Oathbreaker: A Dark Fantasy Web Serial

Story Recap for Books 1 and 2

The story so far…

Arc One

Our tale begins in the rain battered town of Vinhithe, in the northeastern region of Urn. Alken Hewer, known to many as the Headsman of Seydis, executes the town’s bishop inside his own cathedral. However, when a young acolyte catches Alken in the act and escapes during a moment of hesitation from our protagonist, the alarms are raised and he is forced to cut his way through Vinhithe’s guards. After a brief, intense skirmish against a trio of mercenary knights, Alken is shot by soldiers and swept away by the river.

Wounded and lost within the wilderness some distance downstream, the exhausted Headsman encounters a wicked angel known as Nath. The dark spirit offers to save him, but Alken refuses and is left to die. In a twist of fate, he is saved by a traveling physician known as Olliard of Kell and his apprentice, a former lay sister called Lisette. The trio travel for some time while Alken recovers. During this time Lisette proves herself to be an adept of the Auratic Arts with a healing magic. Even despite her magic, Alken proves to heal quickly and spends much of this time dodging questions by his unlikely traveling companions.

During one night, Lisette is lured into the woods by the disquiet spirits who haunt Alken’s footsteps. In order to save her from these wrathful spirits, remnants of dead elves tied to his past, Alken is forced to reveal his own powers as a paladin to banish the wraiths.

The trio continue on into Caelfall, a sick and isolated land drowned in marsh and dead woods. At the local church, Olliard discovers the man he intended to meet is long dead and that the current priest is fearful of sharing his predecessor’s fate. Dark forces are gathering to the local baron, whose castle lies at the center of the region’s largest lake. It becomes more and more clear that Olliard is no ordinary doctor, but Alken continues to keep his distance.

In the church, Alken performs a rite of communion and contacts one of the Onsolain — holy spirits whose ranks include angels, demigods, and other immortal beings who give the Headsman his orders. This pantheon of beings is collectively known as the Choir of Heaven, or sometimes the Choir of Onsolem. It becomes clear that Alken’s presence in Caelfall is no accident, and he is tasked with delivering a sentence of execution to the local baron, Orson Falconer, who threatens the lands already tenuous peace. After surviving a night attack from deadly chimeric creatures, the Headsman leaves the doctor and apprentice behind to carry out his mission. At the nearby village, he discovers the presence of a company of ghoul soldiers indentured to the baron, who catch him snooping. Before things escalate, a mysterious woman appears and talks the undead soldiers down, revealing that the baron is hosting visitors from outside the domain and arguing that Alken is likely one of these guests. Alken decides to go along with it in order to gain access to the castle.

The woman who saved our hero identifies herself as Catrin, an eccentric and seemingly altruistic character with unclear motives. Alken dodges most of her queries, much to Catrin’s annoyance. At the castle, the two participate in a late night dinner discussion with a group of other guests, all of whom are dangerous characters and enemies of the same order our protagonist is secretly in service to. After some tense discussion and standoff that includes the appearance of a terrifying disembodied presence, the baron reveals himself and speaks of his plans. When Alken derails the talks during an argument with the leader of the Mistwalker mercenary company, the leader of the ghouls, the baron speaks to him privately and offers to host him so long as he proves useful.

In the late night, Catrin appears at Alken’s bedroom under the pretense of checking in on him, but quickly reveals ulterior motives when she almost hypnotizes him for answers to his identity and purposes. Defending himself with his own powers, he strips Catrin’s disguise and reveals her to be a vampire — or more precisely a dhampir, one of myriad types of half breed monsters who inhabit the land. Despite this, Catrin proves herself to be non-hostile and leaves after offering to help Alken with his predicament.

Finding his way out of the church through the crypts following a brief encounter with the ghost of the previous priest, who has a connection to Dr. Olliard and Catrin both, Alken is ambushed by the doctor and his apprentice in the woods, subdued, and questioned. Olliard ends up drugging Alken and leaving him to wake hours later, at which point Catrin makes another appearance. Distrustful and frustrated, Alken is not kind to the dhampir, but his next act is interrupted when he and Catrin are accosted by elves. Catrin is shot with a magicked arrow and the two are taken to the hall of an elven warlord known as Oradyn Irn Bale, who challenges Alken for possession of his faerie axe.

