak of their domain. The pool belonging to the Líssians, seafaring Fae who lived upon a southern island, was located deep in a sea cave and was almost as large as the Yvelian pool. The Líssians consider their pool as their most sacred place of worship.

Chapter 12: Fox

Saeris enters the forge to Kingfisher working, eye-fucking his hot, sweaty body. She demands that he uses her real name instead of calling her human or Osha, he says there’s no point in learning it because she is temporary. Kingfisher shows her what he was melting in his crucible, a Fae bone. He tells her that he wants her to wake the quicksilver so she can try and bind it to things to make more relics. Saeris gets scared by a fox huddling in the corner, Kingfisher tries to kill it but she stops him. As she’s defending it, the fox bites her forearm. He refuses to help her get the fox to let her go, but finally the fox does and then hides under the skirts of her dress. She decides she wants to help the fox and Kingfisher magics a large wicker cage with a water bowl, a small pile of chicken bones, and the fox onto the far end of the workbench. Kingfisher also magics her into a different outfit, one with skin tight pants, a shirt, and a knife strapped to her thigh. He then takes his sweat covered shirt off and Saeris oggles his swirling black ink tattoos that cover his body.

They are unsuccessful at trying to bind the quicksilver to the Fae bone to make a relic. The quicksilver mocked her for trying. Saeris tries to get Kingfisher to take off his pendant so she can inspect it closer. Claiming she wants to see if she can detect if there was another element bonded with it but she really wants to steal it so she can escape safely through the quicksilver to go home. He responds, “If you want it, come here and touch it.” He tells her he cannot take it off or else he will lose his mind, even for a couple of minutes. She decides she will touch it while he’s wearing it. Lots of sexual tension when she approaches, Kingfisher tells her about the different ways the Fae are anatomically different from humans. They have similar internal organs, with a few that humans do not have. Their eyesight is far superior, along with their sense of smell, taste, and hearing. He tells her that her heart beat betrays her and that the Fae hearts rarely betray them, since they’re calm creatures. Kingfisher admits to wanting to fuck her but she still adamantly denies her desires. He tells her that she can go ahead and kiss him and he promises that he will just sit there and not move a muscle. She kisses him, it’s world shattering. Once they’re done, she asks him to leave but he says he has to walk her back to her rooms. She tells him to send Ren to walk with her and she promises to wait there.

Chapter 13: Duress

Saeris sneaks out of the forge with an escape pack and the fox. She uses the quicksilver whispering to her in order to make her way through the tunnels to find the pool. Eventually, she reaches the pool and lets the fox out of her bag because it’s scared and runs away. Saeris is able to activate the pool of quicksilver and is about to step in when Kingfisher shadows in front of her and stops her. We find out that Saeris stole Kingfisher’s ring while she kissed him in the forge, thinking the ring was a relic and would keep her safe from the quicksilver. Kingfisher lets her know that it is nothing more than symbolic and she would have died if she went through the quicksilver. They end up making a blood bond, Kingfisher will go through the quicksilver and try his best to bring back Hayden in exchange for Saeris to assist him in any way he asks her to and to do as she is told. Kingfisher plans to use Saeris’ scent in order to try to find Hayden. While he is in Zilvaren, the fox comes back and sits with Saeris waiting. She decides to name the fox Onyx. Kingfisher returns in not great shape because he had to go through the quicksilver with no relic and Saeris is able to close the gate. She goes to check on Hayden but realizes that Kingfisher brought back Carrion Swift instead.

Chapter 14: The Fine Print

Kingfisher claims that he tracked her bloodline and it led him right to Carrion, and Carrion said he was Hayden Fane so he grabbed him and brought him back. Saeris tries to break their deal but Kingfisher does not let her, saying he did exactly as their pact said, he would try his best to bring Hayden back. Kingfisher tells her that they are leaving.

Kingfisher goes to see a healer, leaves Ren a note, and then they head to the stables to get on some horses. Saeris is pissed at Kingfisher because she feels like he tricked her into the pact. Kingfisher argues that it’s on her for not paying attention to the details.

Before they mount their horses, it begins to snow and Saeris is mesmerized by the fact that water just falls from the sky, thinking about how unfair it is for her people back in Zilvaren. She also sees stars for the first time, since the twin suns in Zilvaren never set. Eventually, they mount their horses and head out. Saeris rides Aida, with Onyx in her pack and Kingfisher has Carrion slumped over his horse with him.

Chapter 15: Sarrush

As they travel through the pitch-black forest, they hear haunting wails. Kingfisher tells her they’re shades, which are echoes, remains of a creature after it dies in distress. He promises that they can’t touch her and that they’re just reliving their last moments, hence the screaming. Saeris complains that she can’t see anything because it’s so dark and Kingfisher didn’t realize because he can see just fine. As they trot along, Kingfisher lets her know that at no point in her plan did he not know what she was doing because she was so obvious about it all. Saeris finds out that Kingfisher’s horse’s name is Bill, something she thinks is ridiculous.

They arrive at a stable, the stablehand tries to buy Onyx from Saeris, Kingfisher tells him he isn’t for sale. Then he tries to buy Carrion, but Saeris doesn’t let him. Kingfisher makes sure the stablehand knows to make sure that Carrion remains safe while he’s still knocked out. They enter a tavern that’s filled with various looking Fae. Kingfisher gets them some drinks and they sit down at a table to wait for Ren. He lets Saeris know that he is taking her to a small fiefdom at the edge of Yvelian territory, called Cahlish. She asks him if that’s a wise decision to go somewhere the King was planning to send him anyway. Kingfisher tells her Cahlish belonged to his father before and that he had taken precautions and warded the lands so neither Belikon nor any of his supporters could cross into Cahlish. As long as Kingfisher lives, Belikon cannot enter Cahlish. Saeris is cautious because she heard that Cahlish is a war zone and is worried if she’s going to be safe.

After three beers and some food, Ren showed up at the tavern. When Ren saw Kingfisher, he broke out into a smile so full of relief that it made Saeris’ chest ache.

Ren tells Kingfisher that Layne is pissed at him for leaving. He tells Kingfisher that he’s in deep shit because he not only took Belikon’s Alchemist but he also took the sword. Kingfisher argues that the last time Belikon had the sword he used it to murder the true king and the whole Daianthus line. Ren says that all the god swords are dead and that Belikon could do the same amount of damage with any sword so he doesn’t see the harm in just letting him add it to his collection. Kingfisher argues that it’s still a holy relic and that Belikon is not worthy to look upon it let alone wield it, similar to Nimerelle. Ren accuses Nimerelle of being corrupted. Kingfisher starts yelling that Nimerelle is the only thing that has stood between Yvelia and ever-lasting darkness for the past four hundred years. This causes the other Fae in the tavern to notice their group and start whispering that it’s Renfis Orithian, Renfis Blood Sworn, Renfis of the Silver Lake and Kingfisher’s name. Realizing they’ve been noticed, Ren and Kingfisher decide it’s time to leave. When they reach the doorway, a man stops them and drops to one knee at Kingfisher’s feet, begging for a blessing. One by one people in the tavern start telling heroic stories of Kingfisher in past battles and how he has saved countless lives and villages. These stories irritate Kingfisher because he feels like he is not worthy of their praise. Saeris is shocked at how everyone in the tavern sees Kingfisher as a living god.

Chapter 16: Shadow Gate

They’re greeted by a shadow gate outside in the clearing. Kingfisher is standing by it with Bill, Aida, and Ren’s horse, with Carrion slumped over Bill, and missing a boot. After Saeris refuses to go through the gate because she’s scared, Kingfisher threatens to order her through and Ren finds out that they made a blood oath. Kingfisher ends up using the oath to force her through the gate, she tells him she will hate him for forever for taking her will away.

Saeris makes it through the gate, extremely sick from the journey and Ren has to help her. She tells Ren that Kingfisher is a bastard and Ren tries his best to be understanding but also defend his brother, saying that he used to be kinder but the quicksilver has made it difficult on him. She asks Ren where Kingfisher was for the hundred and ten years that he was missing. Ren doesn’t believe it’s fair to tell her because it’s not his story to tell.

