Crowntide

Grim stands alone at the maze’s edge. He clings to the belief that Isla’s alive because their souls are magically bound in such a way that, if one of them dies, the other will, too. He vows to do whatever it takes to see her again.

Grim portals to his winter castle where Oro and their allies await. These include a Skyling with fiery wings named Enya, a Skyling thief named Zed, a Moonling named Calder, and a Nightshade general named Astria. Zed suggests that they use the bond between Grim and Isla to find her, but Grim’s portaling flair isn’t strong enough to cross worlds. Grim reveals that there is a legendary stone more powerful than anything in their world called Infinite, but it cannot help them because he gave it to Isla as a necklace.

In a flashback, Grim remembers claiming Infinite for Isla right after he proposed to her. Tying his life force to hers is only a temporary solution, and he believes the black diamond can permanently save her life. He travels by boat to an island called Atlas. When he steps onto the island, a voice warns his life hangs in the balance. As he climbs a cliff, the island forces him to relive a memory where he remorselessly slaughtered soldiers. In the present, he feels crushing regret. The climb makes him relive every death he caused, but his love for Isla shields him from despair.

Near the top of the cliff, a vision of his sister, Laila, whom he accidentally killed when he was 12, appears. She accuses him of letting love destroy his kingdom and shoves him off. He catches himself and continues climbing. A voice asks why he wants the diamond and tests him by showing him memories of Isla killing people. Grim answers that his and Isla’s love is infinite because he loves all of her. He feels a piece of his soul ripped away as the test ends.

At the cave’s summit, he finds the magnificent black diamond. An echo tells him it will grant his greatest wish, which is to be together with Isla forever. He claims Infinite but worries that Isla’s troubles are only beginning.In a flashback, Grim remembers claiming Infinite for Isla right after he proposed to her. Tying his life force to hers is only a temporary solution, and he believes the black diamond can permanently save her life. He travels by boat to an island called Atlas. When he steps onto the island, a voice warns his life hangs in the balance. As he climbs a cliff, the island forces him to relive a memory where he remorselessly slaughtered soldiers. In the present, he feels crushing regret. The climb makes him relive every death he caused, but his love for Isla shields him from despair.

Near the top of the cliff, a vision of his sister, Laila, whom he accidentally killed when he was 12, appears. She accuses him of letting love destroy his kingdom and shoves him off. He catches himself and continues climbing. A voice asks why he wants the diamond and tests him by showing him memories of Isla killing people. Grim answers that his and Isla’s love is infinite because he loves all of her. He feels a piece of his soul ripped away as the test ends.

At the cave’s summit, he finds the magnificent black diamond. An echo tells him it will grant his greatest wish, which is to be together with Isla forever. He claims Infinite but worries that Isla’s troubles are only beginning.

Isla and Lark crash into another world. Isla seals the portal, and the suit of magical armor that once belonged to her late father helps to break her fall. Skyshade’s landscape is a wasteland of silver and black ash. Lark lies injured nearby, and Isla notes that her ancestor’s healing is far slower than on Lightlark. Isla moves to attack but collapses from exhaustion. She feels a strange weight suppressing her powers and the Infinite diamond. She worries how she will defeat Cronan and keep herself alive when her life force is expected to run out in days. Lark calls her a fool for bringing them to the ruined world. Suddenly, the ash beneath them forms ropes and chains that bind them both.

Oro tells his friends he must find Isla. Enya reminds him of his duty to Lightlark, which is ravaged by Lark’s recent attacks. Zed suggests their world might be better off without Isla’s dangerous power. Oro argues their world needs her abilities to rebuild, and Calder agrees they need her power and the diamond. Enya voices everyone’s fear that Cronan will kill Isla to claim Infinite because no one can remove the diamond from around her neck while she’s alive.

Terrified, Oro vows to rescue her. Grim appears and says they have only days before the life force Isla borrowed from him runs out. Oro says they must talk to Cleo, the Moonling ruler.

When Grim and Oro portal aboard her ship, Cleo admits that she helped Isla reach the other world in exchange for a chance to resurrect her dead son. Cleo speaks of a prophecy that a person “marked by halves” would decide their world’s fate 500 years after the curses were cast. She also speaks of Crowntide, a war between worlds that could end the universe and reveals that Oro’s father spent much of his reign searching for a lost king.

Isla and Lark are dragged through the ash desert by six scavengers. Isla’s powers remain suppressed, and the scavengers confiscate her sword, armor, orb of storms, and god-bone. Studying the glimmering ash, Isla realizes this desert is the ruins of a once lush world. She feigns collapse to get into the cart, where she steals a dagger and discovers that the cart is filled with mangled corpses of people who have been torn apart by portals. She cuts her bonds and retrieves her belongings.

