The Devils

Alex and the others ascend to the top of the Pharos of Troy on the water-powered Grand Lift of Heraclius. During the ascent, Lady Severa introduces herself to Balthazar, and they talk about the Pharos, magic, and philosophy. Severa explains that Eudoxia’s experiments weren’t to create an army but to locate and catch the soul, an attempt to deal with her own degenerative illness, which was killing her. She also questions Balthazar about Pope Benedicta and the claims of divine rebirth associated with her. Balthazar admits that recent events have made him more open to the possibility of miracles. The lift stops at the top of the Pharos, and Severa touches his arm, saying they should talk later.

The group enters the royal grounds at the top of the Pharos of Troy. The Hanging Gardens stretch before them, with a double row of guards forming a ceremonial welcome. Duke Michael leads the group through the gardens, explaining the history and engineering marvels of the Pharos. The water system, sourced from mountain springs and distributed through hidden channels, powers the lifts and irrigates the city.

As they pass the Basilica of the Angelic Visitation, the palace, and noble estates, Michael and Severa describe the mixed legacy of Eudoxia. Though tyrannical, she revived Carthaginian engineering. The Athenaeum, however, was temporarily turned into a hub for forbidden sorcery. Brother Diaz is drawn to the library, which reportedly holds over a hundred thousand volumes. Severa promises to arrange a visit but warns of lingering dangers left by Eudoxia’s experiments. The sealed vaults beneath the building still house dangerous creations made from the remnants of the menagerie, which were also the source of the Dukes’ creatures. Severa gets angry, blaming herself for not stopping them, and Brother Diaz reassures her it wasn’t her fault.

Lady Severa shows Alex the lavish Imperial Bedchamber. The room’s ornate wall panels open, and four women, Alex’s new attendants, enter: Athenais, Cleofa, Zenonis, and Placida. Severa then escorts Alex through several adjacent rooms, including a chapel and a bath chamber prepared for Alex’s arrival.

Alex feels uncomfortable, vulnerable, and out of place as the handmaidens undress and bathe her. When one of them pulls out a knife, Alex panics, but the girl cries, saying she was going to cut a knot out of Alex’s hair. Severa intervenes, assuring Alex of her new attendants’ loyalty.

After the handmaidens and Severa leave, Alex says Sunny can stop hiding. They joke about Alex being waited on, then Sunny climbs into the still-full bathtub. After more flirting, Sunny drags Alex back into the tub with her.

Jakob of Thorn climbs to the top of the Pharos of Troy, Saint Natalia’s Flame burning at its peak, where he joins Duke Michael. The two take in views of Troy and beyond, toward the sea, the mountains, and the Holy Land. Jakob admits he once believed himself to be an instrument of destiny but later realized that he had used faith to justify his ambition. Now, he sees himself as an arrow shot by others, preferring not to be the one who aims.

Duke Michael is about to speak but is interrupted by the arrival of Brother Diaz. The conversation turns to the issue of Alex’s coronation. While Duke Michael secured political and military support within the city, including the loyalty of the palace guard and many nobles, he acknowledges the looming threat of Arcadius, the last surviving son of Eudoxia and admiral of the fleet, who could blockade the city. Brother Diaz asks permission to explore the Athenaeum records to learn more. Duke Michael agrees but warns him about the sorcerous “leftovers” that are sealed beneath the room.

After Brother Diaz leaves, Jakob finds where he carved his name into the stone parapet more than a century before. When Duke Michael asks if the elves are as terrible as the legends claim, Jakob responds that they aren’t any worse than humans.

Brother Diaz follows Lady Severa into the Athenaeum. Its shelves are packed with books on philosophy, history, theology, and science. Scenes from Troy’s history are painted across the dome, and levels of balconies encircle an enormous floor sunk into the earth.

However, the floor itself unsettles him. It’s covered in arcane markings and is a clear remnant of Empress Eudoxia’s experiments. At the center is a scorched copper rod flanked by two benches, where prisoners were once bound during her final, fatal ritual. As they examine the apparatus, Lady Severa explains that Eudoxia was once a sickly, overshadowed child who turned to magic in search of perfection, only to become a tyrant who destroyed much of what she tried to save.

