A Torch Against the Night

Elias assesses that dozens of soldiers are pursuing them and leads Laia through side tunnels. When they are spotted, Elias kills several soldiers to clear a path, while Laia is forced to stab one of their pursuers. As they run, explosions from the city above signal the beginning of a Scholar revolution.

Just as they near their escape route, the tunnel ceiling begins to collapse. They emerge into the streets of Serra to find the city burning and overrun with fighting. Across a square, Elias sees his mother, Keris Veturia, the Commandant of Blackcliff Academy. He watches as she executes an elderly enslaved Scholar before turning to offer her son a smile.

Laia, focused on rescuing her brother, Darin, from Kauf Prison, presses Elias for a new plan, as the revolt has blocked their escape routes. Elias suggests a path through his grandfather’s abandoned storage depot, which contains a secret exit at the city wall. He is sure that his mother, the Commandant, whom his grandfather hates, won’t know about it.

They travel for hours through the city to reach the building. Elias decides to scout the depot alone, telling Laia he will use a specific whistle to communicate. She waits until she hears the three-note warning signal, indicating that the Commandant is waiting for them inside.

Elias confronts the Commandant alone in the depot courtyard. He notices she is wearing the protective, living metal shirt taken from Helene Aquilla. They fight, and the Commandant wounds Elias’s bicep with a throwing star.

Laia arrives and intervenes by throwing sand into the Commandant’s eyes. Elias uses the distraction to knock his mother unconscious but chooses not to kill her, instead tying her up. They take her horse and flee through a hidden door in the city wall. Once clear of the city, the absence of patrols leads Elias to conclude that the Commandant deliberately let them go. Elias and Laia find refuge in a dead orchard outside the city. Elias tells Laia of his plan to travel to Nur, a Tribal city, where he can reconnect with his adoptive Tribal family, who raised him after his mother abandoned him in the desert. Although he left Tribe Saif at the age of six, when he was conscripted to Blackcliff for training, he still sees them and his adoptive mother, Mamie Rila, as his true family and utterly trusts them to help.

After the Emperor sides with the Commandant over Helene, he names her a traitor for abandoning her mission of finding Elias. She is taken to a Blackcliff dungeon, where she is interrogated for five days by a Black Guard known as the Northman, Lieutenant Avitas Harper. She refuses to divulge any information about Elias’s escape or Laia’s involvement.

The interrogation is halted by the new Emperor, Marcus Farrar, and Helene’s father, Pater Aquillus. Pater Aquillus invokes a political deal, trading the loyalty of their powerful family, Gens Aquilla, in exchange for his daughter’s life. Marcus agrees, releasing Helene and informing her that she now has a mission.

Hours after escaping Serra, Laia and Elias ride east into the desert, where they are attacked by wraiths demanding silver. After one chokes Laia, Elias kills them. As they continue, Laia tells Elias about her family and her motivation for rescuing her brother.

She tells him that her parents were founding members of the Scholar rebellion, and her mother was known as the Lioness. They, along with her sister, were taken and killed by Masks. She and her brother, Darin, lived with their grandparents until Masks arrived. Her grandparents were killed, and Darin was taken. Later, she discovered that he was working with Teluman, the smith who makes the famed Serric steel weapons for the Martials. If the Scholars are able to utilize the technology, their rebellion may succeed, freeing the Scholars from enslavement.

They stop at a creek, where Elias collapses from a violent seizure. Laia realizes the Commandant’s blade was poisoned. As he suffers from hallucinations, she tends to his wound. Deducing he needs an antidote called Tellis extract, found at the outlaw haven of Raider’s Roost, Laia ties the unconscious Elias to their horse and leads them southeast.

While unconscious, Elias’s spirit is transported to a realm called the Waiting Place. He is confronted by the ghost of his friend, Tristas, who blames Elias for his death. Elias then meets the realm’s ruler, the Soul Catcher, a jinn who informs him that he is dying.

Elias drifts in and out of consciousness, vaguely aware of Laia’s care. The Soul Catcher confirms the poison is Nightweed, a slow-acting substance with no cure. Elias awakens with the knowledge that his mother has condemned him to a slow, certain death.

