The Magicians

Quentin is “sitting in a booth in a dimly lit bar with a pint of beer on the table in front of him” (302). The birch tree has led them to a pub/inn, and also has a pint of beer in front of it. An old man, a woman, and a young girl occupy a nearby booth. They pay for their beers with “gold cylinders” (303) that Richard brought with him. In the corner sits “a large brown bear wearing a waistcoat” (303). At first, they think the bear a stuffed animal, but quickly realize that the creature is merely dozing.

Still angry and feeling brazen, Quentin decides to buy the bear a drink. The bear decides to join them, and tells Quentin that his name is Humbledrum. Quentin tries to glean information about Fillory from the bear, but Humbledrum seems particularly preoccupied with what bears are normally preoccupied with: honey, caves, and chestnuts.

The inn becomes busier as the afternoon moves on. They see a menagerie of creatures coming and going: “the whole scene had a dreamlike quality, like a Chagall painting come to life” (307). More rounds are ordered, and Quentin pushes the limits of his alcohol-saturated and sleep-deprived day. The birch tree tells the group that his name is Farvel. Farvel talks about the efforts of the Watcherwoman to try and slow down time. Alice had thought the Watcherwoman was dead, but Farvel tells how Humbledrum has recently seen her.

The alcohol and lack of sleep are starting to hit Quentin, and he lets Penny take over the conversation. Farvel talks about how Fillory needs the return of the “Kings and Queens” (311), and that only humans can occupy the “thrones in Castle WhitesSpire” (311). For that to happen, Farvel tells them, they must make a “visit to a perilous ruin called Ember’s Tomb” (311) and retrieve the “silver crown that had once been worn by the noble King Martin” (311).

They stay the night in the inn. Quentin is so tired and drunk he sleeps “like the dead” (313). The next morning, they make preparations to go to Ember’s Tomb, but without Richard, who decides not to go with them. However, they are joined by a man and a woman, who offer to guide them. The man’s name is Dint and the woman’s name is Fen. The group agree to follow the guides and journey through the forest, making “camp at sunset in the ragged square crop of meadow” (318) not far from Ember’s Tomb.

Morning has arrived, and the group is staring at “two enormous rough stone slabs standing upright with a third slab laid across them” (319). They look at the entrance to Ember’s Tomb. Alice doesn’t want to go in. Quentin, angry and unsympathetic, says that she should “go home” (320).

All of a sudden, a “giant hare” and a very tall ferret come running toward them. With the exception of Dint and Fen, “the Brakebills crowd shr[i]nk back involuntarily” (321), unprepared to do battle. Fen and Dint engage the hare and ferret, joined shortly after by Anais. Quentin wants no part of the fight, and is unhappy that they have to kill the hare and the ferret. The others see it differently and chide Quentin for not joining in.

They enter the tomb and begin wandering “from room to empty room, down echoing stone hallways” (324). Minute after minute, hour after hour, passing from one room to another, they find nothing, until “four hours and three flights of stairs and one mile of empty corridor later” (326), an elf slams a door into Quentin’s face. Quentin manages to kill the elf with magic missiles.

Other creatures quickly follow and the battle begins once again. Dint and Fen quickly engage, Eliot casts “a kinetic spell” on a satyr, Anais has a sword and is “looking […] for somebody to stick it into” (328), and Alice releases her demon to protect her from an elf. Janet eventually finds her courage and shoots one of the creatures with a gun she’s brought from the real world. Quentin merely watches.

Triumphant, the group continues on. Alice and Quentin finally talk. Alice tells Quentin that the reason she slept with Penny was to get back at him. They talk about their difficulties, and Alice tells Quentin that she wants to go home. Quentin then asks, “Why did you come here, Alice?” (333). Alice replies by telling Quentin, “I came here because I wanted to take care of you” (333). Quentin then kisses her.

They continue deeper into the tomb until they enter a room with a table covered with food. They are not alone, however, and are soon confronted by a myriad of creatures bent on killing them. They alternate fighting and running, hoping to find some way out. Quentin is hit with an arrow in his back, and Fen is killed. Josh then unleashes his black-hole spell, and the group winds up scattering. Sometime later, Eliot finds Quentin, and the two of them finally reach the end of the tomb.

Standing at different entrances to the chamber, every Brakebills alum has made to this point alive. Quentin, relieved, thinks “even after everything that had gone wrong it could still all turn out basically okay” (344). They tentatively enter the room and greet each other, and “Quentin and Alice embrace without speaking” (345).

They see Ember in the center of the chamber. Ember is one of a pair of twin ram gods that created Fillory. At present, Ember looks nothing more than “a block of stone” (345). The eyes of the statue that is Ember open, and Ember welcomes them. Penny immediately pays fealty to Ember, and though Quentin is happy, something is still bothering him. Quentin asks Ember why Ember has remained in this chamber when there is such chaos across Fillory, saying, “You are [a] god, and things are really falling apart up there. I mean, I think a lot of people are wondering where You’ve been all this time” (348). Janet echoes this.

Ember replies that there are “Higher Laws” (348), and that it is easier “to destroy than to create, and there are those whose nature it is to love destruction” (348). Quentin then realizes that Ember is a prisoner here and decides he knows how to help. From Penny’s backpack, Quentin pulls out the ivory horn that the water nymph gave the group. Ember tries to get his attention, but with the support of the others, Quentin sounds the horn. Ember then says, “Don’t you know what you have done” (351).

The Beast suddenly appears, telling Quentin, “I believe that was my cue” (352). Ember charges the Beast, but the Beast easily knocks Ember into the wall, rendering him unconscious. The Beast then removes the leaf from in front of his face, revealing that he is really Martin Chatwin: he had found a way to stay in Fillory and make himself more powerful.

The Beast has come for the button, because only the button can send him back to Earth and prevent The Beast/Chatwin from being a god. The group refuses to give the Beast the button, and Penny initiates a battle spell. However, before Penny can finish the spell, the Beast eats Penny’s hands. The Beast then attacks Quentin, injuring him. Before he has a chance to finish Quentin off, Alice shoots the Beast with Janet’s gun. The Beast turns on Alice, but she’s ready. Alice launches spell after spell at the Beast, from a giant fireball to a “toxic hail of Magic Missiles” (360). As they fight, Alice transforms herself into a lion; “she and Martin [go] down grappling, mouths gaping, trying to get their teeth into each other” (361). She also becomes “an eagle […] a huge brindled bear […] a man-size scorpion” (361), and a “white Dragon” (361).

As Alice and the Beast battle, those who are still standing do what they can to help. Quentin wants to help, but is unable to. He can only watch Alice, and as he watches her, he comes to realize that he truly loves her. Despite all her efforts, however, Alice is not able to beat the Beast. Quentin then decides to unleash his demon on the Beast, but the Beast simply eats the demon. Alice realizes there is only one choice left, and transforms herself into a niffin, a being made of pure magic. The Beast realizes the tide has turned and tries to escape. Alice, as the niffin, catches the Beast and tears “Martin Chatwin’s head off his neck” (364). Quentin sees Eliot grab the crown and toss “it like a discus off into the darkness” (365), and then faints.