A Forsaken Prophecy

Stacey McEwan’s A Forsaken Prophecy (2024) is an adult dark fantasy novel and the second installment in The Artisan Trilogy, following A Forbidden Alchemy. McEwan is also the author of the popular romantasy series The Glacian Trilogy. In A Forsaken Prophecy, the rebellion led by the non-magical Crafters has suffered a major blow. The last Alchemist, Patrick Colson, and the powerful earth Charmer, Nina Harrow, are captured by the ruling magical class, the Artisans. Taken to the capital, they are thrust into a world of deadly political maneuvering where they must navigate shifting alliances to survive.

The novel examines the brutal realities of class warfare, exploring How Elites Maintain Power Through Exploitation by controlling magical resources and historical narratives. As Patrick and Nina are forced into impossible situations, the story portrays immense personal Sacrifice as the Price of Revolution. Their fraught relationship, which crosses the rigid lines of their society, serves as the story’s emotional core and explores Love as a Radical Act, a vision of a future where loyalty is not determined by birthright. The narrative combines high-stakes action with a complex romance, continuing the epic conflict established in the first book.

This guide refers to the 2024 Saga Press edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of graphic violence, physical and emotional abuse, substance use, addiction, gender discrimination, sexual content, sexual harassment, animal death, cursing, illness, and death.

Plot Summary

The story takes place in a fantasy world called Belavere Trench. Some individuals, called Artisans, can use elemental magic because they have access to idium, an inky substance extracted from an ore called terranium. The Artisans hold political and socioeconomic power while those without access to idium are called Crafters and make up the working class.

The novel opens on the immediate aftermath of a battle between the army of the House of Lords, the governing body of Belavere Trench, and the Miners Union, a Crafter resistance movement. The army devastates the miners’ stronghold of Kenton Hill and captures Patrick Colson and Nina Harrow. Patrick is the last Alchemist, the only person alive with the power to extract idium from terranium. Nina also possesses a unique elemental power as the first earth Charmer in over a century. Patrick is bitter toward Nina because she has secretly been working for the Artisan ruling class to save her captive mother. They are transported to the capital, Belavere City, with Nina’s former lover, Theodore “Theo” Shop, who is a member of the aristocracy but fought alongside the Miners Union in the battle. 

Nina, Patrick, and Theo are taken to the National House, the residence of the Head of the House of Lords, Lord Tanner. Tanner orders Nina and Theo’s Artisan brands, the magical marks on their arms, to be cut, draining the idium from their bodies to render them powerless. To force Patrick’s cooperation in siphoning idium from the continent’s dwindling supply of terranium ore, Tanner orders a sever beating of Patrick’s captive father, John Colson. Patrick relents, creating enough bluff (a healing derivative of idium) to save his father. Meanwhile, Theo’s father, Lord Terrence Shop, reveals a secret plan to Patrick: He wants to overthrow the increasingly erratic Lord Tanner. Shop produces The Stewards’ Testament, a book he claims will lead to Idia’s Seam, a legendary, immense source of terranium. In exchange for Patrick’s help, Shop promises a truce with the Miners Union. 

To force Nina’s compliance, Tanner stages a public execution for her mother, Rose Harrow. Though he only intends it as a threat, the executioner pulls the lever, and Rose is killed. Fueled by grief and a secret vial of idium Patrick had smuggled to her, Nina unleashes her power, burying Lord Tanner alive in the courtyard. In the ensuing chaos, Terrence Shop seizes control, declaring himself the new Head of House. Shop reveals he manipulated the entire situation and offers Patrick and his father a new deal: If they help him find Idia’s Seam, he will grant the Crafter towns a share of the spoils. The deal’s price is that Nina must be publicly flogged for assassinating Tanner to appease the Artisan ministry. Determined to protect the woman he loves, Theo helps Nina, Patrick, and John escape. As Lord Shop pursues them in a coach, John uses his wood magic to snap the coach’s axle, allowing the group to flee the city. They set a course for the city of Morland, where Shop claims a Scribbler (an Artisan with power over ink) capable of translating the ancient Verian Script of the Testament resides.

In Morland, they discover the translator is Polly Prescott, Nina’s former friend and the person who betrayed Kenton Hill to the House of Lords. They track her to an Artisan gambling den, where a tense confrontation causes Nina’s power to erupt in a localized earthquake. As police close in, Patrick is forced to shoot three officers to clear an escape route, and they take Polly hostage. Polly, now a pariah to both the House and the Union, agrees to translate the book in exchange for safe passage on a ship out of the continent. The first translation reveals the story of Joan, one of God’s three mythical daughters, who was betrayed and killed in the town of Trent. Believing this is their first clue, the group travels to Trent through the Miners Union’s secret tunnel network. They find the town razed by the Lords’ Army, but a survivor named Edith directs them to an ancient, indestructible oak tree where Joan is said to be buried. As they stand before it, an image of a woman appears in the gnarled bark, confirming the legend. Their discovery is cut short when a contingent of the Lords’ Army attacks, having been alerted by a hidden Scribbler in the town. Theo creates a flash flood with his water Charmer powers that decimates the soldiers, and he is shot while protecting Nina. 

Next, the group travels to the town of Lavnonshire in search of a cypher Polly’s late grandfather created, which will allow her to complete the translation. Polly locates the cypher, but she and Theo are taken captive by Lord Shop. Nina, Patrick, and John manage to escape, and Polly uses the last of her idium to magically send the Testament’s final passage to Patrick. This reveals that Idia, one of God’s daughters, was buried in the only place where a flower called widow’s lace grows—Nina’s desolate hometown of Scurry.

The group travels to Scurry and uncovers Idia’s Seam. To secure help in mining and transporting the ore, Patrick brokers a tense deal with the local mining crew and its leader, Nina’s estranged uncle Harland “Kicker” Seymour. Before they can begin, Patrick’s brothers, Gunner and Donny, arrive from Kenton Hill with Theo and a gravely injured Polly, who escaped Lord Shop. They deliver a dire warning: Lord Shop has set a trap and is marching an army toward Scurry, intending to seize the Seam once Nina has unearthed it. Patrick’s mother, Tess, also arrives with the Kenton party. She reveals that, two years ago, John murdered Polly’s grandfather to steal the Testament and attempted to sell it to Lord Tanner. John also gave up Patrick’s identity as the last Alchemist. John claims that he was acting in his family’s best interest, but Tess shoots and kills her husband. At that moment, the town’s raid siren blares. John alerted Lord Shop to their location in a final, desperate gambit.

As the Lords’ Army approaches, Harland and his men turn on the group, capturing Nina and intending to trade her to the enemy. Tied to a statue in the town center, a despairing Nina unleashes the full extent of her power. She creates a colossal fissure that cleaves the town of Scurry in two, swallowing the church, the terranium seam, and many of Harland’s men. Patrick fights through the chaos of the collapsing town to free her, and they escape with the Kenton Hill group. In the aftermath, Lord Shop arrives in the ruins. He is met by Tripp, a young Scurry miner who has consumed idium and reveals himself to be a new Alchemist. The House now occupies Scurry, poised to exploit the newly discovered terranium mine with its own Alchemist.