Saeris awakes in a bed to Carrion facing off with Onyx. She asks him why he told Kingfisher that he was Hayden. Carrion thinks Saeris should be thanking him since Kingfisher looked like he planned on murdering Hayden and that he was doing Hayden a favor. He lets Saeris know that Hayden is still alive and that he got him papers and shifted him to Seventh where he is now employed as a store clerk. He now has triple the water rations and room above the shop. Hayden has been brainstorming ways to break Saeris out of the palace. Carrion lets her know that Madra is not looking for Hayden because she’s too busy preparing for the Evenlight that’s in  a month. He tells her that Elroy has been a pain in the ass lately, he goes up to the gates every day and demands to see Saeris, comes back to the forge and works. Hayden has a guilty conscience about the situation. While she was passed out, healers came into their room and healed Saeris’ bite from Onyx and the little welt from the faerie back at the tavern. Kingfisher shows up, takes Saeris, and lets Carrion know he is free to come and go as he wishes.

Chapter 17: Cahlish

Saeris is shocked to find out that Cahlish is a whole palace and not war torn like she was expecting. She finds out that the palace is where Kingfisher grew up before Belikon ordered him and his mother to the Winter Palace. They run into Archer, a fire sprite, who is ecstatic to see that Kingfisher is back.

They arrive at the forge, it’s huge and has everything Saeris would require to make relics. She notices the mountains, Omnamerrin. Saeris realizes that their location and the way they walked doesn’t add up and Kingfisher explains that the palace is magiced. She’s mad at Kingfisher for making them ride horseback when he could’ve just opened a shadow gate at the Winter Palace to get to Cahlish. Kingfisher explains that opening a shadow gate requires a lot of magic and Belikon would’ve sensed it and shown up. Kingfisher pulls out a trunk of eighteen hundred silver rings, with eight more trunks in the corner. Each one is from one of his soldiers, representing something important to each owner. He wants Saeris to forge each one into a relic. Since they have a deal that Kingfisher will release her and Carrion to return to Zilvaren the moment she has made enough relics for his people, she realizes she has to make fifteen thousand relics which could take months.

Chapter 18: Crucible

Kingfisher had stacks and stacks of books written by the Alchemists but most were written in Old Fae, which Saeris didn’t understand. She decides to give up on the books and focus on trying to make the relics instead. Melting down some scrap metal she found, she realized she’s able to distinguish between the different types of metals based on the vibrations it gave off. Saeris experimented with adding a variety of different ingredients to the melted silver, then realized she didn’t have any quicksilver. After realizing it was probably hidden, she focused on trying to listen to it and was able to have the quicksilver guide her to where it was hiding. She easily had the quicksilver transform from solid to liquid and combined it with the melted silver, and nothing happened. After three other attempts and failing, she decided to leave the forge. She runs into Ren in the hallway and he tells her that there was a little squamish on the front line where they took down thirty or so of the enemy. Unsure if she should be happy about so many people being killed, Ren reassures her that if they hadn’t then a couple hundred innocent lives would’ve been at stake. He also tells Saeris that he gave Kingfisher hell for making an oath with her. Shocked by this, he also tells her that Fisher can be single-minded sometimes, only thinking in black and white. A part of him that has worsened since he’s been away, blurring the lines. Fisher only sees Saeris as a tool he feels he has to use in order to make life better for them all. Ren told Fisher that he has to have dinner with Saeris to get to know her, in hopes that he will be able to see her as a person instead of a tool. Saeris agrees to the dinner, only if there will be alcohol.

She arrives at dinner, Fisher sitting at one end of an extremely long dining table and her at the other. The table is filled with a mountain of food and massive floral centerpieces, so full she couldn’t even see Fisher on the other end. Using magic, Fisher is able to project his voice so that it sounds like he is sitting right next to her. They talk about how her trials are going and she says she needs more silver to test with. Fisher says resources are tight and so more silver is not possible. Saeris finds it hard to believe since the whole palace is adorned in finery, how could resources be tight? Fisher explains that gold is not the same currency as silver. She asks for wine and Fisher says if she wants some she has to come fill her own cup. Out of spite, she gets up and sits down in the seat to his right, with her plate and silverware. Fisher informs her that they cannot buy more silver because Belikon has an embargo on it. Any silver within the Yvelian borders must be given to the crown. Before the gates were closed, they were able to trade with other realms that had an abundance of silver. Saeris argues that if the war is so important to Belikon to win that he would surely provide more silver to Fisher. He tells her that Belikon doesn’t really give a shit about the war. The fire sprites come out to serve dessert and see where Saeris is sitting and all have a meltdown over it. Fisher finds their overreaction entertaining and assures them all that everything is just fine. He informs her that she will be eating dinner there together from now on. Saeris tries to convince Fisher to let Carrion go back to Zilvaren because he has family there he needs to take care of. Being jealous of Carrion, Fisher says he’s surprised that Saeris wants him to leave, since the way he was able to track him down was because he could smell her all over him. An explosion happens and the windows to the dining room are blown away, four feeders, Sanasrothian foot soldiers, come through the windows. Fisher is able to kill all four but two of them claw Saeris, poisoning her. He picks her up and rushes her to the healers.

Chapter 19: Bones and All

Saeris awakes in Fisher’s bed, where she learns that she has been completely healed by his healers. She is pissed about being attacked. Fisher is impressed that she was able to land two hits on them as a human. He orders Saeris to be confined to his bed until she is completely healed, only allowed to get up if she has to relieve herself. Fisher tells her he’s going to Innir, the war camp on the other side of the mountains, for a week. Once she realizes that she literally cannot get up from his bed because of the oath, she is pissed.

After five days, Carrion brings her breakfast instead of one of the fire sprites. He tries to goad her into having sex on Fisher’s bed so she can get revenge, she does not fall for it. Carrion tells her he was able to get a pair of boots from Fisher when he said all he had to do was take a bath.

After attempting more silver combinations and failing, the quicksilver laughed at her. Ren comes to visit her in the forge, covered in blood. He came to tell her that Fisher is requesting her presence for dinner that night. She decides to force Ren to attend dinner with her. Saeris decides to ask Ren about how Nimerelle still has magic. He says that no one is really sure, when the god swords went silent and abandoned the rest of the Fae who carried them, Nimerelle stayed. But at a cost, the blade used to shine brilliant silver but as the centuries have passed, it has blackened and tarnished. But the spirit of the sword or the magic inside of it has stayed.

She also drags Carrion to dinner as well. Fisher is not pleased that Saeris has invited Carrion and Ren to their dinner. She decides to go sit by Fisher’s right again, across from Ren. Ren spits his wine out and Carrion offers to take that seat instead, Fisher responds “try it and die.” Ren invites Carrion to train at the garrison tomorrow while they’re running drills. Saeris tells Fisher that she has gotten nowhere with the relics. She also decides she’s going to join the training tomorrow with Carrion. Saeris starts a fight with Fisher over compelling her but he doesn’t see why she’s so mad about it. He argues that each time it was for her own good. Then, Fisher tells her that they’re returning to the war camp in the morning, all four of them.

Chapter 20: Ammontraíeth

They arrive at the war camp on the other side of the Omnamerrin Mountains and that sits between Cahlish and the Sanasrothian border. On the other side of the river, Ammontraíeth, the land was a blackened, charred wasteland. Holgoth appears and lets them know that their lodgings are ready and that some of his warriors are currently meeting in the map tent, arguing. Fisher tells him that Ren will go talk to him, much to Holgoth and Ren’s displeasure.

As Ren and Carrion spar, Ren tells them about the river, it starts as a small pool and as it travels down through the mountains, it gains momentum and gathers more water to it. Ren continuously bests Carrion and each time Saeris laughs at Carrion’s failure. Continuing, Ren tells them that in Loyanbal, at the center of the plains, the temperature drops and the Darn becomes a band of solid silver. In the early season, the ice is over eight inches thick, solid and safe enough to support a rider and a horse to cross. In the dead of winter, the Darn becomes the only means of travel between the mountains and the sea. Since the passes fill and are blocked with snow, the traders, pilgrims, and pirates all tread the Darn in order to make a living. Ren then spars with Saeris and also kicks her ass. As she’s about to try to disarm Ren, Kingfisher shows up and distracts her.

