In Caligorya, Zevander appears inside a dormant vein of sablefyre, where a young man chisels the rock as two soldiers stand frozen nearby. The young man whispers to himself that a spindling, or person born without magic, can become a high mage. The young man’s hood falls back, revealing a young Alastor. Alastor finds a black orb, out of which crawls a spider. Looking into the gap left by the orb, Alastor finds and draws a complex glyph in the rock. A woman’s voice calls to Zevander, who walks toward the voice.

In the present, Zevander wakes up and grabs for Maevyth, who assures him that they’re safe. Priestess Erithanya explains that they’re in Crovenrock Temple in the village of Wraithmire, which is celebrating the Winter Somnial. Erithanya gives Zevander a dose of vivicantem. Maevyth can’t tell the difference between Vonkovyan, which her father and Aleysia speak; Nyxterosi, which Zevander speaks; and Lyverian, which Erithanya speaks. Erithanya clarifies that this is because the Vasmora has the divine power to understand every language—except Primyrian, which was designed to evade the gods.

In a cottage set aside for their use, Maevyth explains to Zevander what Erithanya told her about being the Vasmora. She fears that Zevander’s presence will interfere with the ritual. Cadavros might be waiting for Zevander to regain his strength, or Zevander might be infected, given the mark on his face. Maevyth explains how Erithanya cured Aleysia. They bathe, and Zevander performs oral sex on Maevyth. When Aleysia interrupts, Maevyth sends her away.

As Aleysia dances with two warriors around a fire, people give Maevyth gifts. She reflects on how everyone in Foxglove hated her, while in Wraithmire, the Lyverian villagers respect her. A large man asks for the honor of impregnating Maevyth, which she rejects politely. Maevyth’s father apologizes for allowing her mistreatment in Foxglove, comparing the cruelty of Caedes, the Red God, to the worship of Morsana. Maevyth accepts the apology. Her father asks if Maevyth loves Zevander, and she tells him that she does. Her father then tells her to return to Aethyria, promising that he and Aleysia will be happy in Lyveria. Maevyth compares the Somnial to the Vonkovyan solstice celebration.

Erithanya brings Maevyth to the dormant sablefyre vein and chains her inside while the villagers watch. Maevyth doesn’t see Zevander. Erithanya summons the god Deimos and spills some of Maevyth’s blood on the rocks. If Deimos reignites the vein, Maevyth will die, but if he doesn’t , Erithanya will believe Maevyth’s vision of Morsana. The rocks heat up but then cool, so Erithanya declares that Morsana has chosen Maevyth. Just then, Maevyth sees a cloaked figure leaving the scene.

At their cottage, Zevander reveals that he was the cloaked figure. He used radiant heat from a distance to trick Erithanya. They have sex, with Zevander restraining himself to only penetrate Maevyth with two piercings. Maevyth says that she can handle a third piercing, digging her claws into Zevander’s back. Maevyth forces Zevander to look at her during sex and tells him that she loves him as they climax.

Zevander wakes and sees a drawing on the wall. He notices a shadowy figure exit the cottage and follows it to the dead vein, using a vanishing spell to get past the guards. Zevander watches the figure chip vivicantem from the rock and draw an intricate glyph. The figure is Alastor, who claims that they’re in Caligorya. Alastor, or Cadavros, says that his journey began with the dream to reignite the dead veins of Aethyria to provide vivicantem for spindlings, who are denied vivicantem to feed the greed of the nobility. Alastor found the amulet of Pestilios and bound it to Prince Dorjan’s soul as a form of insurance, but he became corrupted by Pestilios. To reignite the veins, he needs to control sablefyre, but only Zevander can do that. As he says this, Zevander realizes that Cadavros is an illusion: Zevander is the one who drew the glyph on the chipped vein rock. Cadavros disappears, and Zevander flees with two chunks of vivicantem. He suddenly finds himself in the lower level of the temple in Foxglove. Maevyth approaches and asks him to wake up, but Zevander can’t tell if he’s dreaming. He goes to the vault in which he thinks he locked Theron and finds it empty.