Alken wins this duel, and he and Catrin find themselves guests of the elves. Irn Bale provides more backstory on Orson. Alken and Catrin discuss their plans, theorizing that the evil presence inside Castle Cael is in fact a demon, one of a host of powerful creatures responsible for destroying the elven kingdom a decade prior. This same enchanted realm was where Alken served as a Knight of the Alder Table, an order of famous warriors blessed with faerie magics. The conversation ends on a bitter note when Alken accuses the dhampir of being responsible for the death of Caelfall’s former priest. Irn Bale’s daughter attempts to seduce Alken after this, but fails.

The next day, Irn Bale arms Alken with a set of elven armor and Catrin with a dagger forged of the same arrowhead the elves struck her with. Catrin finds the Culler Brothers, a trio of necromancers and assassins, in the woods. They were dispatched to hunt down Alken after he went missing and kill him, but ran afoul of the elves and had to stop to revive their slain eldest brother. The Headsman and the dhampir instead kill the remaining two after learning that the baron has apparently escalated his plans to give his leashed demon physical form. This somehow involves the church.

Our unlikely duo returns to the village, finding it ominously empty. They discover the villagers inside the church, all slain to desecrate the holy site and used as raw material for Orson’s demon to manifest. The last priest, Micah, is still alive and was forced to witness this. He reveals that Orson was not present, only several of his invited guests. Alken battles the Mistwalker ghouls and slays their captain Vaughn with Catrin’s help, and only at this point does he acknowledge that the dhampir spy’s intentions are not malign and decide to trust her.

The two take a boat back to Castle Cael, where it quickly becomes apparent that Orson’s guests have turned on him and taken the castle. They are ambushed by a swarm of chimera, which leaves Alken wounded. Catrin’s vampiric hunger surges, and Alken allows her to drink some of his blood to keep her level-headed, a gesture she seems to appreciate.

After this incident, Quinn appears and confirms that the other guests who came for Orson’s council have already departed with their demonic prize. The Mistwalkers were left behind to slay Orson and all other witnesses. He also mockingly reveals that Catrin is a whore employed by the Keeper of the Backroad Inn to sleep with his patrons as well as collect his secrets. Alken kills the ghoul for his insults. Catrin admits the mercenary was telling the truth, as she sleeps with her inn’s guests and takes blood from them to stave off her vampiric nature.

The pair then find Orson deep within the castle, already wounded and being interrogated by Olliard and Lisette. Olliard reveals himself to be a monster hunter who was in regular contact with Caelfall’s former priest. He knows Catrin’s true nature and blames her for his friend’s death, as she was sleeping with the deceased priest, an elderly man, and feeding on him. After a brief standoff, the doctor kills the baron and the two groups part ways.

Alken stays long enough for the dead villagers to be buried and have one last conversation with Catrin, who tells him to see her at the Backroad Inn sometime. He also has one last and mostly amicable goodbye with Lisette, who helps give last rites to the dead. Weeks later, Alken encounters the ghost of a man named Donnelly in the wilderness, another individual who works for the Choir. The spirit passes on new orders, leaving our hero alone to contemplate his fate. This closes out the story’s first arc.

Arc Two

In the second arc, Alken is given new orders by the Choir to assist the fallen Onsolain Nath, who tasks him with protecting her mortal warlock. He makes a brief visit to Oria’s Fane, a sanctuary where a number of characters dwell, including an drow elf named Rysanthe who is another Doomsman like himself and Ser Maxim Braeve, another surviving Alder Knight afflicted with madness. Alken dreams of his past in Elfhome, the capital city of Seydis, the realm that was destroyed during the great war known as the Fall. He sees his lover in this dream, a nun by the name of Sister Fidei, but he is woken abruptly by one of Maxim’s fits. Before this situation can resolve, Nath’s messenger appears and calls the Headsman away for his next labor.