Kingfisher takes Saeris through the camp and the Fae warriors all whisper about how there’s a human. He takes her to his quarters and she notices that there are books everywhere. Jokingly asking him if he’s doing some research, he says he’s researching something very important to him. They sit down and eat and Kingfisher tells her he was watching her fight and even compliments her fighting. She picks a fight with him over him trying to control her, asking if humans were just slaves in Yvelia. He says they have never been slaves there, when they had the blood curse, humans were dinner, but never slaves. Fisher tells her that he wants her to obey him because he is the reason she is in Yvelia, making him responsible for her and that he needs her to work on the relics to stop the stalemate they’re at with Sanasroth. Saeris exclaims that she wants to help and that she would gladly help defend Yvelia from the corrupted, bloodthirsty monsters, and then he pounces on her. They have a passionate makeout and heavy petting session, she admits to him that she wants him but then he rips himself off her. She feels his heart racing and then he leaves.

In a panic, she races out of Fisher’s tent and eventually runs into Ren. He takes her to the war tent and Carrion is there, sprawled out on a chair. Ren tells her to go sit with Carrion as close to the fire as she can bear to help burn off the scent of her and Fisher. She starts to share a quiche with Carrion, passing it back and forth between bites. He tells her what he’s been observing since being in the tent. He says that Danya has been baying for blood and that she punched Lorreth, guessing that the issue is because of Fisher. Carrion notices that her neck is bleeding and she passes it off as just a scratch. Fisher shows up in the war tent, Danya confronts him and demands he tell them where he was for the past century and why he’s back now. She’s pissed at him because he’s been back and forth at the camps but hasn’t said anything to any of the warriors. Danya is pissed because as far as she knows she was at the battlements at Gillethrye, watching the entire city of Yvelian families burn while Malcolm’s vampires sacked the city and suddenly Fisher was gone. Since Fisher is not giving her any answers, she draws her sword on Fisher’s throat. Fisher is about to let her slice his throat but Saeris intervenes, splintering her sword into a thousand shards and shooting them through the air, hitting the wall so hard that they drove an inch into the stone. Everyone is beyond shocked. People outside the tent start screaming “ICE BREAKERS!” and all the warriors sprint for the exit. Lorreth orders Carrion and Saeris to stay in the tent, telling them Sanasroth’s army is at the riverbank and they must break the ice so the dead cannot cross.

Chapter 21: Ice Beaker

Carrion and Saeris decide to go to the Darn and see what’s happening and try to help break the ice. They find out that the better part of the Sanasrothian horde, fifty thousand strong, are on the other side of the Darn. Carrion and Saeris swing sledgehammers at the ice trying their best to help. The ice breakers are able to shatter the ice and Fisher unleashes a carpet of black smoke, engulfing the vampires and plunging them into the freezing water, seeming to have paused their progress. Malcolm appears on the other side of the Darn, goading Fisher to come out and show himself. He says that he misses Fisher, attempting to sow distrust into the Yvelian warriors. Fisher doesn’t show himself and Malcolm and his horde leave.

Chapter 22: The Itch

Fisher comes to grab Saeris and portals them back to Fisher’s bedroom. He tries to distract her by talking about dresses, but she doesn’t fall for it. Then scolds her for sharing food with Carrion, telling her to never do it again. Clearly, jealous. They fight about what happened back in the war tent, Saeris semi admitting that she was afraid Fisher was going to die. She also begins to freak out about what just happened at the Darn but Fisher tells her it’s a common cycle they go through. Fisher tells her that Malcolm is a high Fae vampire, the very first vampire. When they were cursed thousands of years ago, the Fae turned into something similar to Malcolm and when the cure was found, his great-grandfather and most other Yvelian Fae took it. But, there were some who liked the power and the promise of immortality and refused to take the cure. Malcolm is the strongest of them, therefore he is the king. He is the only one strong enough to fully turn someone and ensure they remain themselves. When his princes bite and turn someone, their victims die and return soulless, mindless, hungry shells who obey their masters and feed. The vast majority of Malcolm’s army were once human. Saeris realizes that Fisher is bound so he is unable to tell anyone where he was for the past one hundred years. After some bantering, Saeris tells Fisher to fuck her, and he does, hard. Then, he immediately gets dressed, tells her to stay there tonight, and that he will come back for her in the morning.

Chapter 23: Ticking Clock

Saeris awakes and is ready when the shadow gate appears, expecting Fisher to come through, she realizes that he isn’t and expects her to head through on her own. She confronts Fisher about a tattoo that has appeared on her body, a bird inked right above her boob. Saeris demands Fisher take it back but he says it doesn’t work like that. Fisher is trying to take her to the camp healer so she can take some pregnancy precautions. She tells him it’s pointless because she was sterilized when she was fourteen and that they do it to seventy percent of the girls in her ward. Madra’s health advisors decided that they shouldn’t be allowed to procreate, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to support themselves. For over a hundred years, seven out of every ten female babies are tagged and registered with the ward officials. Fisher storms away pissed as hell.

After thirty minutes of searching, Saeris is finally able to find the camp forge, located halfway up the small hillside behind the war camp. The fire was already going in the hearth and all her equipment from Cahlish was present. Kingfisher had again hidden the quicksilver and she had to go searching for it. He had hidden it outside the forge, farther up the mountain. When she reached the spot, Carrion was there waiting for her. He’s there reading and tells her that the Yvelian Fae are the youngest of the Fae houses by a thousand years. There was a dispute between two brothers and they splintered off to make their own court. She questions Carrion on why he so readily accepted that Fae exists. He says that he already knew about the Fae, his grandmother, Gracia, taught him about them from a book Fae Creatures of the Gilarian Mountains. She took teaching him about the Fae very seriously, he wasn’t allowed to have dessert until he recited at least seven traits of the Gryphon sprite or explained in great detail how to kill a blooded Fae Warrior wearing full plate and armor. Carrion tells her that Fisher sent him up there with a small wooden box to wait for Saeris. She invites Carrion to join her in the forge.

Three more failed experiments. As Carrion and Saeris are breaking for lunch, Fisher shows up. She asks Fisher why he insists on hiding the quicksilver and making her find it since it wastes so much of her time. He says it’s to make the day a little more interesting for her, to improve her skills at finding the quicksilver because there might come a time where she might need to detect small amounts over great distances. Carrion calls Saeris sunshine and Fisher bites back to not call her that, “Because she is moonlight. The mist that shrouds the mountains. The bite of electricity in the air before a storm. The smoke that rolls across a battlefield before the killing starts. You have no idea what she is. What she could be. You should call her Majesty.”

Chapter 24: Lupo Proelia

In the war tent, Ren tells Saeris that there are five hundred and sixty three shards buried into the stone from Danya’s sword. Their metal workers tried to pull them out with forceps but they were so fine they couldn’t grip them properly. Ren asks Saeris and Lorreth if they have any suggestions on how to get the shards from the stone. Saeris suggests they shear off all the pieces and sand the ends flush with the stone. Ren says it’s not that simple because Danyas sword was once like Nimerelle, imbued with old potent magic, a precious Fae heirloom. A godsword forged by the ancient Alchimeran masters that are religious icons to the Fae. It was used to represent Danya’s rank and marked her as an original member of the Lupo Proelia, Kingfisher’s wolves. The Lupo Proelia are a team, working together, just like wolves do. They’re indicated by the wolf on some of their armor. Although Danya’s sword was dormant, it was still very important to her and their people as a whole, discarding the shards would be sacrilege. Saeris realizes that the sword contained trace amounts of quicksilver, which is how she was able to splinter it. Realizing that back in Zilvaren, the iron, copper, or gold wasn’t what was reacting to her, it was the quicksilver mixed in. Fisher tells her that quicksilver was bound to many different alloys and metals before, when there were plenty of Alchemists and the pathways were still open between worlds. It helped make weapons more powerful, turning them into conduits that could channel vast quantities of magic. Saeris realized that’s why metal was so hard to find in Zilvaren, because Madra took it all, wanting to keep the quicksilver away from the people, knowing there might be people like her within the city capable of controlling it. Ren tells her that their records show that most Alchemists could only command objects if the item consisted of at least five percent quicksilver. Even then, it was typical that they could only transmute the quicksilver from solid to liquid so it could be forged. They had no records of objects being fragmented like what she did to Danya’s sword. Lorreth says that it makes her the most powerful Alchemist ever recorded. Ren then says they have one year left of this war, if they’re not successful, Malcolm will have won.