Zevander is gone when Maevyth wakes up, and there’s a drawing of a monstrous tree on the wall. Erithanya tells Maevyth that a guard was bitten by an infected spider, so Maevyth and Erithanya perform the cleansing ritual. The guard is purged but doesn’t come back to life. The vein has been reignited, so Maevyth reveals to Erithanya that Zevander is the vessel of Deimos. Erithanya believes that the gods Morsana and Deimos are reuniting through Zevander and Maevyth.

Erithanya examines the drawing of the Rotting Tree and concludes that Zevander teleported away through it. Aleysia interrupts—she recognizes the drawing because she was kept in the Rotting Tree. Maevyth will go after Zevander, so Erithanya offers to show Maevyth how to use her gloved hand.

Maevyth and Aleysia say their goodbyes. Aleysia says that she loves Maevyth and accepts that Maevyth plans to leave Mortasia. Aleysia will be happy in Lyveria, and she wants Maevyth and Zevander to be together. Maevyth loves Aleysia, too.

In the past, Zevander contemplates dying by suicide with a poison dagger. As he bathes, two women stare at him. After Loyce placed a 10th piercing in his genitals, Zevander became a spectacle for the others in the Gildona. However, before Zevander can pierce his chest with the blade, guards drag him from the bath, instructing him to get dressed to meet King Jeret. Zevander fights to get the dagger, but they knock him unconscious.

Before King Jeret, Loyce bargains to keep Zevander. Zevander steals another blade and attempts to slice Loyce’s neck vein, but Loyce says that her vein can regenerate. Guards tackle Zevander. Theron now declares that he lied about Zevander going to Caligorya; he claims that he carved the glyphs into Zevander’s hand. Jeret grants Zevander’s freedom in exchange for 20,000 troops from Sagaerin. Zevander demands that Jeret also release Kazhimyr, Ravezio, Torryn, and Theron, threatening to expose what he knows about Jeret’s illegitimate children. Jeret agrees to free Kazhimyr, Ravezio, and Torryn but gives Theron to Loyce for torture.

In the present, Cadavros appears outside Theron’s empty vault and opens Zevander’s griefcoffer, which contains his most guilty and painful memory. The coffer contains Theron’s severed head and a vision of his gruesome death. Spiders then swarm from the box, so Zevander defends himself with sablefyre, causing his scorpion to appear and stab him in the back. Cadavros tells Zevander that scorpions are immune to their own venom but sting themselves when lit on fire. Cadavros reveals that every time Zevander thought he was fighting Theron, he was actually hallucinating and fighting himself. As Zevander’s guilt, exacerbated by a lack of vivicantem, overwhelms him, Cadavros stops the scorpion and says that they need to destroy the Umbravale.

Erithanya explains that the glove allows Maevyth to communicate with Raivox telepathically so that she can ride him. Raivox brings Maevyth to his nest in the mountains, which contains two eggs. A giant lizard tries to take the eggs. Maevyth kills the lizard but falls off the mountain.

At the Umbravale, Cadavros explains that the Emberforge Ritual that he performed when Zevander was a baby actually infected Zevander with the power of the god Pestilios, granting Cadavros control over Zevander. Zevander channels the protective glyph Propulszir to keep Cadavros from accessing his thoughts and slips into Caligorya.

Zevander appears in a home and finds two children: a young spindling boy and a girl with deformities on her face. They are siblings Alastor and Melisara. A man enters, drunk, and grabs Melisara, calling her a monster. Alastor kills the man and eats the vivicantem stored in the man’s jewelry.

Cadavros appears and tells Zevander that this is the moment when vivicantem awoke Alastor’s blood magic, allowing him to steal identities. Melisara developed the same magic powers as a sanguidin, or a vampiric blood consumer. They changed their names to Cadavros and Melantha, and Cadavros became a high mage. Zevander recognizes Melantha from Sagaerin’s court. The Rotting Tree appears before Zevander, and he follows Maevyth’s voice into the tree.