Alken leaves the Fane and meets Nath’s warlock, who is revealed to be an arrogant teenage girl known as Emma Carreon. He soon learns that the girl is caught up in a complicated history involving a despotic noble family, ancient grudges, and the intervention of dark supernatural realms. After multiple encounters with a hellish specter who seems intent on turning Emma’s world into a battlefield, Alken forms an alliance with a church paladin known as Ser Renaurt Kross, a mysterious and knowledgeable man. The two work together to protect the young noblewoman from the Burnt Rider and the machinations of Brenner Hunting, a nobleman who took the Carreons in after they were ousted from their own lands and who seems intent on using the last survivor of the accursed House for his own elevation. After an audience with Nath the Fallen and a brutal struggle against the Burnt Rider, Alken learns more about the sordid history of the Carreons and the family they betrayed and destroyed, the Orleys. Alken also reveals some of his past to Kross, explaining that he was once the personal champion to a petty queen before being inducted into the Knights of the Alder Table as a means to elevate his liege lady’s power.

After discovering that the rivalry between the Carreons and Orleys is being used as a front for the powers of Hell itself to exert influence over Urn, Alken and Emma travel to Castle Liutgarde, the ancient fortress of House Carreon. Here they reunite with Ser Kross and challenge Jon Orley, the Burnt Rider and Emma’s Great-Grandfather, one last time. Alken calls on the Onsolain to intervene, knowing that the infernal knight is only a representative of a supernatural government much as he is himself. This ploy works, but Ser Kross reveals himself to be a Crowfriar, a missionary of Orkael and the true devil behind this drama. A high stakes debate ensues where both the Headsman and the devil, who goes by Vicar, argue before the gods for Emma Carreon’s ultimate fate.

Things seem to go against Alken despite his pleas on Emma’s behalf, but the girl ends up saving herself when she disowns her ancestors and effectively dissolves House Carreon. Though this saves her and denies the agents of Hell their scheme, Vicar gloats to Alken that his order are no longer barred from Urn and that they haven’t seen the last of one another. He implies that he knows more about Alken’s past and gives him a malicious gift — the amulet that once belonged to the former paladin when he was a knight in Seydis, something he believed long lost.

Afterward, Nath seems unexpectedly pleased with how things turned out and declares her intent to rejoin the Choir. Emma, now adrift and severed from the nobility, asks Alken to take her on as a squire. Though reluctant, he takes responsibility for the orphaned youth and agrees. This closes out the second arc.

Arc Three

The third part of the story begins months later in the midst of winter. We switch to the perspective of Donnelly, former thief and now Herald of the Onsolain. He observes a gathering of mortal lords and elves during the execution of a Recusant general, one of the last who remained at large since the war. The sentence is carried out by none other than the Headsman himself, at the behest of the Seydii princess Maerlys Tuvonsdotter, leader of the remaining elves of Seydis and daughter of the faerie king, who was betrayed and murdered by the Alder Knights at the onset of the Fall. Burned alive and brutally disfigured, Maerlys is now quite mad.

After this, we return to the Fane where Alken, Maxim, and the elven huntress Oraeka are training Emma. Alken takes his new apprentice on a short trip to one of the nearby villages to investigate some rumored troubles, where they discover that the settlement is abandoned and bears the mark of Inquisition. Alken also experiences disturbing dreams during this time despite his magic ring, which normally allows him to sleep untroubled and protects him from the many restless spirits drawn by his magic. It becomes increasingly more clear that something demonic haunts our protagonist, tied to his past and to the scars on his face. ＲάNȯʙĘṩ

Alken leaves Emma at the Fane and pays a visit to the Backroad Inn, a magical establishment which can appear anywhere. Run by a man who might be a devil, employing changelings and hemophages as barmaids and bedwarmers, this dubious locale hosts many characters who would be a paladin’s enemies under most circumstances. But Alken can’t afford scruples, and he happens to know a plucky dhampir who works at the ghastly brothel. He and Catrin discuss current events, including the return of the infernal crowfriars, the shift in politics of the Accorded Realms, and the resurgent Inquisition. Their conversation is interrupted by Karog, an ogre mercenary from the west who was present at Orson Falconer’s council. The two are broken up by the Keeper before they can kill one another, but Catrin agrees to help Alken discover what the ogre is up to.