Isla frees Lark and then attacks her ancestor with the god-bone, but the ash magically drags Isla back. The captors retake her belongings. The ground trembles as a creature attacks, instantly desiccating a scavenger by draining all water from their body. One of the scavengers kills the creature, and they continue walking.

Cleo explains that Horus, Oro’s ancestor and one of Lightlark’s three founders, left a map to a lost king that “should only be used in the direst of circumstances” (36). Oro’s late father and brother kept this knowledge from him. Grim portals them to the Moon Isle library, where Cleo retrieves a compass containing water that points toward their destination. Grim shatters the compass, uses the water it contains to sense their destination, and portals them to a tiny rocky isle in a raging sea.

Cleo uses her Moonling power to part the sea, creating a chasm to the ocean floor, and vows to hold back the waters as long as she must. Grim and Oro jump into the depths. Miles below, their powers are suddenly nullified and they crash-land. They discover hundreds of prisoners chained to the seafloor, caught in an eternal cycle of drowning and reviving. They have found an ancient prison housing dangerous beings from across the universe.

The scavengers are attacked by people trying to steal resources. The two remaining scavengers use sand-based powers to kill their attackers and then loot the bodies. They force Isla to drink some water. She notices a silver shard necklace on her captor and speculates that it’s the source of their power. Lark also drinks, and her wound heals slightly. Isla tries to get information from her captors, but they remain silent.

Rain begins falling as a storm gathers. The terrified scavengers flee. Isla feels her powers returning, amplified by the storm’s energy. Lark’s power also returns. Lark breaks her bonds, heals herself, and opens a portal to a forest. She sends trees hurtling toward Isla.

The prisoners begin screaming. Grim recognizes their shackles as shademade metal, which nullifies powers. He gives Oro a dagger since the Sunling has no weapon, and they fight side by side, cutting through hordes of prisoners. Grim saves Oro from a sneak attack. He reaches mentally for his bond with Isla and tells her he is coming.

As they fight, Oro confronts Grim about erasing Isla’s memories. Grim admits he regrets it daily. They argue over who is better for Isla. Oro accuses Grim of corrupting her into a monster and says she is only with Grim because shame makes her think she deserves a monster. When Oro cruelly mentions Grim accidentally killing his sister, a confidence shared centuries ago, Grim throws Oro through the wall of water Cleo formed with her power.

As they prepare to fight again, the ocean walls shudder and ice steps form as an exit. They realize Cleo is weakening. They race forward, fighting as one unit. A giant scorpion captures Grim, and Oro saves him. Grim thanks Oro, solidifying their truce. They climb a hill and see the lone figure of the lost king in the distance.

Isla absorbs Lark’s attack and turns the trees against her, piercing her ancestor with wooden daggers. Lark heals instantly. As they charge at each other, Isla magically summons her confiscated armor and weapons. A lightning bolt strikes between them. Portals open in the sky, and mangled creatures rain down. Mysterious knights in dark armor land, wielding swords of pure shadow. Isla feels her essence being pulled toward them.

The knights’ void-like power drains Isla’s abilities and shatters her shademade armor. Lark is also overwhelmed. Isla realizes she must kill Lark herself to absorb her power of regeneration. She spots a small portal that leads to another region of Skyshade. As a knight attacks, Isla breaks free, grabs Lark, and soars through the portal. On the other side, her power vanishes and they plummet into a forest. Isla senses an ancient energy circling her curiously and glimpses a vision of herself.

Grim and Oro approach the lost king, who expected them and remarks that three kings are reunited. He debates whether to help them because he’s certain Cronan will find Isla if he hasn’t already.

The king explains that Isla is Cronan’s “Worldkey.” With her powers and the Infinite diamond along with Cronan’s sword and crown, he could achieve ultimate power and conquer the universe. Grim realizes with horror he has been gathering everything his ancestor needs. The king explains that Infinite can only be claimed out of love and that the diamond forced Cronan to retreat to Skyshade when he tried to seize it. After being banished, Cronan created a cursed world where souls of those who died from the curses now reside. The lost king tells Grim and Oro to go there to find lost knowledge.

The lost king materializes the golden Threads of Time in his hand, which he describes as the key to breaking or saving the universe. He tells them to give the threads to Isla but warns that she becomes a villain in as many timelines as she becomes a hero. As Grim and Oro touch the threads, the king vanishes.