While recovering at her family’s home, Villa Aquilla, Helene is confronted by her sister, Hannah, who expresses disgust over Helene’s loyalty to Elias. Later, at Villa Veturius, Emperor Marcus assigns Helene her mission as the Blood Shrike: Hunt down, torture, and publicly execute Elias to prove her loyalty to the Empire. Marcus also assigns Lieutenant Harper to her command, and Helene realizes that he will be the Commandant’s spy.

Afterward, Helene overhears the Commandant speaking with a hooded figure, the Nightbringer. The Nightbringer confronts Helene, showing her a vision of a blood-soaked future before disappearing.

Laia arrives with Elias at Raider’s Roost, a dangerous outlaw market. She hides him in a cave and enters the market to find the Tellis extract. While searching, she overhears rumors that her brother, Darin, knows how to forge Serric steel.

After buying the Tellis, Laia is captured by a Tribesman bounty hunter named Shikaat. During their struggle, Laia briefly feels invisible, though Shikaat captures her anyway. He forces her to lead him back to the cave to collect the bounty on both fugitives.

Elias awakens in the cave to find himself bound. Laia covertly administers the Tellis extract. Feigning unconsciousness, he waits for the antidote to take effect before breaking his bonds and fighting the Tribesmen. Shikaat takes Laia hostage.

Laia creates a distraction, causing Shikaat to stumble and impale himself on her blade. Traumatized by killing for the first time, Laia follows Elias as they escape through the nearby rock formations known as the Juts. Once safe, Elias tells Laia the poison is incurable and he is dying, resolving to maintain emotional distance from her.

The Augur Cain appears and warns the Nightbringer to stay away from Helene. He urges her to maintain faith in her mission. Helene then recruits her trusted friends, Dex Atrius and Faris Candelan, to serve on her pursuit team.

Days later, Helene learns her sister Hannah is now formally betrothed to Emperor Marcus. Shortly after, a report arrives that the Commandant’s horse was found near Raider’s Roost. Helene deduces that Elias stole the horse and is heading for the Tribal Fall Gathering in the city of Nur. She orders her forces to march there.

Weeks later, Laia and Elias travel through the mountains toward Nur. Laia is haunted by nightmares of killing Shikaat, and Elias confirms they are being followed. One evening, he encourages her to speak about her trauma. He comforts her before abruptly pulling away to maintain his emotional distance.

Their moment is interrupted when their pursuer attacks. Elias deflects arrows from an archer, who reveals himself to be Keenan, a member of the Scholar Resistance, there to help Laia.

Keenan’s companion, Izzi, emerges, and she and Laia share a joyful reunion. Izzi was Laia’s only friend while she was undercover at Blackcliff, and although Laia gave Izzi the means to escape, she never knew if her friend succeeded. Keenan is hostile toward Elias, questioning his loyalty because he was formerly a Mask. Laia defends Elias, affirming her trust in him and declaring him the group’s leader. Elias agrees to let Keenan and Izzi join them.

That night, Elias is violently pulled into the Waiting Place during another seizure. The Soul Catcher appears and, as a warning to keep his distance from Laia, magically reopens his poisoned wound in the real world. Elias awakens in agony.

In a flashback to two weeks prior, Helene investigates the storage depot in Serra. She finds tracks confirming that a struggle took place. She confronts her mother, Livia Aquilla, who lets slip that Hannah’s betrothal to Emperor Marcus is being finalized.

Helene rushes home to witness the arrangement. Her father explains that marrying Hannah to the Emperor was the price for saving Helene’s life. With this knowledge, Helene realizes the Commandant intentionally let Elias escape to weaken the Aquilla family. This realization leads Helene to deduce that Elias is traveling to his Tribal family in Nur.

The group travels toward Nur, with Elias and Keenan maintaining a tense truce. As Elias’s last dose of Tellis extract wears off, his strength fails. While crossing the desert, a violent sandstorm engulfs them.

Elias ropes the group together, insisting they push through the storm to the city. In the chaos, the rope connecting Laia to Elias goes slack. She becomes separated from the group and is lost in the storm.

Elias discovers the rope connecting him to Laia has been cleanly cut. After fighting off a hallucination of a sand efrit, he finds and rescues the others, leading them to an abandoned wagon inside Nur.

He ventures into the city to find more Tellis and discovers wanted posters for himself and Laia. While scouting the Martial garrison in the city, he spots Helene, Faris, and Harper. He realizes that they have established a cordon around Tribe Saif, targeting his adoptive family and his foster mother, Mamie Rila.