Tracking Karog into the wintry woods, they manage to subdue him briefly before being interrupted by a pack of wyldefae assassins. After killing these, they learn that Karog is on the run from his former allies and does not know their plans or locations. He does reveal that the Council of Cael were recently in Talsyn, a mountain kingdom ruled by Hasur Vyke and the last bastion of the Recusant armies since the war.

Returning to the Fane, Alken enjoys some days of uneasy peace before a mysterious visitor comes calling. This is Lias Hexer, a wizard and former companion of Alken’s who serves the same queen he once did during his days as a knight. Alken believes his old friend might have been sent to kill him, especially after Lias gets him to admit that he is the Headsman. However, Lias instead asks Alken for help. He and Rosanna, the noble they both swore vows of loyalty to, are embedded in Garihelm, seat of the current emperor who rules the Accorded Realms, Rosanna as an ambassador for the southern kingdoms and Lias as her spymaster. He tells Alken of a serial killer at large in the city and other issues, including the rising power of the inquisitors, and implores his old friend to return and help.

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Though Alken knows that the Council of Cael are still at large in the land and feels a tug towards his old life, he is reluctant to help Lias both because of his current responsibilities and bitter feelings over their estrangement. Lias departs, and Alken decides afterward to travel north to the capital. He and Emma depart through the last weeks of winter, conspiring with Catrin and Karog. The ogre is enticed into traveling to Garihelm at the suggestion that the organization that betrayed and tried to kill him might be active there, and Catrin also wants to settle the score for the tragedy at Caelfall. She helps the Headsman and his squire into the city, while also suggesting she and Alken go on a date sometime, much to our protagonist’s surprise.

In Garihelm, Alken soon discovers that a demon is at large in the city and targeting members of the renaissance movement, mostly artists, inventors, and architects. The city is overcrowded with the approach of a great summit and tournament hosted by the emperor, with nobles, dignitaries, knights, and many others gathering by the hundreds in the capital. He encounters Faisa Dance, a wealthy duchess whose artist lover was one of the victims. After consulting with Lias, Alken realizes the demon is very likely the same one that he encountered at Caelfall. Leaving Emma in the wizard’s care, he seeks out the city’s changelings, who are most likely to have seen evidence of this corruption, to get more information. Here he finds Karog again, who has been in the city some weeks already and who’s taken to protecting these misbegotten outcasts, even over seeking his revenge. The changelings have been prosecuted by the Priory of the Arda, the power behind the inquisitors, with their elder taken during a recent raid. Alken decides to try and rescue the elder, both because it seems like the right thing to do and because the Priory is likely hunting the same creature he is and might have more information.

He tries to infiltrate the Priory, only to encounter Renuart Kross again. The Crowfriar is also embedded into the Church and takes Alken captive, resulting in his interrogation by a dangerous inquisitor known as Oraise. He is then thrown into a dungeon and tortured for many days with expectations of a public execution, part of a scheme by Oraise to symbolically oust the memory of the Alder Knights and gain more support for his own movement. Kross makes Alken an offer to work together, which is refused. During the endless days of misery and darkness, Alken finds himself spiraling into fevered dreams and memories without the protection of his curse-trap ring.

Here he encounters Sister Fidei again, his former lover from Seydis, who is revealed to be a succubus demon. Alken discovered the truth just before the Fall began and banished the demon, whose true name is Shyora, back to the Abyss — yet he hasn’t really ever gotten over her. Here he discovers that Shyora is in Hell, but she managed to smuggle a fragment of herself into the medallion Kross gave to Alken back at Emma’s trial, which he’d originally given to Fidei as a token of his affections. The phantom of her he’s been interacting with in his dreams is no memory, but a true fiendish spirit now latched to him.

Alken is broken out of his cell by Lisette, Olliard’s apprentice from the first arc who in the interim months parted from her mentor and infiltrated the Priory just as Alken tried to do. During their escape, they realize the inquisitors are being attacked by monstrous abominations called Woed, mortals mutated into slaves of a demon. Alken cuts his way through them and has a brief conversation with their master, the demon Yith Golonac, who taunts him before vanishing back into the city’s depths.