Hearing that they only have a year until they lose the war sends Saeris into a spiral of panic. As she’s been waiting for Fisher to come out of the tent, Lorreth tells her that Fisher went back to Cahlish to see Te Léna. This makes Saeris a little jealous.

Lorreth takes Saeris to the camp’s tavern, as they’re drinking, Saeris claims that Fisher has been lying to her this whole time. Lorreth says it’s impossible for them to lie. When they turn twenty-one, they kneel before the Firinn Stone and make their decision to either bleed on the stone and make their vow to always be truthful, to always be bound by their word, no matter what the cost, or to to choose the Lawless path. A Lawless Fae may lie, cheat, or steal, at the cost of their honor. Saeris decides to change the subject and asks Lorreth about their canines. Awkwardly, he tells her that drinking blood is very scandalous, if a male drinks from someone it will make his dick harder than it’s ever been in his life and makes their partner euphoric. She changes the subject again and asks Lorreth how he ended up in the middle of a war. He says once upon a time he was a traveling singer, one night he had been attacked by two stray vampires, who nearly drained him dry. Fisher came across him lying almost dead in a ditch. He decided to help Lorreth and took him to a healer; they weren’t optimistic about his odds of surviving because of the amount of venom in him. Fisher decided to make him his brother by giving him a part of his soul. An ancient rite that Fisher’s father made sure he knew how to perform in case he ever needed to use it. Fisher bonded a small part of himself to the scrap of life that was clinging onto Lorreth. He gave Lorreth the choice to leave and live his life if that was what he wanted to do or choose to join his Lupo Proelia. Lorreth tells Saeris that if he dies first the piece of Fisher’s soul returns to him and he becomes whole again. If Fisher dies first, he’s condemned to wait here until he dies before he can move on. He would be trapped in a non-corporeal state, unable to touch anything or anyone, unable to be heard. Lorreth tells her of a story about Saoirse, Queen of the Lissian Fae whose mother saved her life as a child. A hundred and eighty years later, her mother is murdered and Saoirse rises to power. Since she enjoys being queen, she surrounds herself with infatuated males who are willing to die and keep her safe and she plans to live forever. Nearly three thousand years have passed since her mother has died and she has no plans of dying anytime soon. Fisher has told Lorreth that he isn’t worried about what happens to him if he dies first but Lorreth says regardless, he plans on dying first. If Fisher were to die before him, he would quickly and happily follow him into death.

Chapter 25: Ballard

After Fisher found Saeris and Lorreth drunk in the tavern, he brought her to Cahlish. Saeris spends the next day hungover and exploring the palace at Cahlish. The next morning, Fisher still does not show up. He finally shows up in the afternoon and she notices that he has shadows underneath his eyes and clearly hasn’t been sleeping well. He tells her he’s going to see Te Léna for a couple of hours and that he will be back for her later. They won’t be staying the night at the camp because he has something he wants to show her.

Fisher finally shows up again, carrying a small canvas bag with stuff for Saeris. They use the shadow gate to go to Ballard. A place Fisher says he’s been to once or twice when he was little. It’s a small village and the night is one of their feast days celebrating the longest night of the year. Saeris asks why they’re there and Fisher says they have something they need, once they have it, they’ll leave them in peace. The Fae of ballard are a mixture of High Fae and Lesser Fae creatures, pixies, dryads, brownies, satyrs, and nymphs. Ballard was full of life, happiness, and community. Saeris asks how the Fae age, Fisher tells her that a child is vulnerable, weaker than an adult, too liable to be picked off by predators. Fae children age twice as fast as human children, they’re fully grown by twenty-one or twenty-two, when the aging process slows down dramatically. Saeris notes a gaggle of young girls ogling Fisher and jokingly tells him they must be wondering if the Lord of Cahlish is looking for a Lady of Cahlish. Fisher does not respond well to her calling him Lord of Cahlish, believing he does not deserve the title. They’re interrupted by Wendy, who takes them with her to feed them

As they’re eating Wendy’s plentiful food, out of nowhere Saeris starts hearing Annorath Mor! and has a moment. Everyone nearby stops and stares at Saeris in shock. She excuses it as just having a long day and Fisher escorts them away.

As Fisher is walking them to his apartment, he tells Saeris that she was chanting Annorath Mor! over and over outloud. She asks him what they mean because she can tell that the words clearly bother her but he refuses to answer and they continue walking. He brings her to a square that has a fountain in the middle; she realizes that it’s a statue of his mother, Edina of the Seven Towers, Lady of Cahlish. She realizes that his mother was an important person in Ballard, and that Fisher was too. He wasn’t as nearly a stranger to Ballard as he tried to make it seem before. They enter a house that has the furniture draped with dust sheets. Saeris realizes it’s an apartment that Fisher’s mother and him must’ve lived in before. Kingfisher tells her to take the larger bedroom and that he’ll take the smaller one.

Chapter 26: Ash and Cinders

Saeris awakes to screaming and realizes it’s coming from Fisher’s room. He insists that he’s fine but she can clearly tell that he isn’t. She gets him some water, and climbs behind him to help him drink it. She doesn’t want to leave him alone when he’s clearly in so much pain. He threatens to use the oath to order her away but she says if he does that she will never forgive him. After four hours of him writhing in pain, she guesses that it’s the quicksilver in his body causing this. In an effort to distract him, she tells him about her family. Her father died when she was two, her mother was four months pregnant with Hayden at the time. He was crushed to death or suffocated from a sand dune that came down on a trader’s outpost on the glass flats. Because they lost his income, her mother became a prostitute. Everyone in Zilvaren knew Iris Fane, either from being a customer or because the other mothers would bitch and complain about the fact that a woman with loose morals lived among them. She would sell her body for food and water mostly but also money. Her client list was mostly guardians. Most of the time she would work out of the House of Kala but sometimes would work from their home. Because she didn’t want Saeris to follow in her footsteps, she made Elroy promise to take her on in the forge as soon as she was old enough. At ten, she first stepped foot into his workshop. Her mother had already started smuggling weapons into the ward, pieces of scrap metal, things that could be turned into weapons. Elroy would make daggers and small knives that her mother would hand out to her friends at Kala to protect themselves when they took their work home. Then she upgraded to swords and shields, things that would get her killed if she was caught trading them. She used Saeris to help run items from their house to the forge every day. Some of the men showed her entrances to various tunnels that led to the underground reserves where Madra kept water reservoirs. She learned how to tap the tanks and siphon off a little here and there, how to pick locks, to climb, and to fight with daggers and throw them. Sometimes they would hide a rebel in their attic. Hayden had no idea about any of this. She learned how to fight, steal, and take care of him since their mother was never home anymore. Eventually, her mother started to get angry and refused to accept the guardians as clients anymore. One morning, she’d forgotten her water ration at home. Saeris grabbed it and ran after her, she found her on her knees, the guardian she had rejected the night before searched her bags and found two tiny knives. They slit her throat right there, five men pissing in her hair and on her back. Elroy helped her burn her the next morning in the dunes. Hayden and her lost their house and a week later Madra put the whole ward on lockdown, claiming they were stricken with a plague. Fisher and Saeris ended the night spooning and he tells her that his mother was killed also.

Chapter 27: Marked

Saeris wakes up being spooned by Fisher. Things begin to get hot and steamy and they realize they can talk mentally. She begs him to bite her and he does. They fuck, hard.

Saeris wakes up, expecting Fisher to have left her again. She gets up and finds Fisher sitting at a table by the window. She notices that her hands are covered in tons of tattoos. She asked Fisher what they mean but he says nothing much. He says one means blessed one, the others Light, Dark, Silver, Steel, Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. Since she is still freaking out about them, he makes them fade and tells her that she can change her mind later if she wants to, she’ll have a month or so to decide. If she chooses not to accept them after a month, they will be gone for good. She asks him about his tattoos, he says one means vengeance, another means justice, and another means sacrifice.

