The Primal of Blood and Bone

Poppy listens quietly as Cas tells her the entire story of Kolis’s return and expulsion, repelled that the god used her. Poppy suddenly experiences a fiery pain that is not hers. She can sense thousands of people in panic and fear. Without much thought, Poppy lifts her hand and splits open the veil between the realms (like Attes did to visit Cas). Cas screams at Poppy not to step through, but she walks through the window before he can do much.

Poppy finds herself in an alternate world, which from her description is clearly New York in the real world. Poppy hears panicked people discuss a massive earthquake that has left 100,000 casualties. She watches as another tremor hits the land, making buildings crack. Water rocks a ship on the Hudson, the passengers yelling in horror. Poppy realizes what she is witnessing is not a quake, but Ancients rising from their sleep. Protective eather erupts from Poppy, its silvery webs catching falling people and slabs of concrete. As Poppy strains to help more ships, she briefly senses her grandmother’s presence.

A Fate, the most ancient of Gods, appears next to Poppy. The Fate, Holland, uses his power to keep Poppy from saving the falling buildings and people. He tells her that even if she restores life to all who have died, they will be killed again tomorrow. The balance between life and death has been disrupted, and things will continue to deteriorate across the dimensions till the balance is restored.

Holland tells Poppy it is time for her to leave, just as a skeletal, winged Ancient breaks out from under the ground next to her, its featureless face too close to Poppy. To her horror, the Ancient closes his bony hands around Poppy’s throat, trying to strangle her. Poppy summons all her power to blast away the Ancient with a bolt of energy. She expects him to disintegrate, but the Ancient absorbs her energy to grow skin and feathers over his bony frame, and flies away. Holland teleports Poppy to Ileesium.

Back in Atlantia, a Fate walks into Cas’s chambers through the opening in the veil seconds after Poppy’s departure. Just as Holland restrained Poppy, the Fate freezes Cas, introducing himself as Aydun. He tells Cas that Holland will soon bring Poppy back. However, Poppy did a terrible thing by crossing the veil. The ease with which she was able to do so, alarms the Fates. Poppy’s Ascension has started the clock on a terrible series of events, of which the devastation beyond the veil is only a preliminary taste.

On Mount Lotho in Ileesium. Poppy reunites with Vikter, the paternal Fate who was her childhood mentor. Vikter tells Poppy that he is proud of who she has become, and gives his blessings to the union between Cas and Poppy. He bids her goodbye, leaving Holland and another Fate, Lirian, to speak with Poppy.

Poppy notices that both Holland and Lirian share her new eyes, as did the Ancient. She discovers the Fates, or the Arae, were once Ancients. After ceding to the Primals, most Ancients went to Arcadia or sunk into sleep, but the Fates stayed behind to ensure balance in the realms. The Fates released their embers of life, and therefore do not possess the same power as the Ancients. Their duty is to observe history, without interfering in its course. That is why the Fates stopped Sera from coming to New York. Like Poppy, Sera sensed the distress of the mortals and, being a Primal of Life, was drawn to help them, but her presence was barred. Poppy realizes this is why she sensed Sera’s presence in Chapter 12.

While the Fates could stop Sera from stepping across the veil, they could not stop Poppy. This is because Poppy is an unprecedented being. It is her Ascension that has caused the Ancients to awaken from the ground, her pure power threatening them. As Poppy may have noticed, all the Ancients were male, for reasons that even the Fates do not know. A female power like her challenges the Ancients. While Poppy’s restraint has shown the Fates that she knows how to control her power, they are concerned about her impatient husband. Poppy is indignant that the Fates doubt Cas.

A third Fate, Thorne, joins the group. Thorne refers to the world Poppy visited, the reader’s world, as “the Continents” (418), overpopulated and dense. The Fates tell Poppy she is the Primal of Blood and Bone. So many peculiar conditions—Poppy’s mother Isbeth being a demis, or false god, her father being the son of Nyktos and Sera, Poppy being a second daughter, and the Joining—have come together to create her that she is the origin of a new pantheon. Poppy is a Deminyen Primal, a Primal who is without a Court. Cas and Kieran are Deminyen Primals too, not bound to any Court. Courts keep Primals in check with responsibilities and rules, but the three have no such checks and balances. That is why they are innately dangerous.