Lisette smuggles Alken into the city’s great fortress, the Fulgurkeep, where he is reunited with Rosanna Silvering, his former queen and now Empress of the Accorded Realms. The two have a lengthy conversation, and Alken discovers that Rosanna has been hosting and protecting a very angry Emma. Alken agrees to stay and help Rosanna with all the various troubles in the city This closes out arc 3 and the first volume of the saga.

Arc Four

Arc four details Alken’s conflict against the Priory. While competing with the inquisition for leads on the rogue demon and whatever forces are behind it. He meets the star-crossed lovers Laessa Greengood, a noblewoman, and Kieran, a commonborn painter killed by Yith and reanimated as an undead. During an intense flight through the city after rescuring the two from prioguard, a storm ogre lands in the city and starts causing havoc. Several knights in the city for the upcoming tournament appear to battle the beast, introducing Alken to Jocelyn of Ekarleon and Siriks Sontae of Cymrinor.

After learning from Rosanna that Lias has actually been exiled from the city for his renegade behavior, Alken finds himself stuck between his two estranged friends in a complicated web of personal loyalties and politics. He fails to save Kieran, who is brutally murdered by Yith, and attempts to make contact with the Onsolain in order to draw their attention to both the rising power of the various heretic factions he finds himself set against, including both the Council of Cael behind Yith and the Crowfriars operating behind the Inquisition. He has an audience with Umareon, a pitiless angelic warrior who reprimands the Headsman for his distractions and gives him an order to execute the leader of the Priory, who is on the cusp of signing his order over to Orkael and giving Hell a solid foothold in the land.

After this disturbing meeting, Alken spends an unexpected and emotional night with Catrin. The two become more intimate after the dhampir reveals some of her own past, and she cajoles Alken into talking about Fidei after they sleep together. Alken returns to the castle. Here he discovers that the twin children of Hasur Vyke, King of Talsyn, have arrived in the emperor’s court for a gathering summit of lords from across the realms. Alken recognizes them both from Orson’s council and warns Rosanna. He has a brief encounter with Oradyn Fen Harus, an ambassador present in the city as a representative for Princess Maerlys and the elves. He also discovers that Hendry Hunting, son of the same lord who harbored Emma during the events of arc 2 and who meant to marry her to his heir, is now a member of the emperor’s guard. The young knight has been following Emma, something both she and Alken put a stop to.

They then attend a gala hosted by Faisa Dance for members of the renaissance, hoping to gain leads to Yith’s next target and follow up on rumors of an enigmatic individual who may have ties to the demon, known only as Anselm of Ruon. During this party, Alken encounters a crowfriar named Dis Myrddin, who tries to convince him that Catrin can't be trusted and is only sticking close to him to feed her boss information about the Choir and Accord. The Inquisition appears at the gala, and the Grand Prior publicly accuses Laessa Greengood of being the Carmine Killer, holding her as a witch responsible for the recent string of murders. Several of the knights attending the party, including Jocelyn of Ekarleon and Siriks Sontae, defend Laessa while others side with the priors. It is decided that Laessa's fate will be determined in trial by combat during the tournament.

Alken leaves Emma and Lias behind and tails the Grand Prior back to his cathedral. He attacks the Priory head on, causing severe structural damage to the cathedral with a dramatic display of sorcerous strength and cutting through the inquisitors. He encounters Lisette and Oraise, the latter of whom is injured, but Alken leaves the presider alive. He then finds the Grand Prior in the middle of signing an infernal contract. Alken slays the priest despite Kross's attempts to stop him. The Headsman and Vicar then have a final dramatic duel, but the crowfriar is saved when Lias appears and stops Alken, revealing that he was cooperating with the infernal missionaries all along. Both Lias and Kross escape.

Alken takes the Grand Prior's head and presents himself before the gathered nobles of the Ardent Round, the high council of the Accorded Realms led by Emperor Markham Forger, Rosanna's husband and a hero of Urn's civil war. The Headsman explains his actions to the council, believing that he must be accountable to humanity just as he's accountable to the elves and other immortals. After a lengthy debate, the Choir makes its presence known and verifies our hero's story, but leaves it up to the emperor to decide his fate. Markham decides to spare him.