Chapter 28: Just Ask

Three more silver combinations, all no reactions. Carrion walks outside the forge to see Saeris throwing glass beakers against the mountainside. Saeris is frustrated that she hasn’t yet figured out how to make the relics and the quicksilver has begun mocking her. Carrion suggests she should try asking the quicksilver to meld with the pure silver.

They go to the war tent and Saeris can hear the quicksilver talking to her from the shards in the stone. She converses with the quicksilver and asks it to come out of the stone because the warrior who owned it is angry with her and Saeris wants to put them back together. The quicksilver replies that they are not owned and that Fae and human desires do not concern them. She asks what does, and it replies, music. She bargains with the quicksilver that if it comes out of the stone, she will give it a song for it to keep, and she will forge it into a mighty blade. She gets the quicksilver to agree that if they find the wielder honorable, they will consider allowing the old magics to flow through them again. All of the shards expel themselves from the stone and Lorreth helps them collect them all into a ceramic pot using magic.

Chapter 29: Ballad of the Ajun Gate

Saeris begins forging the sword. She goes outside and finds Carrion cooking over a fire while Lorreth is throwing a blade into a tree. Carrion challenged Lorreth to a knife throwing contest, where the loser cooks the food. Lorreth went first and has not missed after two hundred and seventeen times and Carrion is being a sore loser, claiming Lorreth has tricked him. Saeris asks Lorreth if he has any experience whittling and Lorreth says he’s excellent at it.

Saeris continues to forge Danya’s new sword. Lorreth has carved a wolf’s head to be molded for the hilt. After long hours, Saeris assembles the sword, Fisher and Lorreth are admiring her work. Lorreth asks to hold the sword and runs his finger along the edge, cutting himself. The quicksilver says it’s time for its song. They all venture outside and see the aurora in the sky, something that hasn’t been seen in well over a thousand years. As the sword lays in Lorreth’s lap, he begins to sing a song about the battle of Ajun Gate and praising Kingfisher. The quicksilver decides to accept the song as tribute, and that the sword will belong to the first to bleed upon the blade. Lorreth realizes that is him and tries to give the sword back but the quicksilver says that he does not claim them, but they claim him. Saeris says that Lorreth deserves the sword, he was the one who carved the wolf for the pommel, helped cast it, and it was his song that sealed the bargain with the quicksilver. When no one knows what song she’s talking about, she realizes that the bargain meant that the song would be known only to the quiksilver. The sword tells Lorreth to hold it with both hands and give it a name. He names it Avisiéth, the Unsung Song, Redemption’s Dawn. The sword is then imbued with angel’s breath.

Chapter 30: Swear It

They arrive back at camp, where everything is in chaos after seeing the angel’s breath. Carrion decides he’s going to stay and sleep at the forge. Fisher takes Saeris to take a bath and helps her bathe, having a sweet hand holding, intimate moment.

Saeris fell asleep in the bath and woke up to Fisher washing her hair. Fisher takes her to his bed and climbs in with her. While he’s sleeping, she decides to try to talk to the quicksilver stuck inside him. She tries to get the quicksilver to leave his body but it says it cannot leave him because it is him. The quicksilver has bonded with his body, they are one. If the quicksilver is taken out, Fisher will die. When Fisher dies, the quicksilver will return to the dirt, the sea, the sky, and transcend as it was meant to. When Fisher entered the pool as a boy, he should not have survived it but he was permitted to live so that he might fulfill his purpose so the quicksilver bound him so that he might survive. Saeris realizes that Fisher is awake and has heard the quicksilver’s side of the conversation, guessing at what she was trying to do. Ren bursts into the tent, saying the horde is at the banks again. Saeris demands that she comes and eventually Fisher agrees but only if she swears she will stay by his side or stay where he tells her too until danger passes. Fisher pulls out Solace, his father’s sword, and gives it to Saeris.

Chapter 31: The Darn

They arrive at the edge of the Darn to a line of vampires at the ice’s edge. At one point in the river, only fifty feet separate Irrín and Sanasroth but because the current is stronger through the channel, the ice is thinner and the vampires can’t pass over running water. Fisher realizes that Malcolm didn’t show up this time. The vampires across from them decide to try to make the journey across the ice. Fisher tells Saeris that he cannot use magic to attack them yet because they’re bound by the rules of war, they cannot use magic to attack or affect an enemy until that enemy has breached their border. But it doesn’t matter anyway because their magic doesn’t work on Sanasrothian soil. Fae magic requires life and light to survive and nothing on the Sanasrothian side but death, darkness, and decay. Once the vampires cross the border, Fisher can use his magic to kill them. The vampires have fallen into the river and most were taken downstream by the current. Downstream, the vampires were crawling out of the river. Fisher goes to deal with them there and leaves Ren and Saeris. Some vampires crawl out of the river where Ren and Saeris. Saeris uses Solace to fight the vampires with Ren. They’re successful in killing some vampires by decapitation, at one point time seems to slow down for Saeris and she’s able to kill a vampire coming for her that normally would’ve been too fast for her. Ren is shook by what he just witnessed her do. Fisher comes back and they continue fighting the vampires crawling out of the river. Then, a white light lashed through the air, raw, unfiltered threads of power probed across the edge of the Darn, targeting the vampires and bursting them into flames. Lorreth has used the angel’s breath from Avisiéth to completely end the invasion. While they’re celebrating their victory, they hear Everlayne scream from across the river, flanked by at least a hundred vampires.

Chapter 32: Taladaius

They realize that Everlayne has been bitten by Malcolm. Taladaius shows up next to Everlayne and tells Fisher that his father took Everlayne to replace him. Ren tells Saeris that Everlayne cannot come home after being bitten by Malcolm because she’s not enthralled to him. Taladaius tells Fisher that Everlayne is a trap to get Fisher to come to Malcolm regardless. He tells Fisher that Malcolm is waiting for him at the place where they brokered their last deal. Taladaius says Everlayne was bitten twelve hours ago and if Fisher doesn’t show then he will make sure that she goes through with the change, spending the rest of eternity being whored out to Ammontraíeth’s most depraved residents, unless Fisher gives him what he wants. Malcolm not only wants Fisher now but he wants Saeris.

Chapter 33: Blood in Thanks

Lorreth is pissed that they just let Taladaius walk away with Everlayne without even doing anything. Everyone else agrees there wasn’t anything they realistically could’ve done. Saeris asks why Malcolm’s bite is so different from other vampires. Ren informs Saeris that Malcolm was the very first to be affected by the blood curse. When Rurik Daianthus, the last Yvelian king, discovered the cure, Malcolm was one of the few who chose to remain a vampire. Eventually, the others who accepted the curse were systematically killed off until only Malcolm remained. Rumors suggest that Malcolm ingested their power somehow. He’s millenia old, undying, never aging, and every year he survives he grows in strength and capability. His venom is potent beyond imagination. When one of his lords bites a victim, they can drink and sate their thirst without killing but if they bite the same human a number of times they become enthralled, bound to the vampire who bit them. They become mindlessly devoted to their needs, feed and fuck their master without a single thought for themselves. Usually, the masters grow bored and drain them, then they die and three days later rise and become the feeders. Malcolm only needs to bite once to create a thrall, Everlayne is now completely under his control. If they managed to break her free, she would fight to stay and please her master. In less than fifty-six hours, she’s going to die. Because of the potency of Malcolm’s venom, he either permits her to drink from him and she’ll return as something like Malcolm’s Lords or if she doesn’t, she’ll die and return as a feeder. Danya storms into the war tent and confronts Lorreth about the sword. They argue and Fisher says the sword isn’t hers anymore because it chose Lorreth. That pisses her off and she lunges for Avisiéth, when she touches the grip, her hand detonates into a cloud of pink mist, completely gone. Fisher tells her to calm down and that there’s a chance the healers can regrow it. Before they all leave to head back to Cahlish, Fisher says they have to recognize what Saeris did on the edge of the Darn. Lorreth draws Avisiéth and sinks to his knees, cutting his hand and placing it against her chest, and says “my blood in thanks, sister.” Ren does the same. Fisher does the same but says “I give you my blood in thanks, Saeris Fane.”