Poppy privately reflects that though courts are supposed to make Primals “safe,” the safeguard did not work for Kolis. Aloud, she wonders about the remaining mortals in the alternate realm she visited. The Fates tell her that the mortals will be ruled by the risen Ancients, till the Ancients decide to cleanse the realm. Though the Ancients of the alternate realm were awakened because of Poppy’s Ascension, they had long been restless because its mortals kept building towers on top of their resting grounds.

Poppy is angry with the Fates for doing nothing to save the mortals from the cruel rule of the risen Ancients. She accuses the Fates of using vague, cryptic language to disguise the real reason behind their passivity: their cowardice. Lirian tells Poppy to stop dithering and focus on the course of her own actions, which is to stop Kolis: The longer Kolis—a True Primal of Death—remains in the mortal realm, the more death he will cause. When an angry Poppy takes a swing at Lirian, he tries to strangle her. The other Fates intervene and hasten Poppy’s departure. Before Poppy exits, Thorne tells her that only she can liberate bone, ash, and death.

Anxiously awaiting Poppy’s return, Cas watches Aydun wolf down all the food in their room. He reflects on Aydun’s hypocrisy: While the Fate claims he cannot kill Kolis, as that would amount to interference, Aydun had no qualms meddling through restraining Cas with his magic.

Aydun tells Cas that he can make out Cas is longing for his heartmate, Poppy. Aydun can also foresee that the heartmate connection between Cas and Poppy can lead to great ruin. He wonders if knowing this, Cas would have the power to sever their connection. Death does not break the bond between heartmates, but they can reject their connection through vows.

Cas retorts that Aydun is “crazy” if he thinks he or Poppy would ever reject the other, no matter what the circumstances. Aydun takes his leave, just as Poppy enters the chambers. Cas and Poppy make urgent love, Cas feeling overwhelmed. Afterwards, Poppy tells Cas all about the alternate realm of the Continents—the reader’s world—she visited and the journey to Ileesium.

Cas mentions Aydun’s peculiar words to Poppy, terming Kolis “the Great Conspirator,” and her the “Harbinger and Bringer of Death and Destruction.” Poppy replies that something about the words is anomalous, though she cannot pinpoint it.

Cas senses Kieran’s approach. Kieran asks him telepathically if he can enter the chambers. Sensing Kieran’s immense love for Poppy, Cas sets aside his indignation and allows in the wolven. Kieran grabs Poppy in a bear hug. As Cas watches Kieran and Poppy embrace, he feels his anger against Kieran lessen.

Poppy tells Kieran that he is Deminyen Primal now, a Primal God of Life not tied to a Court. Cas and Poppy can now feed from Kieran, if required. Kieran is stunned at the revelation. After Cas leaves to get some food for Poppy, Poppy and Kieran discuss how the Joining and her Ascension have changed all three of them. However, Kieran does not tell Poppy that Cas knows the promise he made to her, nor does he reveal that Cas can now shapeshift into a cave cat. Poppy can sense Kieran is keeping secrets from her.

Kieran asks Poppy if her vadentia—the foresight she has gained as the Primal of Life and Death—can tell her why Kolis has been killing Ascended in Atlantia. Poppy guesses that Kolis can feed on the life forms he created—Ascended and Revenants—to regain his corporeal form. However, she cannot tell how many he will need to kill before getting back his body.

When Cas returns with platters of food, Kieran shares two bits of news: Poppy and Cas’s new quarters are ready, and Duke Ashwood of Pensdurth has rejected Cas’s offer of peace and continues to swear loyalty to Kolis. Further, Valyn Da’ Neer, Cas’s father, encountered a sizeable army between the Blood Forest and Pensdurth’s Rise. Kieran has dispatched the draken Thad as help.

Now that Poppy is back, she and Cas have to make important decisions about the kingdom, starting with the fate of the Ascended. The Ascended can no longer be allowed to feed on mortals, as that was an exploitative practice. However, if the Ascended are left with no blood, they will turn into the murderous zombie-like Craven, which means there is no option but to kill all the Ascended. As the Primal of Life, Poppy hates the idea of causing death. Nevertheless, as a ruler, she knows that the right choice doesn’t always feel good. She tells Cas that she, him, and Kieran will eliminate the Ascended themselves, so that only they have the sin of death on their souls.

In an odd incident, when Poppy mentions that Kolis wants her essence so he can become the Primal of Life and Death, Cas experiences a surge of power so intense it summons ravens into the room. Poppy kisses him to calm him down, tasting ash—the symbol of death—on Cas’s lips. When Cas calms down, he cannot recall the ravens circling him.

Reaver approaches their chamber to request that Poppy free Jadis, just as she awoke Nektas.