After these events, Alken finds Catrin in the city and confronts her. She admits that she was ordered to spy on him for the Keeper, but had a change of heart after their night together and didn't betray any of his secrets. He decides to believe her, and the two confirm their strange friendship. Alken experiences another nightmare involving the demonic spirit haunting him, and decides to start confronting his past. This closes out arc 4.

Arc Five

Arcs 5 involves Alken grappling with the hunt for Yith, intrigue against the ambassadors from Talsyn, and the complexities of his new role as an official subject of the Emperor. We begin with a hunt for a lesser demon in Garihelm's sewers, where our protagonist is accompanied by Karog. They manage to get the better of the fiend, but Emma's familiar is badly wounded in the process. Alken engages in some good old fashion court drama, then suffers through the Emperor and his councilors revealing that they intend to saddle him with a team to manage. Markham also restores Alken's lost knighthood, a gesture that strongly effects the fallen paladin. He is given a night off, and returns with Emma to their humble house on the docks, a temporary abode. Here Catrin visits and helps take the tired knight's mind off his troubles. However, this respite is interrupted by an assassination attempt by a kill team of Marions, deadly animated dolls.

Alken returns to the Fulgurkeep after this raid and learns that there have been a string of almost simultaneous attacks across the city, almost all of which have been on knights visiting the city for the upcoming tournament. The Headsman is charged by the Emperor to find the culprits, his first official order.

After being introduced to the members of his new "lance," which includes criminals, malcontents, and Hendry Hunting, Alken puts them to work finding leads. He, Emma, and Hendry go to the Backroad Inn. Emma and Hendry experience lingering tension from their personal history. Alken meets with the Keeper, and finds himself outwitted by the devilish information broker but given a lead to one of the inn's patrons, a nobleman who dwells in a manor hidden in the Wending Roads, an eldritch hinterland parallel to the mortal world.

Accompanied by Catrin, Emma, and Hendry, he travels into the Brazen Woods and finds himself an unwilling guest of Count Laertes, a vampire and ancient wizard of great power. He also discovers that Laertes is Karog's patron, with the two conspiring to counter House Vyke. Hendry displays unnatural strength during the fight with the Count, and explains that his skeleton turned to iron after he was wounded by Jon Orley the past year. Alken learns that Catrin has been starving herself out of fear that her vampiric nature is evolving, something Laertes seems to have knowledge of.

Laertes reveals that the Vykes are the culprits behind the recent attacks, something Alken suspected, and that they intend to use the upcoming tournament to gain both magical and political leverage in order to win the next war when it begins. Laertes also reveals that he mentored Reynard, the traitorous wizard responsible for starting the Fall. The old vampire also hints that Catrin is capable of accessing the same hidden paths that Yith can, providing our heroes an opportunity to finally track the demon down. Catrin decides to go through with this idea despite Alken's misgivings. During the time at the manor, Catrin also teaches Alken how to open the shadow paths she can use to travel. Though he cannot survive entering them without being undead, he can use them to hide his faerie axe.

With the situation growing more tenuous, Alken and his companions return to the city only to discover that the Vyke scheme is further reaching than they thought. He is confronted by Rosanna about what happened with Lias, and she gives him some information about the people assigned to him that leads to one of the more dubious members of the lance being fired. Rosanna also assigns Lisette to the Headsman's team. Alken experiences another dream-memory involving another demon he slew during the war, who goads him to dispense with all the intrigue and simply murder his enemies.

Alken and his companions then pour their efforts into hunting Yith. They go to a cemetery outside the city, where Catrin slips into the depths of Garihelm's undercity where the demon is most likely hiding. The cleric assigned to Alken's team reveals himself to be a Marion controlled by Hyperia Vyke, the princess of Talsyn and one of the twins from Caelfall. She briefly distracts him while unknown assailants attack the cemetary. Alken is distracted by Catrin's predicament, as she finds herself trapped on the other side of the portal they created into the undercity with the demon. Alken attempts to pull her out, but his paladin magic ends up lashing out at the dhampir at the same time as the demon and trapping her in the undercity with it.