Chapter 34: A Secret

They step through the shadow gate into the dining room of Cahlish. Saeris sits at the same spot she has been sitting, to the right of Fisher’s seat. Danya comes through and tells her she’s going to be very embarrassed when the others arrive and see where she’s sitting. Saeris gets Danya to tell her the symbolism, the seat is reserved for the lady of the house. A high honor meant for a Fae female born into one of the old houses. Ren comes through the gate next and tells Saeris that she’s perfect right where she’s sitting, shocking Danya. Fisher comes through next and tells Danya that no rules have been broken. Danya is shocked because Saeris is human and finds it disrespectful. Carrion and Lorreth come through the gate. Danya faints and Lorreth and Fisher take her to the healers.

Carrion, Onyx, and Saeris go to the forge to make more relics. She tries to get the quicksilver to bind with one of the rings but it’s not having it. As Carrion and Saeris are talking, the quicksilver decides it will bind if Saeris gives it a secret. The secret she decides to give is that she doesn’t want to go back to Zilvaren anymore, she wants to go home to get Hayden and Elroy but only to bring them back to Yvelia. The quicksilver decides to accept her secret, telling her that she must save Kingfisher, save the gates, and save Yvelia. After sealing the ring with a drop of her blood, the relic is completed. When the quicksilver goes silent after, she decides to slip the ring on and she’s mentally transported somewhere dark with a million voices chanting ANNORATH MOR! and stopping when Carrion interrupts her. Te Léna comes to the forge to check on Saeris for any cuts or scrapes that need healing. Saeris notices the runes marked on Te Léna’s fingers. She asks her about them and Te Léna tells her that it’s a Fae custom to make their skin on their fifth wedding anniversary. They tattoo the blessings they pray for onto their hands in hopes of manifesting them. Once upon a time, they used to just appear but that was when true mating bonds existed. Unions between true mates were blessed with marks from the Fates. When the gods left Yvelia, certain elements of their magic either died or waned over time. Their ability to form mating bonds also died out over thousands of years until it disappeared completely. She says that usually they only do a couple runes, anymore is considered a little greedy. Saeris asks about script being used and Te Léna says you only see that kind of thing in storybooks, called a God Binding. It’s a blessing from the gods themselves. The most important couples in Yvelian history were said to have them but Te Léna doesn’t believe it was true, only exaggerations for dramatic effect. The lovers in those stories always suffered terribly, one of them always died.

Chapter 35: Oracle

Saeris goes to Fisher’s bedroom to confront him about the rune tattoos. He tells her the true story about the Oshellith. They hatch once in most Fae lifetimes, up north, in the wastelands, far beyond Ajun Sky, where the dragons used to live. Where the air is so cold, no life exists there for long. Once in a thousand years, the winds drop, signaling the coming of the Oshellith. The bravest Fae venture on foot to the valley where the Oshellith hatch and shield the butterfly’s cocoons with their bodies. They give them whatever heat they can, for as long as they can. Sometimes it can take them up to twelve hours to break out of their cocoons. When they do, it’s the most beautiful experience a person can experience in their lifetime. Somehow, the Oshellith have music, songs that are capable of healing. The Oshellish mate and lay their eggs. Once that’s done, they dance. Protecting them while they live is considered a sacred rite that many die in order to perform. In Old Fae, Oshellith means Most Sacred. He reveals that he called her Osha instead of Saeris because to him, it meant more. Fisher also reveals that he knew she was coming because his mother, who was an oracle, had told him. When she knew that she would die soon, she wrote Fisher a book to help guide him. She told him, when he needed Saeris most, she would come blazing into his life like a meteorite. Saeris would be able to guide him out of the darkness. She would have dark hair, a beautiful smile, and that he’d love her with a fierceness despite himself. His mother said that she felt like she knew Saeris, that they were friends, even though a thousand years stood between them. She even drew a portrait of her, but some minor things were incorrect, Saeris had pointy ears, drawing her as a Fae. Fisher said sometimes she would be wrong about minor things, some details with big consequences. When Fisher felt Solace calling to him, he stepped into the pool and saw Saeris was human, he knew how easily Yvelia would destroy her but he couldn’t just leave her in Zilvaren to die. He admits that the second he saw Saeris, he felt the mating bond snap into place. He was so angry the fates had sealed them as Fae and human, separated. Saeris offers to make him a new relic to help with his quicksilver pain but he says his pendant was also warded with spellwork. Because of his circumstances, he decided to refuse the bond so Saeris wouldn’t have to be tied to his tragic, inevitable death. The reason his tent back in Innír was covered in books was because he was researching a way to prevent the bond from forming. He decided to initiate the waiting period, where either party could choose to accept or reject the bond. The waiting period started back in Ballard when he hid her marks. Fisher did all this, thinking he was trying to save Saeris from himself. Because he hadn’t told any of this to Saeris and essentially made the decision for her, Saeris is pissed at him for not telling her the truth and consulting her. His mother’s book ends when he meets Saeris, indicating the fates would guide their path from there. Saeris is pissed that he plans to basically give up on himself, let himself slowly go insane from the quicksilver, and have Renfis kill him when he’s progressed too far. Saeris leaves him, pissed that he’s just given up.

Chapter 36: Iseabail

Saeris sleeps in the formal living room and awakes to Fisher sitting in an armchair, staring at Omnamerrin. He grabs her hand as she walks by and they have a silent intimate moment. She can see he hasn’t been sleeping. They just hold each other for a couple minutes and then he says “It’s okay. I’m okay.” and she leaves the room.

Lorreth says the last of the witches abandoned Yvelia a hundred years ago, no one has seen a member of the Balquhidder Clan in twice as long. They need a powerful witch to assist Te Léna in drawing the venom out of Layne. Fisher and Ren decide they will travel to Faulton’s Gap to see if they can find a witch strong enough and willing to assist. Danya invites herself to go with them. The rest of the group will stay behind looking through the texts in case something pops up. Te Léna tells Fisher to make sure to come see her before they leave and after they get back. After moving past a small flare of jealousy, Saeris concludes that Te Léna must be helping Fisher with his quicksilver. Since she asked to see him before and after, she’s guessing he must really be getting bad.

Hours later, they were unsuccessful at finding any more information in the texts. Ren storms in, saying they got them to agree to help but then Danya made a comment about how it was the least they could do since the witches left the Fae to clean up their mess and that caused all hell to break loose. Fisher brough Danya back to Irrín and then going to return to Faulton’s Gap by himself to try to smooth things over. They were able to find one witch strong enough to help Everlayne. Three hours later, Fisher returns with Iseabail, the granddaughter of the Balquhidder High Witch, Malina. Iseabail is not impressed that they only have three Fae males and two humans to take on Malcolm and kidnap his thrall. Fisher says only the Fae males are going but Saeris and Carrion insist that they also attend to help.

Chapter 37: Much Sharper

Fisher finds Saeris preparing to sleep in the formal living room again. He asks her to come sleep with him in his bed. They go through his shadow gate and he brings her to the apartment in Ballard. He set up the living room surrounded with candles, then filled the room with his black smoke, covering everything except the flames of the candles. Making it appear as if they’re among the stars. They begin their hot and steamy moment. In the throes, she feels the back of her hands tingling, knowing that the ink was back. She could feel them trailing up her arms, skating over her stomach, caressing her thighs, and wrapping around her spine. As they continue, she notices an array of new tattoos on Fisher, climbing up the side of his throat and over his collarbone. It was the outstretched wings of a majestic bird. After they’ve finished, she asks him why he got new tattoos this time but he just shrugs her off. Eventually, he tells her that in the past, one party always got the mating marks first and when the other part accepted the bond, sometimes Marks would show up on their bodies too. Saeris is shocked that he decided to accept their bond, considering she is human and they would only have a tiny amount of time together compared to Fisher’s life span. She asks him about the last time they were in Ballard, he had said they were there for something he needed but he never got. He says that he did get what he needed, a little hope.

Chapter 38: Martyrs for Friends

Saeris wakes up in his mother’s bed. She notices the shadow gate Fisher left for her and realizes that he left her. He left a note for her:

She notices that he also left her Nimerelle. If Malcolm killed Fisher he wouldn’t be able to get his hands on a god sword and try to convince it to channel. Fisher went to Gillethrye to save Everlayne, alone and unarmed.

