Saeris steals a gold gauntlet from a city guardian in Zilvaren, using a false name to escape arrest.

Guardians corner Hayden with the stolen gauntlet; Saeris confesses to the theft, kills two guardians, and is arrested.

Queen Madra interrogates Saeris in the palace, accuses her of Fae training, and threatens to destroy the Third Ward.

When Captain Harron stabs Saeris and tries to strike again, she liquefies the metal in his dagger using her hidden power.

Saeris pulls the sword Solace free from its resting place, causing the floor to dissolve into a pool of liquid metal.

A towering figure rises from the quicksilver pool, chains Saeris, and pulls her through a portal to another world.

Saeris wakes healed in Yvelia and discovers the Fae are real when she meets Everlayne in the Winter Palace.

King Belikon commands Kingfisher, brought before the court as his prisoner, to spend one week helping Saeris awaken the quicksilver.

Kingfisher and Saeris swear a binding blood oath; he crosses into Zilvaren and returns with Carrion instead of Hayden.

Fisher, Saeris, Carrion, and Ren flee Belikon's palace and travel magically to Fisher's ancestral home of Cahlish.

Saeris shatters Captain Danya's ancient god sword using her metal powers to stop Danya from attacking Kingfisher.

Vampire lord Taladaius delivers Malcolm's ultimatum: hand over Saeris to Gillethrye or Everlayne will be transformed and tormented forever.

Malcolm, Belikon, and Madra are unmasked as conspiring siblings; Fisher seizes Solace and drives it through Belikon.

Carrion's cursed royal blood wounds Malcolm; Saeris finds the true coin and decapitates Malcolm with Solace, dying from her wounds.

Saeris wakes as half-Fae, half-vampire; Fisher discovers a cure for his quicksilver poisoning; Saeris is named queen of Sanasroth.

Saeris Fane's theft of a guardian's gauntlet triggers her arrest and interrogation by the immortal Queen Madra, setting her on a collision course with the Fae world she believes to be myth. When she survives Harron's blade by liquefying metal and pulls the ancient sword Solace from a quicksilver pool, a mysterious figure drags her through a portal to Yvelia. There, King Belikon claims her and forces the exiled Kingfisher to help her unlock the quicksilver's power, binding them together through a blood oath whose loophole leaves Saeris furious. As their reluctant partnership deepens and the stakes of the war against Malcolm's vampire horde become clear, an ultimatum over Everlayne forces a desperate march to Gillethrye. There, the truth about the war's conspirators is finally exposed, and Saeris kills Malcolm at the cost of her own life before waking transformed and destined to rule Sanasroth as its new queen.

The headline events driving Saeris from Zilvaren to Yvelia and through the war's climax.

Saeris visits Elroy's glassblowing workshop to hide the gauntlet, but he refuses and urges her to return it.

Saeris finds Hayden beaten outside a tavern and confronts Carrion Swift over his violation of their prior agreement.

Captain Harron escorts Saeris deep into the palace to a sealed chamber containing only a sword stuck in the ground.

Oracle Malwae seizes the sword and prophesies, forcing Belikon to return Kingfisher's protective pendant rather than execute him.

General Ren argues to Belikon that Kingfisher must return to the front, as the war against Sanasroth is being lost.

Everlayne reveals that Kingfisher is her half-brother and explains his troubled history with her father Belikon.

Kingfisher presses quicksilver painfully into Saeris's hand; she hears chanting and successfully re-solidifies the liquid metal.

A wild fox bites Saeris in the forge; Fisher cages it and transforms her restrictive gown into practical fighting clothes.

Carrion wakes and reports that Hayden is alive; Madra did not follow through on her threat to destroy the Third Ward.

Using oath magic, Fisher forces Saeris to remain in bed to heal from feeder venom, trapping her for five days.

At war camp Innír, Fisher kisses Saeris passionately, then pulls away and leaves, saying he cannot trust anything.

Lorreth reveals that Fisher used dangerous soul magic to save his life, permanently binding their fates together.

