Revolutionaries burn the Great Library of Alyssium, forcing Kiela and her plant companion Caz to flee by boat.

Kiela and Caz arrive at her abandoned childhood cottage on the island of Caltrey.

Kiela visits town for the first time and meets Bryn the baker, discovering the island has fallen into poverty.

Kiela and Caz successfully cast a plant growth spell in their cottage garden.

Kiela decides to open a jam shop as a front for secretly selling spells disguised as home remedies.

Kiela asks Bryn to become her business partner in the new jam and remedy shop.

The shop opens and welcomes its first customers, including a centaur named Eadie seeking the tree-healing remedy.

Ghost-bear forest spirits lead Kiela deep into the woods to heal a massive dying tree.

A magical storm traps Kiela at Larran's cottage, where he dives into the waves to rescue a drowning stranger.

The rescued stranger introduces herself as an imperial investigator named Radane and threatens to search every home for illegal magic.

Kiela and Caz hide their spellbooks in a sea cave with Larran's help, guided there by the mermaid she previously saved.

Caz and Meep corner Radane in the cave, and she confesses she is a royal heir, not an investigator.

Kiela and the Pine Cone Coven perform a ritual to calm a deadly magical storm threatening everyone on the island.

Captain Varrik, moved by what he witnessed, chooses to leave the islanders in peace rather than report them.

The merhorse herd gives birth during a coven ceremony, and Larran asks Kiela to marry him.

Kiela flees the burning Great Library of Alyssium with her plant companion Caz and takes refuge at her childhood cottage on the island of Caltrey. After meeting Bryn the baker and witnessing the island's poverty, she decides to secretly sell spells disguised as home remedies alongside homemade jam. Her shop thrives as she heals trees with the help of forest spirits and grows close to her neighbor Larran, but a magical storm delivers a dangerous stranger who claims to be an imperial investigator. Kiela scrambles to hide her spellbooks and her secret, only to discover that the investigator is actually a royal heir named Radane in disguise. When a second storm threatens to destroy everything, Kiela and her coven risk exposure to perform a lifesaving ritual, and their compassion wins over even the imperial captain sent to stop them. Their victory paves the way for the island's renewal, capped by Larran's marriage proposal.

The headline events driving Kiela's journey from fugitive librarian to beloved island healer.

Larran bursts into Kiela's cottage uninvited and introduces himself, explaining that islanders always care for their own.

Kiela and Caz sort through rescued spellbooks and their parents' belongings while making the cottage habitable.

Larran returns to fix Kiela's clogged chimney and shares lunch, revealing he knew her parents as a child.

Kiela and Caz organize the overgrown garden by assigning each plant a library classification.

Larran takes Kiela to ride merhorses along the shoreline, and the two begin to genuinely connect.

Bryn's nephew Tobin helps carry supplies to the cottage and quickly strikes up a friendship with Caz.

Sian the merhorse leaps at Kiela and drags her into the water, giving her and Larran their first shared laugh.

Larran announces plans to travel to the capital to appeal to the emperor, unaware the emperor has been overthrown.

Kiela and Caz accidentally bring a sentient, ambulatory cactus into existence during a tree-healing experiment.

Kiela and Caz successfully use the pinecone tree-healing spell to make a sick willow burst back into bloom.

A woman named Halio visits the shop and reports that the town's local freshwater spring has dried up.

A distressed mermaid appears at Kiela's cottage seeking help, and Kiela heals the creature's storm-sick baby.

Kiela kisses Larran and confesses that she has been the one performing illegal magic on the island.

Bryn shares her own story of fleeing heartbreak to start over on Caltrey, opening her arms to Radane.

Kiela, Radane, and the healer Ivor perform a birthing spell together, and Sian becomes the first merhorse to successfully give birth.

Before Kiela can open her shop, she must learn to live on an island she barely remembers, with a neighbor who keeps walking through her door uninvited. She and Caz slowly make the cottage their own, organize the garden like a library, and form meaningful bonds with Larran, Bryn's nephew Tobin, and the broader community. Through trial and error with their spellbooks, Kiela and Caz master the pinecone tree-healing spell and unexpectedly bring a sentient cactus named Meep into the world. When a magical storm floods the island, Kiela's compassion is tested as she heals a mermaid's sick baby and watches Larran nurse the mysterious shipwrecked woman back to health. The growing intimacy between Kiela and Larran reaches its peak when she kisses him and finally confesses her secret. Their journey ends with a triumphant milestone: the island's merhorses giving birth again with magical help for the first time.

The quieter moments that build Kiela's friendships, magical skills, and daily life on Caltrey.

Larran reveals that merhorses are going functionally extinct because they cannot reproduce without magical assistance.

Caz objects to Kiela's spellshop plan, warning that selling unlicensed magic could attract imperial investigators.

Kiela discovers her parents' cookbook and uses it to make her first batch of raspberry jam, feeling connected to her family.

Kiela and Caz's apple orchard experiments accidentally produce butterflies, exotic birds, and a singing tree before the right spell works.

A miserly local named Fenerer visits the shop, dismisses everything Kiela has built, and predicts the business will fail.

After healing the dying tree, the forest spirits leave Kiela gifts, and she spots a unicorn crossing her path.

Kiela overhears Radane describing the Alyssium revolt at Bryn's bakery and is overwhelmed by the trauma of her own escape.

Radane secretly watches Kiela perform a magical healing spell on Sian the merhorse, growing visibly suspicious.

Kiela chooses to trust Bryn, Eadie, and Ulina with the truth about her magic, and the Pine Cone Society is formed.

Kiela secretly tests a water restoration spell on the dried-up town fountain, which suddenly begins flowing again.

Larran stands guard at Kiela's door to block Radane's search and helps move the spellbooks without asking a single question.

Kiela resolves to leave Caltrey to draw danger away from her friends, but the Pine Cone Coven persuades her to stay.

Kiela encases the cottage in overgrown raspberry brambles to make it appear abandoned just before Varrik's crew arrives to search.

Fenerer publicly sides with Captain Varrik during the island search, then demands to leave Caltrey with the departing crew.

Caz reveals to Captain Varrik that he was created by a librarian who was punished and later died in the revolutionary fire.

Kiela's path on Caltrey is defined by a series of pivotal choices and surprising discoveries that force her to confront what she truly values. She learns the stakes of the island's magical drought through Larran's warning about the merhorses, then pushes past Caz's fears to launch a plan that could change everything. Each experiment — from chaotic apple orchard mishaps to the accidental birth of a sentient cactus — teaches her that magic, like community, is unpredictable and powerful. The arrival of Radane triggers a cascade of turning points: hidden trauma, forced secrecy, and a final decision about whether to flee or fight for the life she has built. Kiela's choice to stay, to share her knowledge, and to trust her friends defines her transformation from a solitary librarian into a community leader. The revelation of Caz's true origin during the imperial confrontation brings the story full circle, connecting Kiela's library past to her island future.

The discoveries and pivotal decisions that reshape Kiela's understanding of herself and her world.