Saeris goes through the shadow gate and ends up in Fisher’s bedroom and finds Carrion sitting in a chair. He says he went looking for Onyx and ended up in Fisher’s room then thought he would snoop for Fisher’s diary and came across his mother’s book. He mentions that Fisher left Ren a note saying Saeris would be back before dusk. They go to meet Lorreth, Ren, Te Léna, and Iseabail in the library and she shows Ren the letter Fisher left her. With there being no pool at Gillethrye anymore, they all feel hopeless. Carrion has the idea that once Fisher sends Everlayne through his Shadow Gate, they take advantage of the time delay to go through the gate to get to Fisher.

Saeris and Carrion head to the forge so she can make Carrion a godsword. The quicksilver requested a joke in exchange and accepted Carrion’s. He names his sword Simon. Back at the library, Lorreth says he doesn’t trust Iseabail because the witches are dragon lovers and the reason they’re in this mess in the first place. If it weren’t for the witches, there wouldn’t even be any vampires. Iseabail overhears this and says her people have been persecuted her whole life thanks to those vicious rumors. They proved centuries ago that they had nothing to do with the blood curse. The Balquhidder Clan was one of the five families charged by King Daianthus with finding a cure for the Fae curse and they were instrumental in breaking it. The shadow gate opens in the ceiling and Everlayne falls out onto their table. Carrion and Saeris go through the gate.

Chapter 39: Annorath Mor!

The shadow gate transported them to the middle of a body of water. Lorreth saves Saeris from drowning and goes back to get Carrion. He was half drowned and Saeris threatened to tell all of his friends in Third that he was a shitty lay. That woke him up.

Only Ren, Saeris, and Carrion were able to make it through the shadow gate before it closed. Lorreth gives Carrion and Saeris some Widow’s Bane to deaden their pain from the fall through the gate for a while. They hear an explosion in the distance and voices screaming “Annorath Mor!” and they begin climbing the cliff face.

They all reach the top and are greeted with a huge amphitheater with tiers and tiers of seating filled with hundreds of thousands of people roaring “Annorath Mor! Annorath Mor! Annorath Mor!” Lorreth translates that it means “Release us.” At the pit of the amphitheater Saeris notices a labyrinth and on the other side a raised dais with people sitting at the top and Fisher at the bottom. Harron sneaks up behind Lorreth and presses a dagger to his throat. They then are surrounded by hundreds of feeders that have crawled up the cliff face behind them, obeying Harron’s commands. Harron opens a vortex and sends them all through to transport them quickly.

Chapter 40: Introductions

They are transported to where Fisher is, looking exhausted and half dead. She then notices that not only Malcolm is sitting on the dais but Belikon and Madra. Malcolm notices that Lorreth is part of Kingfisher’s Lupo Proelias and is the one who shattered the towers at Barillieth and murdered thousands of his vampires. Malcolm instructs Harron to knock Carrion out. Belikon tells them that their magic cannot reach them there so don’t try any foolishness. Madra refers to Belikon as “brother.” Belikon reveals that they’ve always known Madra was the one who closed the quicksilver gates. They were angry at first but over the centuries they’ve forgiven her. Madra says she only closed the gate because they sent a beast through to assassinate her. Belikon announces that now that the Triumvirate has been reunited, they are all more powerful than they’ve been in a long, long time. Saeris is pissed to find out that Belikon has known this whole time that Fisher’s father was innocent and he named Fisher a traitor, casting shame on the House of Cahlish. Belikon says he was never at war with Malcolm, he has been feeding his brother’s army. The puzzle pieces click together for Saeris, why Belikon refused to send supplies and food to Irrín, had embargoed the silver – the only thing capable of permanently killing Malcolm’s kind – and refused to send any silver south. Because he didn’t intend on his warriors surviving. Somehow, Malcolm has power over Fisher to cause him immense pain. Saeris realizes that the hundreds of Fae surrounding them are not actually alive. Belikon releases Fisher from his oath so he can tell them about what happened at Gillethrye.

Chapter 41: Gillethrye

Fisher tells them that the horde had gathered at the gates of Gillethrye, tens of thousands of vampires. Their armies had been drawn south into a battle with a much smaller force, they then realized it had been a distraction. They were too late to Gillethrye, most of Malcolm’s feeders had already marched on Gillethrye. Fisher couldn’t move enough warriors through his shadow gate, so he brought Ren and some of the other wolves to try to save as many as they could. When they got there, the horde was already inside the city. All the Fae had been in the streets, celebrating the Festival of the First Song. Fisher left Ren and the others to go find Malcolm, hoping to end it once and for all. But first, he found Belikon, the one who murdered his mother. Belikon admits he killed his mother. This is when Fisher learned that Belikon and Malcolm weren’t adversaries at all, but allies who had been working together since before the blood curse. He didn’t know that Madra was also working with them. He wanted to bargain for the few citizens of Gillethrye who were still alive, and Belikon proposed a deal. Belikon would toss a coin, if it landed leaf-side up, Malcolm would call off his horde and leave the city without hurting another living thing. If the coin landed fish-side up, he would take the city as his own and destroy it. Fisher wasn’t allowed to touch the coin or influence the way it fell in any way. As the coin toss was being decided, he wasn’t allowed to harm Belikon or Malcolm until the outcome of the coin toss had been decided. He also wasn’t allowed to speak of the deal or of the fact that Malcolm and Belikon were brothers. They made a blood oath. Belikon tossed the coin and Malcolm caught it mid air, never allowing the coin to hit the ground. Malcolm’s vampires continued and Fisher was only able to lock the city up with the remaining citizens and the vampires and set all of Gillethrye on fire. Malcolm created the labyrinth and hid the coin at its center. All Fisher had to do was get to the center, find the coin, and make it fall to the ground. This would end the suffering of the Gillethrye citizen’s stuck souls and Fisher would be able to seek his vengeance on the battlefield. Fisher threatens Madra with an undying existence of unending agony for spaying Saeris as a child. This actually scares Madra. Fisher had entered the labyrinth, after a hundred and two years, he made it to the center. He spent the next eight years trying to find the coin. One day, Taladaius was checking in on Fisher and the quicksilver pool below the labyrinth had been awakened. Kingfisher jumped in the pool and escaped. He then rushes to Saeris, drawing Solace, and stabbing Belikon in the stomach and up into his neck.

Chapter 42: That’ll Cost You

Belikon goes to lunge at Fisher but Lorreth draws Avisiéth at his neck. Everyone runs for the labyrinth. Saeris is able to snap Harron’s neck and they all make it inside the labyrinth.

Fisher says the first ten moves in the labyrinth are always the same but after the first obstacle the route to the center constantly changes. They reach the first obstacle, a ginormous half spider half Fae demon, Morthil. Saeris is able to sense the pool of quicksilver at the center of the labyrinth and they eventually make it past Morthil. They’re able to kill Morthil but Fisher says he will regenerate, smaller but faster. As they continue on, Malcolm is continuously changing the path to the center but the quicksilver is guiding Saeris at each turn. They find out that in the labyrinth, Fisher didn’t need to sleep or eat because of the magic imbued from Malcolm. They arrive at the center, greeted by Malcolm, Belikon, Madra, and a huge pile of coins, standing between them and the quiksilver. Carrion steps forward and starts to antagonize Malcolm. Fisher tells Saeris through their bond that all the coins in the center are fake, the original coin that Belikon used was made of silver. If the pile of coins were real, Malcolm wouldn’t be able to stand on them without it affecting him. He says the original coin would contain quicksilver so she should be able to find it. Carrion baits Malcolm to bite him and lets him do it. After nearly draining Carrion, Malcolm pulls off him, surprised. Carrion says his name is Carrion Swift but before, there was a time where he was known as Carrion Daianthus, first born son to Rurik and Amelia Daianthus. He tricked Malcolm into drinking Daianthus blood. Fisher gives Solace to Saeris and sends her to go find the coin.