Vigga awakens in a hayloft, disoriented and hungover, and heads out into the city. She meets Baron Rikard at a nearby tavern, and he remarks on her outrageous behavior from the night before. Despite her pride and dislike of the vampire, Vigga can’t resist the bloody meat he’s ordered for her, tearing into it hungrily.

Later, as they walk along the top of the Grand Aqueduct, Rikard questions Vigga’s control over the wolf. She insists that she’s learned to choose when to unleash it and argues that she’s not defined by her instincts but by her choices.

Alex sits at a table beneath the Serpent Throne, accompanied by Lady Severa, Duke Michael, Jakob of Thorn, and Brother Diaz. The city’s aristocracy files into the throne room with pomp and skepticism, bringing grievances and demands that must be settled before they pledge their support for her. Brother Diaz, using his research from the Athenaeum, dismantles their arguments. As he defeats each claim, their approval turns in Alex’s favor.

The final presented noble is Duke Arcadius. Rather than making a demand, he has a proposition: marriage between himself and Alex. Michael and Severa ignore Alex’s protests and voice support for the idea, arguing that the marriage would secure her position.

Alex is furious over Arcadius’s marriage proposal and vents her rage to Sunny in the royal chambers. To make her feel better, Sunny shows her a secret passage she found in one of the chapel’s walls. The two follow it to a hidden retreat built for emergency escapes.

There, Alex confesses she is not the real Princess Alexia. As a child, she was sold to thieves by her father. She met the real Alexia, who showed her the birthmark, and whom Alex was jealous of. After Alexia died from the Long Pox, Alex assumed her identity and branded herself with the shape of the mark. Alex begs to run away with Sunny, but the elf pulls away, urging Alex to accept her role as empress and forget about her.

Later, Sunny seeks out Jakob, who is praying in his modest quarters. She informs him that Alex will go through with the marriage, then breaks down and admits she wanted something good for herself for once. Jakob hugs her and urges her to be grateful for what she had, even if she has to let it go.

In the Basilica of the Angelic Visitation, preparations are underway for Alexia’s coronation and her impending marriage to Arcadius. Jakob and Brother Diaz walk its halls, reflecting on their roles in the world. Jakob doubts his worth and any hope for redemption, but Brother Diaz counters with encouragement. Vigga, Baptiste, Balthazar, and Baron Rikard all gather.

When Alex approaches in ceremonial dress, flanked by her attendants, the others express their pride in how far she’s come. Duke Michael congratulates Jakob and the team on their success and wishes them a safe journey back to the Holy City. When Alex questions this, the others tell her they must return to the Holy City as soon as she’s crowned.

As a final gesture before the ceremony, Alex asks Brother Diaz to offer a blessing. He agrees and delivers a speech about their journey. He admits that with time, he came to see the others not as “devils,” but as people who achieved something righteous.

The coronation ceremony takes place in the Basilica of the Angelic Visitation. Vigga, bored and restless, struggles to sit through the religious speeches and rituals. When the patriarch places the crown on Alex’s head, the devils’ mission is fulfilled, and they feel the binding pulling them back to the Holy City. Alex is raised on a golden shield, cloaked, crowned, and carrying symbolic objects, while the congregation kneels and the bells ring out. After the coronation, Jakob leads the group out of the Basilica, and Balthazar says they can only look forward to returning to imprisonment.

To Alex’s surprise, on their wedding night, Arcadius just wants to talk. He tells her that, unlike his brothers, he never wanted to be emperor. He wants to save Troy from its infighting and the encroaching threat of the elves. They agree to keep the marriage a political alliance built on friendship and deal with the issue of heirs later.

When they request more wine, Placida and Zenonis bring it, and Arcadius recognizes them as Eudoxia’s former apprentices. Placidia freezes Arcadius, killing him. Alex flees through the secret passage and makes her way up to Saint Natalia’s Flame. She pulls the chain for the emergency signal, lighting the flame blue.