Fisher suffers a severe quicksilver seizure in Ballard; Saeris stays beside him through a night of hallucinations and pain.

While waiting for Fisher's shadow gate to open at Cahlish, Saeris forges Carrion a sword that accepts him as its bearer.

Saeris and her allies drop through Fisher's shadow gate into a lake, climb an obsidian cliff, and discover the amphitheater of tormented Fae.

Before Saeris's world changes forever, her life in Zilvaren is defined by small acts of loyalty and survival—hiding stolen goods, protecting her brother, and navigating her fraught history with Carrion Swift. Her arrival in Yvelia is marked by a chain of significant moments: an oracle's prophecy saves Kingfisher from execution, and a general's strategic argument ensures he returns to fight. As Saeris adjusts to Yvelia, she learns the dangerous rules of quicksilver firsthand and discovers that Fisher's exile has left deep wounds his pendant barely contains. Her growing bonds with Carrion, Lorreth, and Fisher are tested by attacks, binding oaths, and unwelcome truths, each deepening the web of loyalty around her. The final push to Gillethrye is preceded by acts of creation and courage—forging a sword for Carrion and surviving a harrowing plunge into a lake—that prove Saeris has transformed from a Zilvaren pickpocket into a true Yvelian ally.

The supporting moments that shaped Saeris's world, alliances, and journey through Yvelia.

Saeris deliberately insults Hayden to drive him away before she surrenders herself to the guardians.

Kingfisher and Everlayne reunite in a palace corridor after over a century apart, the moment Everlayne has long worked toward.

Saeris sneaks to the underground quicksilver pool and attempts to escape using Fisher's stolen signet ring as a relic.

Kingfisher reveals that his pendant protects him from quicksilver madness and shows Saeris the silver filaments in his eyes.

Fisher kisses Saeris in the forge at the Winter Palace after inviting her to experiment with their mutual attraction.

Saeris realizes that forging the 15,000 relics Fisher requires at Cahlish will take years, not the weeks she anticipated.

After Saeris goads Fisher about his feelings, the two have sex; one of his tattoos migrates to her skin.

Saeris tells Fisher she was forcibly sterilized as a teenager; he storms away in undisguised fury at the injustice.

At the Ballard winter festival, Saeris hears the quicksilver chanting at deafening volume and collapses unconscious in front of Fisher.

Carrion suggests Saeris simply ask the quicksilver to change; it speaks clearly and agrees to transmute in exchange for a song.

Lorreth sings a ballad for the quicksilver; the reforged sword Avisiéth blazes with magical light for the first time in centuries.

Healer Te Léna explains Fae mating bond runes; Saeris realizes her extensive marks signal an extremely rare God Binding.

Fisher reveals his oracle mother foretold Saeris as his fated mate and explains he gave her a nickname to distance himself.

Fisher accepts the fated mating bond and tells Saeris he loves her; runes resembling feathers appear on his skin.

In the quicksilver realm, Zareth the God of Chaos reveals that Saeris and Fisher's union could trigger the destruction of the universe.

From the moment Saeris cruelly distances Hayden to protect him, the novel traces the emotional patterns that define her and Fisher's connection—each using cruelty and distance to shield the other from harm. Saeris's discovery of Fisher's quicksilver illness, their first charged kiss in the forge, and the gradual migration of his tattoos onto her skin map the stages of a bond neither character fully understands until mating runes appear on her hands. A breakthrough with the quicksilver—unlocked by Carrion's simple suggestion—transforms an obstacle into a collaborator and produces the first magical sword in centuries. Fisher's revelation that his oracle mother foretold Saeris as his true mate reframes every hostile interaction that preceded it, and his decision to accept their bond rather than reject it seals their fate despite the dangers. The pool ends with Saeris's audience before Zareth, where she learns that her love for Fisher is both divinely ordained and potentially catastrophic for the entire universe.

The key discoveries, emotional turning points, and revelations that define Saeris and Fisher's bond.