In the wagon, Laia tends to Izzi, who has been temporarily blinded by the sandstorm, while Keenan confronts Laia about Elias’s poisoning. Elias returns with news of Helene’s presence and proposes a risky plan: He will disguise himself as an enslaver, and the others will pose as enslaved people to cross the city.

Chained and led by Elias, the group moves through Nur. Laia freezes at the sight of a passing Mask, but Elias grounds her without breaking character. They reach the encampment of Tribe Nur and meet its leader, Afya Ara-Nur. Elias presents her with a favor coin, acquired when they shared a dance in the previous novel, and demands her help.

Afya agrees to help Elias but reveals that she has enlisted the aid of Tribe Saif, putting his adoptive family in danger. Afya then brings in Mamie Rila, his adoptive mother. Mamie insists the tribe must help him.

Afya interrupts, warning that Martial soldiers are coming to question Mamie. As she is led away, Mamie threatens Afya with a curse if she betrays Elias. Afya reveals their escape plan: Mamie will use her performance on the storytellers’ stage to create a massive diversion.

Frustrated by her lack of progress in Nur, Helene interrogates Mamie Rila, who inadvertently reveals she has recently seen Elias. A scout then reports that Mamie is heading to the storytellers’ stage. Realizing a plan is in motion, Helene takes Harper, Dex, and a squad of soldiers to the event.

Mamie takes the stage and begins telling a powerful story to the Tribal crowd, about a boy stolen and brutalized by the Martials. Helene understands too late that Mamie is deliberately inciting a riot.

Laia, Elias, and Afya watch Mamie’s performance from the crowd. As her story whips the Tribesmen into a frenzy, a Martial soldier sheds first blood, and the crowd erupts into violence. Afya begins leading her people toward an exit.

In the chaos, Laia is separated from Elias. For a moment, she moves through the riot as if unseen. She soon reunites with Elias, who has spotted Helene. He tells Laia to escape with Afya to their rendezvous point while he creates a distraction to draw Helene the Blood Shrike away.

Elias realizes the riot is a diversion to break the Martial cordon around the city—it will pull all the soldiers toward the riot, and in the confusion, hundreds of caravans will leave the city, confusing any pursuers. He sees Helene get pulled down by the mob and fights through the crowd to rescue her, carrying her to an alley.

She recovers and attempts to arrest him, but he overpowers her. He confesses that he misses her, then he releases her and walks away. Helene allows him to go. He reaches a depot just in time to see Martial soldiers capture Tribe Saif, set their wagons on fire, and knock Mamie unconscious. Afya arrives and stops him from intervening.

Afya’s caravan escapes Nur, with the fugitives hiding in their caravan’s smuggling compartments. That night, a grieving Elias isolates himself. Afya orders Laia to comfort him. Laia approaches him and takes his hands, offering quiet support. He asks her to repeat her grandmother’s saying that hope is a torch against the night.

They share a brief moment of connection before he withdraws, overwhelmed by grief and guilt over the capture of his family. Laia feels responsible for the price Tribe Saif has paid for their escape.

In his sleep, Elias is pulled into the Waiting Place. The Soul Catcher appears and delivers a prophecy: Elias will not live past Rathana, a holiday just two months away. Realizing his time is short, Elias decides he must travel to Kauf Prison alone because it will be faster.

He secures a horse from Afya and writes a farewell letter for Laia with a map to a rendezvous point. After a cryptic farewell from Keenan, Elias goes to Laia’s wagon, watches her sleep for a moment, and departs north by himself.

Struggling with her failure in Nur, Helene orders the captured members of Tribe Saif to be interrogated, using the children as leverage but giving orders that no one be harmed. She receives letters from the capital, Antium, warning of a brewing civil war. The ruling Martial families, known as the Gens, are unhappy with the Emperor. They are Illustrians, or aristocrats, while Marcus is Plebeian, or lower-class.

After six days of searching the desert for Elias, her party discovers the Commandant at the Gentrium garrison, personally overseeing the execution of Scholar prisoners, including children. Helene is powerless to intervene. A courier arrives with urgent orders: The Illustrian Gens have declared war on the Empire, and she must return to the capital.