As their ship prepares to leave Troy, the devils notice the signal. Despite having already fulfilled their mission, Sunny, Jakob, Vigga, Brother Diaz, Baptiste, and even Rikard decide to turn back to help, much to Balthazar’s frustration. When he confronts the vampire about his choice, Rikard reveals that the binding never affected him because he doesn’t have a soul—he joined the cause by choice. While most of the group rushes back to the city to help Alex, and Rikard flies as a swarm of bats, Balthazar is left behind.

With no exit, Alex risks climbing down the outside of the tower to evade the handmaidens and warn Duke Michael.

Meanwhile, on their way to the palace, Jakob, Vigga, Baptiste, Sunny, and Brother Diaz are met by palace guards. Jakob realizes the guards are treacherous, and after warning the others that something is wrong, he attacks. They kill the guards, then push into the palace to find Alex.

Alex reenters the palace through the window of Duke Michael’s study. She finds a letter from Cardinal Zizka confirming they used Alex as a political decoy to eliminate Michael’s rivals so he could take the throne himself. Duke Michael appears and, upon realizing Alex saw the letter, tries to kill her. Sunny, who has split from the group and found Alex, intervenes, disarming and distracting him. Alex and Sunny then flee together, leaving Michael locked in his study.

The group fights its way into the palace. While Jakob heads inside to find Alex and Sunny, Diaz, Baptiste, and Vigga stay behind to hold the entrance. Lady Severa arrives in a panic, but once she gets close, she uses a control needle to possess Vigga.

Alex and Sunny flee through the kitchens and wine stores, retreating into hidden servant tunnels, and Sunny is injured in the process. The handmaidens remain close behind, forcing the pair further up the palace.

Brother Diaz and Baptiste barricade themselves inside the Basilica, trying to keep out Lady Severa, a possessed Vigga, and a company of guards. Inside, they find Patriarch Methodius, but he reveals that he’s working with Severa and was the first of Eudoxia’s apprentices. When the patriarch orders the doors opened, Brother Diaz punches him and knocks him unconscious. As Vigga and Severa break through the doors and demand surrender, Balthazar, disguised as a guard, uses magic to free Vigga from Severa’s control.

Alex and Sunny are cornered at the top of the lighthouse by all four handmaidens. Before the sorceresses can attack, Baron Rikard arrives in a swirl of bats and uses his vampiric charm to bewitch them. Below, Jakob reaches the throne room and finds Duke Michael seated on the throne, gloating about his plan. Despite his exhaustion, Jakob prepares to fight Michael.

Vigga and Balthazar, meanwhile, lead the fight through the Hanging Gardens, with Baptiste and Brother Diaz following close behind. They drive Severa and her remaining forces back to the Athenaeum. As she retreats inside the library, Severa orders the release of “the leftovers” from the abandoned menagerie. The monstrous failed experiments emerge, and the gate to the Athenaeum closes. Before it does, Balthazar slips inside.

Jakob and Duke Michael battle in the throne room. Despite failing strength, Jakob continues to pursue Michael until the Duke is crushed under a toppled statue.

Outside the Athenaeum, Vigga faces “the leftovers,” a grotesque patchwork of limbs, mouths, and mixed animal parts. She’s forced to transform into the wolf to confront it but is swallowed whole.

Inside the Athenaeum, Balthazar examines the remnants of Eudoxia’s last experiment and realizes it was not meant to locate the soul but transfer it. Severa appears, and Balthazar realizes she’s Eudoxia, having successfully transferred her soul into another body.

Atop the Pharos, Baron Rikard charms Zenonis into incinerating Cleofa. However, his use of his power weakens him. The remaining handmaidens turn on him, but Rikard kills Athenais by ripping out her throat and Placidia by shoving her into Saint Natalia’s Flame. Alex kills Zenonis by bashing her head with a chunk of broken masonry. With all his energy spent, Rikard collapses.