A shell shocked Alken learns that Mistwalker ghouls, the same undead soldiers from Caelfall, were the attackers assailing his companions. Jocelyn, one of the tourney knights, makes an appearance and takes them to Fen Harus, who reveals that the elves are also aware of the Vykes machinations, much to our protagonist's frustration. Jocelyn explains that Siriks Sontae, the ambassador from the warlike nation of Cymrinor, has also allied with the Vykes and that if either Prince Calerus, Hyperia's Brother, or Siriks win the tournament then it could cause disaster.

Alken has a late night meeting with Rosanna and decides to enter the tournament to help Jocelyn and Karog counter their mutual enemies. He is then confronted by Catrin, who survived and has been taken hostage by Yith. The demon gives Alken three days to kill Princess Hyperia, the sorceress who holds his true name in bondage, after which Yith will turn Catrin into a Woed and force Alken to kill her.

Arc Six

Arc 6 details the events of the Grand Tournament of Garihelm and the many duels and skirmishes involved over its course. It begins with Laessa Greengood's trial by combat, which Jocelyn wins. Alken, disguising himself as an anonymous tourney knight, enters into the competition and fights through the ranks, eventually battling the brash Siriks Sontae and winning, managing to gain the angry young Cymrinorean's cooperation in the process. Hyperia and Yith both continue to hover over the days of the tourney, taunting our hero with the leverage they hold over him. In a dramatic skirmish involving many tourney knights, Jocelyn reveals that he is afflicted with Wyrmblight, a greatly feared supernatural affliction that causes him to transform into a nightmarish beast that slaughters many knights and spectators, ending the tournament early.

However, Alken never intended to wait for the tournament to conclude. During the fighting, he had his lance take Hyperia Vyke captive. He reveals to Hyperia that he knows she and her brother murdered their father, the King of Talsyn, showing their schemes and situation to be desperate and half-baked, as the support they are trying to drum up will dissipate as soon as the great Recusant leader is revealed to not be in the picture. With the assistance of a crowfriar hired through the Backroad Inn's intermediacy, he offers to let Talsyn surrender and spare both the princess and her brother if she gives up Yith's true name and lets Hell reclaim the rogue demon. Hyperia seems to agree, but Catrin manages to sneak into the tower, get past Alken, and in the process lets Yith in with her. A violent struggle ensues, during which Catrin murders Hyperia. A badly wounded and exhausted Alken channels the angry ghosts who've haunted him throughout the story, awakening a new surge of power that allows him to slay Yith. However, with Hyperia dead in their custody it seems as though all chances of peace are lost, with many members of the lance dead and Catrin left traumatized by the demon's possession. However, Hyperia's corpse reanimates and provides a new opportunity.

Alken and Emma forge into the Fulgurkeep, where they discover that the Mistwalker Company and Calerus have prematurely launched a bloody coup, using a sorcerous mist to scatter the castle's occupants and take control of the throne room. After several battles and betrayals, during which Emma kills Brenner Hunting, Alken finally confronts Calerus Vyke. Calerus and the captain of the Mistwalkers, Issachar, are holding several members of the court hostage, including Rosanna and Markham's two sons. Alken tries to talk Calerus down, using his reanimated sister as a hostage, but Issachar forces a confrontation. Issachar is defeated and Calerus surrenders, stopping the next war before it truly begins.

In the aftermath of the failed coup, Rosanna's younger son Darsus is afflicted with the same ravenous hunger as the ghouls, one of the remaining members of the Headsman's lance quits and another, the archer Penric, reanimates as an undead just as Hyperia and Kieran did. Catrin tells Alken that Yith discovered she was pregnant, something normally impossible for a vampire, likely with Alken's own child. However, without the demon's intervention she has gone back to being unable to conceive. She decides to leave Urn, returning to her homeland to grieve in her own way and find answers to why she was born the way she is.

A heartbroken and worn Alken settles into his role as the Emperor's new enforcer while the gods remain silent over long weeks of recovery. Rosanna, following the birth of her third son, asks Alken to find a way to help Darsus and asks him to be the boy's godfather. Alken agrees to take on this new burden as he watches over his queen and her newborn child.

The raging storms of summer pass, and a harsh and early winter settles over the realms. Shadows lengthen. Mad wizards scheme and warlords plot.

In the deepest depths of Hell, one wakes from a long dream.