Isla is plunged into childhood memories. As an eight-year-old Isla duels with her guardian, Terra, she asks about her dead parents. Terra dismisses her questions and knocks Isla unconscious. She awakens at sunset. Terra calls her weak and says that she will doom their Wildling realm. Isla’s other guardian, Poppy, tends her wounds. Alone in her room, Isla finds comfort in a secret collection of her mother’s belongings, which include a doll, a comb, and a paintbrush.

Later, Terra discovers the collection and turns the items to dust. Devastated, Isla claws at the floor and discovers a loose floorboard. In a hidden compartment, she finds a strange glimmering stick that creates a keyhole-like window to another world, giving her hope.

During another training session, Terra uses Wildling powers to impale Isla’s limbs with wood, nearly killing her. Isla resolves to survive the Centennial and win her freedom.

Isla awakens in the present to find Lark fighting a monster. Isla beheads it and realizes that Cronan cursed this world’s inhabitants as well as its landscape. Lark falls into a trance as a memory seizes her. As an army of cursed women emerges from the trees and rushes towards Isla, she feels herself pulled into another memory and is certain she will die.

Back at Oro’s castle, Grim dismisses the Threads of Time as useless and declares that he only cares about Isla, not the universe. Oro argues that Isla cares about the world, too. Remembering the lost king’s instructions, they seek the help of Azul, the Skyling ruler. Azul’s deceased husband was a Moonling scholar who might possess lost knowledge.

Grim portals himself and Oro to Azul’s castle, and Oro informs him of the coming war, Crowntide. They explain their theory that his husband’s soul is in the cursed world, and Azul agrees to go with them.

As the cursed women attack Isla, a mysterious woman with silver hair and eyes appears. She transports Isla to a clearing with a silver pool and explains that they are in the Forgotten Forest, which helps people remember their past. The pool shows Isla memories of her painful, lonely childhood, and she breaks down sobbing as the woman comforts her.

Grim, Oro, and Azul arrive in the cursed world. Grim snaps at Azul to make his conversation with his deceased husband quick. He thinks of Isla and sends his love through their fading bond. He senses a familiar, hollow aura and turns to find the soul of his father, who asks if he claimed Infinite. When Grim confirms he did, his father shows pride in Grim for the first time and vanishes. Grim realizes his past hatred for his father is meaningless compared to his love for Isla. He turns to find Oro and Azul are gone.

Oro is drawn through the fog and finds the soul of his late elder brother, Egan. Overcome with emotion after five centuries apart, Oro tells Egan everything that has happened, including his love for Isla. The soul of Violet, Isla’s ancestor and the woman Egan loved, appears. She asks about her best friend, Aurora, unaware that Aurora caused her and Egan’s deaths by starting the curses.

To preserve their peace, Oro lies and says Aurora lived a long life. Egan explains that he and Violet chose to stay in this cursed place to be together. Grim’s voice calls out, and, when Oro looks back, Egan and Violet have vanished. Azul reappears, looking at peace. They join hands, and Grim portals them back to Lightlark.

The silver-haired woman tells Isla her strength is limitless and that the pool will always be there to remind her of this. When Isla confesses that she is dying, the woman gives her water from the pool, extending her time but clarifying Isla must save herself. In response to Isla’s despair, the woman gestures to her mother’s charm bracelet and says that Isla can use her mother’s flair to look into the future when she is ready. Suddenly, the silver-haired woman warns that someone is coming and vanishes. Isla is back in the forest with a now-conscious Lark, who has no memory of the silver-haired woman. A wave of darkness flattens the woods, coalescing into the form of Cronan.

Azul reveals what his husband told him: An ancient pool on Lightlark, created from water taken from a dead oracle’s lungs, is connected by enchantment to a pool in Skyshade. If the Lightlark pool still exists, the connection between the waters could create a portal.

The three men portal to a beach. The pool is only revealed at high tide, so Grim demands Oro change the tides. When Oro mocks him, Grim throttles him. Oro retaliates, and they engage in a magical battle. Both freeze in horror when they realize they can no longer feel their connection to Isla. Grim collapses in despair, believing she is dead.

Oro refuses to believe Isla is gone. He slaps Grim to snap him out of despair, arguing that since Grim is still alive, their shared lifeline means Isla must be, too. Grim’s fighting spirit returns.

Internally, Oro is devastated because he fears a future without Isla. He clings to hope, willing his love to reach her across the universe. Though he has never been the strongest at water magic, his determination to be strong for Isla spurs him to change the tides. The hidden pool glows blue. Grim immediately jumps in and attempts to create a portal using his flair, but nothing happens. Oro understands they need another component to turn the pool into a functioning portal.