Heir

Sirsha and Quil track the killer across the Thafwan highlands, using her connection to the earth to trace the creature’s path. Though Quil respects her silence as she grieves Loli Temba, his steady presence and quiet reassurances offer her some comfort. Their bond deepens, represented by the intricate etchings on their Adah coins.

One night, a storm forces them to hide in an abandoned shepherd’s cabin. R’zwana soon arrives with J’yan, seeking shelter. While R’zwana attempts to antagonize Sirsha, dismissing the danger of the creature they hunt, Quil defends her. He takes her out of the main room and into one of the back rooms for the night, away from the other pair. After the two of them laugh the earlier confrontation off, the emotional walls between them finally crumble, and they have sex.

The following day, Sirsha’s momentary peace is shattered by R’zwana, who taunts her with the 1200 villagers who died because of Sirsha, which Quil does not yet know about. R’zwana’s taunts are interrupted by J’yan, who then apologizes to Sirsha for not supporting her when she was cast out.

Aiz rides out to find Mother Div’s prison as a sandstorm approaches the camp. Despite telling him to remain behind, Ruh insists on accompanying her. Guided by Mother Div’s whispers, Aiz and Ruh navigate the storm to a strange cavern walled with glowing blue rock. At its center lies a void filled with bones. Here, they find the Durani, who says she has kept Mother Div’s spirit imprisoned through magic. Aiz attacks the Durani to free Mother Div, releasing a catastrophic explosion of power that leaves Aiz with a broken leg.

Mother Div emerges, glowing with an ethereal light and embodying everything Aiz envisioned. However, she soon reveals herself to be corrupted and monstrous. She tears the Durani and Tregan, Aiz’s horse, apart. Mother Div then reveals that she requires the sacrifice of human hearts, pure and innocent, to sustain her power. She then kills Ruh.

Despite Aiz’s horror, Mother Div tempts her with a vision of a thriving Kegari homeland where her people prosper and are free from suffering. Aiz chooses life for her people and aligns herself with Mother Div.

Quil and Sirsha reluctantly team up with R’zwana and J’yan to hunt the killer, reasoning that they stand a better chance of dealing with it together, and the group continues to journey east, avoiding detection while navigating the burned-out remnants of Thafwan villages the Kegari left in their wake.

While at camp, Sirsha lays out some rules with Quil for their physical relationship, as she’s worried that the patterns on their Adah coins are becoming too complex. Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of a Sail, along with a squadron of heavily armed Kegari pilots. While Quil hides with J’yan, Sirsha attempts to deflect suspicion. When the pilots surround Sirsha, Quil launches an ambush. He kills most of the pilots, and R’zwana drags the last one back for interrogation. Quil uses his magic to extract memories from the pilot about the Tel Ilessi, but the man stabs himself before Quil can learn anything.

The group arrives at the Kegari war camp. From a hidden vantage point, they survey the camp, which is disorganized yet fortified with Sails and wind-wielding pilots. Sirsha feels the killer’s presence as an oppressive aura emanating from a lone tent. Quil goes to hunt the Tel Ilessi while she goes after the killer. Despite the danger, she insists on entering alone.

Inside, Sirsha encounters the creature, which takes the form of her mother again, and introduces herself as Mother Div. Sirsha attempts to bind her using magic, but Div absorbs her power, revealing herself as a void of hunger and despair. Div preys on Sirsha’s vulnerabilities and nearly draws her in, but R’zwana and J’yan intervene. They attempt to bind her again but fail once more. R’zwana tries to offer Sirsha to the monster to save herself, but Div kills J’yan instead. The sisters flee the tent while Div is distracted. At the edge of the camp, R’zwana argues with Sirsha, and Sirsha knocks her sister unconscious and leaves her behind.

After leaving the cavern and beginning the journey back to Kegar with Aiz, Mother Div demonstrates her abilities, including flying without a Sail and teaching Aiz to harness her windsmithing powers. Despite Aiz’s growing strength, her dreams are haunted by guilt over Ruh’s death and Quil’s discovery of her actions. The reminders of her sacrifice push her to continue her mission, even as Mother Div’s growing bloodlust becomes harder to ignore. Aiz realizes Div is feeding excessively, taking more lives than necessary, and growing ever more dangerous. Aiz forbids her from harming the Kegari people when they return. Div reluctantly complies, but Aiz remains wary.