Saeris tries to get the quiksilver in the coin to help her find it. It gets her to admit that Kingfisher is her mate then asks her for a small favor, for a restoration of balance and love. Saeris agrees and the quicksilver leads her to Morthil’s body. The coin is deep inside the demon’s throat. She notices her skin is covered in runes, the God Bindings flared metallic blue and her whole body rushed with heat. She realizes it’s because she had accepted the mating bond. Saeris reaches into the mouth of the demon and pulls the coin out, then is startled by Malcolm being right behind her.

Chapter 43: Another Way

Malcolm is in horrible shape from Carrion’s blood. He tells Saeris that he wants to take her so she can heal him and help him discover other miracles with his blood. Malcolm takes the coin from her and places it in his pouch and throws her against a wall. After inspecting her runes, he says she is more powerful than any Alchemist he’s ever encountered. She would be capable of restoring him to his power and a lot more. Saeris tells him that she refuses to help him. Malcolm was pissed when he found out that Fisher had fed from Saeris when he had been trying for years to get Fisher to feed from him. Saeris stabs Malcolm in the throat with a dagger, twists, and yanks it free. Fisher tells her through their bond that he’s on the way. When she stabbed Malcolm, she also stole his leather pouch that had the coin. He snatches the pouch back from her but then finds out she had secretly taken the coin out. She flips the coin and it lands on the ground. All of the trapped souls turned to ash, finally allowed to move on. Pissed, Malcolm turns on Saeris and she unsheathes Solace and cuts his head off.

Malcolm goes up in a burst of blue flames, officially dead. Fisher is heading to her, he tells her that Madra disappeared into the quicksilver and Lorreth is dealing with Belikon. Magic has been returned to Gillethrye. Taladaius finds Saeris and Fisher finally arrives. He tells Fisher that she’s literally about to die and they don’t have time to get to a healer. Fisher isn’t able to give her any other pieces of his soul because he doesn’t have enough after giving it to Lorreth. She refuses to let him sacrifice himself for her. Fisher tells her that Taladaius is second only to Malcolm so he has the power to turn her. He makes the decision for Saeris and allows Taladaius to turn her.

Chapter 44: Axis

Fisher is carrying Saeris and trying to open a shadow gate. A voice begins to talk to Saeris and asks if she is ready to leave this place and see what lies beyond in the next. She tells the voice that she is not ready to leave yet. It warns that a shadow falls across Yvelia and it will alter all that it touches. Knowing that suffering and hardship looms, that sacrifices will need to be made, she still decides she doesn’t want to leave yet. The quicksilver decides to call in its favor, it requires an audience with her. She agrees and is then ripped from Fisher’s arms and brought through the quicksilver pool.

She awakes in the grass to two teenage twins. They ask her what it’s like to have sex with their father’s champion, Fisher. They say that they wanted to try it themselves but their father forbade it, they have been waiting an eon for him to gift them a playmate but none of their kind have braved the journey to visit Corcoran. The girls ask her which one she worships more, Bal or Mithin. Saeris tells them that they are worshiped equally. They bring Saeris to their father. As they approach, Saeris realizes that their father is Zareth, God of Chaos. He tells her that he has spent a great deal of time watching the threads of the universe, waiting for one such as her. An Alchemist to reset the balance and clear the way for what is to come. He brings her over to a tree, the edge of the universe. The roots growing down into the earth, into the quicksilver pool, are the anchors of fate. The silver leaves in the branches mark all the realms of their domain. Him and his family are the stewards of all the leaves. They water the roots of fate, train the boughs and prune the leaves to prevent rot and decay. He then sweeps three of the bough’s leaves into the quicksilver river. There is a rot spreading throughout his domain, realms that are infected with the rot must be destroyed to prevent the rot from spreading throughout the tree. Zareth tells her that she isn’t the only Alchemist in the universe, there are millions out there, even in her realm and Zilvaren. There are hundreds of elemental magic wielders who can command the quicksilver. He tells her that she was supposed to be born Fae and in the same realm as Kingfisher. Zareth separated them, hundreds of years before she was born, he shifted the events around her birth. Placing her far away, in a realm that should never have come into contact with Fisher’s. But the boughs of the universe grew against their nature and aligned so that they would meet. Zareth realized there was nothing he could do to stop Saeris and Fisher from meeting. Saeris realizes this is why Fisher had said sometimes his mother was wrong about small things with big consequences. Zareth tells her that threads like her and Kingfisher that are drawn together and cross on an axis create a well of power. The energy they draw attracts an equal and opposite counterweight, every possible future where they end up together ends with the vast majority of the tree dying. They’re unable to foresee any other way. Zareth says that Fisher has no idea about this. He orchestrated events so that he would be brought there as a young male. He wasn’t very polite and made an enemy of his family. Fisher was only allowed to live because Zareth demanded it. He says he spent a great deal of time studying various outcomes and paths, while he never found a balance that meant good prevailed, there were pathways that led into uncertainty. These pathways lead down roads where both way and destination are blocked to even his sight. Their God-Bound oaths mark them as his ward, protecting both of them from unwanted attention from his brothers and sister. His siblings would rather kill Fisher and roll the dice on what comes next, weather the storm and replant their tree once the slate has been wiped. Zareth doesn’t want to do this because it would break his daughters’ hearts. He wants to sever Saeris’ thread of life from the tapestry of the universe, that way, none of them will be able to interfere with timelines or events that affect them. Saeris and Fisher would be on their own. As this is the only way for Saeris to save Fisher, she agrees. Zareth shoves Saeris into the quicksilver.

Chapter 45: Choose Wisely

Saeris awakes in Fisher’s bed, repeatedly puking into the bucket next to her. Taladaius is there. She looks at herself in the mirror and notices she has pointed ears. Zareth has made her half vampire, half Fae. She discovers she still has her mental bond with Fisher. Taladaius has put a mental blocker on her mind to erase the last events at Gillethrye until she awoke. She demands that he removes the block and he complies. Saeris remembers everything, including meeting with Zareth, and that she bit Taladaius. He confesses that for a long time he wanted to destroy Malcolm for turning him, he hated himself and wanted nothing more than to die. Malcolm didn’t give him a choice, forbidding him from killing himself. Now that Malcolm is dead, Taladaius is free, still trying to decide what that means for himself.

Carrion shows up with sloped ears, pointed canines, and much taller. Saeris is mad that Carrion never told her he was heir to a Fae throne. Carrion tells her that his grandmother was really more of a ward for him. Fisher’s father took him to Zilvaren to save him from Belikon, glamoured his ears and canines, brought a bag of books, and left him with a woman named Orlena Parry. She was a slave in Madra’s palace, she took Carrion out of the quicksilver and went to the Third. She found work as a seamstress and secured somewhere for them to live, raising him like her own sun. Orlena got married when he was nine and he took the name Swift. She had a daughter, Petra, who grew up and had a daughter too. The books were passed down the female line and so was Carrion. They made sure he kept a lookout for the quicksilver to open again so he could go back to Yvelia and rule his people. He said he felt it awaken the day Saeris was taken up to the palace, he went to the Mirage to see if she had escaped and that’s when Fisher found him. Carrion said he was Hayden because he really thought he was protecting him. Lorreth told Saeris that after Madra fled, Belikon continued to fight but once Lorreth’s angel’s breath tore out of Avisiéth, he also fled. He said that Carrion’s father’s blood was used to create the blood curse that allowed Malcolm to become a vampire. That vampire can’t drink from the living members of the bloodline that created them, nor can they enthrall them. Drinking from Carrion should’ve killed Malcolm instantly, but because he had lived for so long, he was too powerful. That is also why Malcolm had Belikon kill Carrion’s parents, they were the only thing that posed a threat to him. Sadly, Carrion doesn’t remember much about his parents. Fisher shows up and tells them that he does and will tell him everything he remembers later. Kingfisher is nervous that Saeris will be mad at him for choosing to have Taladaius turn her. She then notices that there’s less quicksilver in Fisher’s eyes, Te Léna and Iseabail had found a way to dampen the quicksilver’s effects. After enough time, they should be able to fully rid the quicksilver. Fisher opens the curtain and shows that they’re on the wrong side of the Darn, inside Ammontraíeth.  He tells her that based on Fae rules, the crown is passed down to the regent’s heir. But if the regent is murdered, the crown is claimed by the one who slew them. In two days, Saeris is to be coronated as the new queen of Sanasroth.