Maevyth lands on Raivox’s back, flying away from the mountains. Raivox deposits Maevyth at the Rotting Tree. She enters, finding Zevander restrained with the forest’s wrathavor behind him. The wrathavor, Cadavros, explains how he and Zevander are connected through Pestilios. He offers Maevyth everlasting life to bond with him. Maevyth refuses, so Cadavros releases Zevander, who is in a trance and doesn’t recognize her. Zevander chases Maevyth, who gets lost in the tree.

Ravezio, Kazhimyr, and Dravien arrive at the Umbravale and enter the Eating Woods. Kazhimyr finds Zevander’s sword, and they notice a giant, black, dragon-like creature scratching the ground in front of a massive tree—it’s Raivox. When they enter the tree, spiders attack them, separating them and forcing Kazhimyr into the alcove from his dream.

Maevyth is lost in the Rotting Tree. Zevander appears and pins her down. Recalling Eirthanya’s ritual to purge Aleysia’s infection, Maevyth says that she wants to bond with Zevander and cuts her neck. As Zevander greedily consumes her blood, a voice from the forest screams. Zevander writhes, spiders crawling from his mouth. His body stills, and the scorpion collapses. Maevyth begs Morsana to let Zevander live.

Zevander finds himself in a field of black roses in Caligorya. Cadavros lies dead next to him. Morsana approaches him and calls him Deimos. Morsana kisses Zevander, but Zevander doesn’t return the kiss, saying that Deimos doesn’t control his heart. In response, Morsana agrees to return Zevander to Maevyth until Maevyth merges with Morsana. This transcendence will happen when Maevyth is fated to die.

Zevander embraces Maevyth. He knows that if the ritual she performed killed Zevander, then Cadavros may also be dead. If Cadavros is dead, then his bond with Prince Dorjan has activated. If Dorjan is dead, then the amulet keeping the plague at bay is broken, and Pestilios is free to infect the world.

Kazhimyr, Dravien, and Ravezio appear and reunite with Zevander and Maevyth. The group leaves the tree, pursued by spiders. Outside the tree, Maevyth finds Raivox trapped in webbing. Zevander burns away the webs while Ravezio, Kazhimyr, and Dravien hold back waves of spiders. Raivox comes free just as a spider as large as a dragon attacks him. Raivox sprays it with silver flames, forcing it to retreat. The group flees to the Umbravale.

As Zevander holds back the spiders, he tells Maevyth to cross the Umbravale to be safe, but she refuses. Meanwhile, Kazhimyr and Dravien almost fall into Nethyria, the chasm between the realms of Mortasia and Aethyria. Zevander uses the eldritch glyph to disable the ward momentarily, allowing Kazhimyr, Dravien, and Maevyth to cross to safety. Suddenly, as Ravezio and Zevander prepare to follow them across the Umbravale, Cadavros appears and creates a small flame of sablefyre. He wants Zevander to help him destroy the Umbravale permanently, but Zevander refuses. He fights Cadavros, who suspends Ravezio and gruesomely removes his scales. Ravezio asks Zevander to kill him out of mercy, so Zevander turns Ravezio into a bloodstone.

Maevyth watches through the barrier as Zevander overpowers Cadavros. Cadavros chastises Zevander for falling for Maevyth, but Zevander reminds him of the bond between Deimos and Morsana. When Zevander pushes Cadavros away, Dravien opens the ward. Kazhimyr and Maevyth grab Zevander, but they struggle to hold on. Zevander tells Maevyth he loves her and then falls down into the Nethyria chasm. Maevyth collapses. Kazhimyr ruefully notes that no one has ever returned from Nethyria.

Loyce appears with Melantha and a group of Solassion soldiers. As the soldiers attack, a strange man burns black, magic-suppressing bands onto Kazhimyr’s and Maevyth’s wrists. Loyce punches Maevyth in the face and taunts that she will feed Maevyth to her pets.

Zevander clings to a rock in Nethyria as spiders fall behind him. He prays that Maevyth finds her way to Dolion and remembers Maevyth’s face from his first trips into Caligorya. Above, Raivox appears.