Upon reaching Kegar, Aiz prepares to confront Tiral. During the Summer Rites, Aiz makes a dramatic entrance, interrupting the ceremony and accusing him of treachery, blasphemy, and atrocities against their people. The confrontation escalates into a battle of windsmithing, with Aiz drawing on Mother Div’s power to combat Tiral. As he gains the upper hand, Mother Div urges Aiz to sacrifice Kegari children to fuel her power and ensure victory.

Quil infiltrates the Kegari war camp and identifies the Tel Ilessi’s heavily guarded pavilion. The guards spot him, and he cuts his way into the tent to attack his target. However, once inside, he comes face-to-face with Ilar. At first, he thinks she is the creature having taken on Ilar’s form, but she soon clarifies that she is real and that her name is Aiz bet-Dafra, the Tel Ilessi. Using his magic, Quil reads Aiz’s memories and uncovers the full extent of her actions: her betrayal, the loss of her humanity, and the horrifying costs of her ambition. Quil realizes how much he trusted and loved her, only to be manipulated into revealing Martial secrets. He also realizes that the Ankanese ambassador, Ifalu, betrayed them. Despite his heartbreak and disgust, Quil suppresses his emotions and waits for the moment to strike.

Aiz explains to Quil how desperation, starvation, and the Empire’s refusal to trade living metal with them forced her into war. Quil counters her reasoning, condemning her for the atrocities she committed, particularly the sacrifice of innocent lives, including Ruh’s. Despite her attempts to justify her actions as necessary for the survival of her people, Quil’s disgust and anger only grow. When he lunges at her, she uses her windsmithing to subdue him. While Quil’s condemnation of her cuts deeply, Aiz buries her guilt and orders Cero to take him to the interrogators. Before leaving, she informs him that Serra has fallen and the Empire is on the brink of destruction.

Sirsha struggles between fleeing the Kegari camp and finding Quil, whose presence she feels through their Adah coin. She decides to head back into the camp for him but is quickly caught by Cero, the man Quil had previously assumed was the Tel Ilessi. He takes her to the tent where Quil is waiting, bound and guarded. Once he dismisses the other guards, Cero reveals he’s worried about Mother Div’s influence on Aiz. He also tells them that the book was the source of the evil. He asks Sirsha if she can bind it, and she says that her mother can bind it if she can get a message to her. Cero then leaves, deliberately giving them the opportunity to escape. The two then fight out of the camp and back to their horses as they prepare to flee.

Cero grapples with his complicity in Aiz’s campaign of terror as he arrives in the ruined city of Serra. Aiz’s growing reliance on Div’s grotesque sacrifices of children’s lives in exchange for power has shattered his faith in her, though he remains tied to her out of lingering love and guilt.

At Serra, Aiz single-handedly captures Helene, tearing apart her compound and subduing her with her wind magic. Though bound and apparently defeated, the Empress shows a defiance that unsettles Cero. As he watches Aiz revel in her victory, he clings to the faint hope that Aiz can be redeemed.

Aiz interrogates Helene in the dungeons of Blackcliff, trying to find the location of enough living metal for her people’s planned exodus. At first, she attempts to appeal to the Empress’s reason to avoid further bloodshed. Helene, however, remains silent. Aiz then uses Quil as emotional leverage, but the tactic backfires. Helene attacks, pinning Aiz and taunting her with her moral failings. Desperate, Aiz calls on Div, who responds with a flood of power that shatters the room, forcing Helene to retreat. Before Aiz can fully recover, Elias arrives and attacks. Aiz uses her wind magic to escape, though Elias strikes her first. Injured and weakened, she collapses near the exit, only to be met by Div, who scolds her for entering the confrontation unprepared. At her urging, Aiz uses her magic to invade Helene’s mind. In a vision, Aiz discovers a secret location hidden beneath an abandoned house, where many child Masks are hiding.