Balthazar and Eudoxia, occupying Severa’s body, hesitate before they begin to fight. Eudoxia admits she no longer wants the throne and offers to let Alexia rule. She also proposes that she and Balthazar join forces as magical equals and partners in ambition. When he points out that the papal binding traps him, she offers to help him find a way to break it. Though tempted, Balthazar declines in favor of remaining with the devils. They part respectfully, and Eudoxia leaves.

Outside, Brother Diaz and Baptiste are left to face the leftovers. The creature lunges at them, only for it to burst open as the Vigga-Wolf tears her way out. She turns on Diaz, and Baptiste steps between them, attempting to stop her by reprimanding her. However, it doesn’t work, and the wolf attacks.

Alex tries to help an injured Sunny down from the top of the Pharos but is met by Duke Michael. He knocks Sunny out and corners Alex, confessing that he poisoned Irene. As he prepares to kill her, Jakob climbs through the embers of Saint Natalia’s Flame and tackles Michael off the tower. Both men plummet, burning, into the sea.

Balthazar leaves the Athenaeum to find Vigga kneeling near Brother Diaz, sobbing and vomiting up flesh and hair. He realizes the mangled corpse between them is Baptiste.

Cardinal Zizka arrives in Troy’s throne room, accompanied by a group of solemn priests, to greet Empress Alexia and Father Diaz, who is now serving as her personal chaplain. Zizka presents a relic from Saint Natalia as a gesture of goodwill, but Alex counters by revealing Zizka’s written conspiracy with Duke Michael, proving the Cardinal wanted Alex killed. Zizka admits it, justifying her betrayal as a necessary act of political expediency.

Alex demands the devils be released from the Church’s control, but Zizka refuses, claiming they are too dangerous and must remain under church supervision for everyone’s safety. Zizka then says she misjudged Alex, and she may grow into her role, provided she aligns with the Church. Alex agrees to end the schism between the Eastern and Western Churches but makes clear they will pay for her cooperation.

Fishermen discover Jakob half-drowned and naked. Though weak and in great pain, he confirms Alexia still rules Troy. He borrows clothes from the fishermen and returns to the Pharos, where he meets a withered Baron Rikard. The two catch up, with the vampire informing Jakob of Baptiste’s death.

Jakob then heads to the Basilica, where Alex stands beside Baptiste’s tomb. She offers him a place as her general, asking him to lead a new crusade to defend Troy. When Jakob declines, Alex gives him a small icon of Saint Stephen as a token of gratitude. Jakob touches Baptiste’s tomb one last time, then leaves.

Sunny and Alex share a quiet farewell in the hanging gardens. Sunny says she and the others are being returned to the Holy City under Cardinal Zizka’s authority. Alex tries to offer Sunny something in return for her loyalty and sacrifices, but Sunny declines. Anything, even a kiss, would only be a reminder of what couldn’t be.

Elsewhere, Vigga lies wounded and despondent in her cage. Father Diaz advocates for her with Zizka, but the cardinal remains unsympathetic, seeing Vigga as a dangerous tool to use against the Church’s enemies.

Balthazar arrives aboard the ship leaving Troy, prepared to tell Zizka the truth about Severa’s identity, but stops when the Cardinal has him shackled. He’s imprisoned below decks with Sunny, Vigga, and Baron Rikard. Though the others remain defeated, Balthazar begins plotting how to get free and considers getting Eudoxia’s help.

Back in Troy, Alex visits Father Diaz in the chapel. She expresses doubt about her fitness to rule, but Diaz reassures her.

Mother Beckert rides through the crowded streets of the Holy City en route to an audience with the pope. A young man named Caruso climbs into the carriage with her, having also received an invitation. He questions whether she’s familiar with the city, and she replies that she was once, and it’s corrupted. Caruso listens as she explains her distrust for superficial holiness and her long-standing rivalry with Cardinal Zizka.

As the two approach the Celestial Palace, they learn they were both summoned as potential replacements, and Beckert suspects hers is for her old position in the 13th Chapel. When Caruso says the Celestial Palace has only 12 chapels for the 12 Virtues, Beckert says he still has much to learn.