Sufiyan and Arelia arrive in Ankana’s capital, Burku, to look for Tas. The pair locate Tas in an expensive brothel, blending in under the guise of a drunken playboy. Once the three are alone, Tas drops the act and reveals that he’s gaining intelligence on Ikfa, a magic-suppressing metal found only in Kegar. He has a single chain, but they’d need more to take down the Kegari. Tas then explains that Quil was supposed to use diplomatic channels to secure a shipment of the metal, but, in his absence, they must resort to theft. The trio devises a plan using Arelia’s engineering expertise to stage an accident and smuggle the metal away.

The heist unfolds amid a storm, with Sufiyan executing a critical shot that sends the metal-laden pallet plunging into the ocean. Tas’s pirates retrieve the actual shipment while a decoy is recovered and sent to the Ankanese Vault of Seers.

Sufiyan makes it to the rendezvous point at an inn before Tas and Arelia and has to wait for a few tense hours before they arrive. To his surprise, Quil and Sirsha are with them. Sufiyan apologizes to Quil for his earlier anger, but Quil says to hold onto the anger until he hears everything that’s happened.

The weight of her blood oath to hunt Mother Div threatens to consume Sirsha entirely as the elements that drive her magic clamor for her to fulfill her vow. Meanwhile, Quil reveals the full truth about his magical abilities and Ilar/Aiz’s betrayal to the others. While discussing their next moves, Arelia suggests using the magic-suppressing Ikfa metal chain she got from Tas. Upon seeing it, Sirsha panics, warning them that the Ikfa is dangerous to any magic user. Her argument is interrupted when the pull of her oath momentarily overwhelms her, driving her to leave the room. When Quil follows her out, she confesses that the vow could render her a danger to everyone around her if left unfulfilled. He offers to stay with her, but she tells him to return to the others.

While wandering the streets of Burku alone, Sirsha recalls that magic cannot be destroyed, only contained or transformed. Div’s insatiable hunger might be countered by sacrifice, the opposite of greed. Sirsha realizes that the only way to bind Div might be to sacrifice her own life.

Returning to the inn, Sirsha finds Quil, and though she resolves to tell him the truth about her likely fate, she cannot bring herself to say it. Instead, they have sex one last time. As they lie together afterward, Sirsha silently bids Quil goodbye, knowing that stopping Div will demand everything she has.

Quil slips away to visit the High Seer of Ankana, Remi E’twa, seeking answers about Ambassador Ifalu’s betrayal. He enters through the High Seer’s window and bypasses formalities to confront him directly about the ambassador’s role in enabling the Kegari invasion. Quil explains Ifalu’s connections to the Tel Ilessi and Mother Div and her involvement in smuggling Ikfa. Quil then asks for a favor, to which Remi reluctantly agrees.

When Quil returns to the inn, Tas, Sirsha, Arelia, and Sufiyan are ready to depart. However, their plans are interrupted by Ankanese soldiers, who arrive and accuse them of theft. Before the others can react, Quil steps forward and confesses on behalf of the group.

Aiz and Cero return to Serra, where Aiz’s forces have captured the young Masks. Despite Cero’s objection due to their age, Aiz rationalizes their execution as a necessary step toward the Kegari’s return to their homeland. Cero refuses to participate in killing them and brings Sister Noa to try to talk Aiz out of it as well. The cleric pleads with her to abandon Mother Div and remember the ideals she once stood for. Noa then recounts the ancient destruction of Kegar’s homeland due to tainted magic and the consequences of sacrificing one’s humanity for power. Aiz, though momentarily shaken, dismisses Noa’s warnings.

Aiz goes to where the Masks are held, but before she can let Div kill the first one, a Martial attack led by Helene threatens the Kegari forces. Aiz turns to Mother Div for the power to repel the attack, and Div demands the pain of the captured Masks as payment. Aiz agrees, and the captured children scream as their suffering is harvested. With the power, Aiz routs the Martial forces and secures a brutal victory. However, in the aftermath, Aiz realizes that Div isn’t who she claims to be. Cero then arrives with a letter from the High Seer for Aiz, who prepares to head to Ankana.