The Dragon arrives at the harvest festival and chooses Agnieszka instead of the beautiful, prepared Kasia, shocking everyone in the valley.

The Dragon reveals he has been teaching Agnieszka magic all along, as the law requires him to train any person with the gift.

While the Dragon assists a neighboring province, Agnieszka escapes the tower and travels to her village of Dvernik to help in his place.

Wolves from the Wood attack Agnieszka in Dvernik; the Dragon arrives and drives them off but is clawed and infected by the Wood.

Agnieszka uses Old Jaga's journal to brew a potion and sing a healing spell that cures the Dragon's Wood infection.

Walkers drag Kasia into the Wood, and Agnieszka sneaks away from the tower alone with Jaga's journal to rescue her.

Agnieszka finds Kasia bound to a heart-tree deep in the Wood and tears her free by channeling an earth-shaking spell.

Agnieszka and the Dragon perform Luthe's Summoning together and use the truth spell to successfully purge Kasia's deep Wood corruption.

Prince Marek threatens to have Kasia executed for corruption unless Agnieszka agrees to help lead an expedition to rescue Queen Hanna from the Wood.

The expedition reaches the heart-tree holding the queen and pulls her free just as the enormous tree bursts into flames.

Queen Hanna speaks for the first time, accusing the Rosyan prince of kidnapping her and deliberately binding her to the heart-tree.

A monster from a corrupted bestiary kills the king during his celebration party in the capital city of Kralia.

Agnieszka uses a magical illusion portal to escape Kralia with Prince Sigmund's royal children and reach the Dragon's tower.

Luthe's Summoning reveals the queen is a hollow husk controlled by the Wood-queen, who kills Marek before her essence flees back to the Wood.

Agnieszka helps the Wood-queen transform into a heart-tree using the vanastalem spell, finally ending the Wood's centuries of corruption.

The Dragon's unexpected choice of Agnieszka at the harvest festival sets the entire story in motion, pulling her from her village into a life of magic she never anticipated. After learning she has real power, Agnieszka is forced to use it repeatedly: to rescue Kasia from the Wood, to fight alongside the Dragon on a dangerous mission to save Queen Hanna, and to navigate the treacherous politics of the capital city. Each success draws the Wood's retaliation, culminating in the king's death, a siege at the tower, and the revelation that the queen's body is a puppet of the Wood-queen herself. The final confrontation requires Agnieszka to understand and accept the Wood-queen's ancient pain rather than simply defeat her, transforming an act of war into an act of compassion. By the story's end, the valley is at peace and Agnieszka has grown from a confused servant girl into the witch who saved the kingdom.

The headline events driving Agnieszka from chosen girl to savior of the kingdom.

Agnieszka accidentally shatters a spell jar in the Dragon's laboratory, releasing gray smoke that turns her entire body to stone.

Agnieszka finds a note hidden by a previous servant girl explaining that the Dragon just wants company but will never ask for it.

Prince Marek enters Agnieszka's room at night and attempts to assault her; she knocks him unconscious with a serving tray.

The Dragon uses a spell to alter Marek's memory and explains that Queen Hanna disappeared into the Wood with a Rosyan prince twenty years ago.

Agnieszka uses the Dragon's precious fire-heart potion to burn Jerzy's Wood-corrupted cattle in the village of Dvernik.

Unable to heal the deeply infected Jerzy, Agnieszka uses a gray smoke potion to freeze him and halt the Wood's spread.

The Dragon tells Agnieszka the story of Countess Ludmilla to warn her against false hope when trying to save someone corrupted by the Wood.

The Falcon tests Kasia with painful spells after arriving at the tower and reluctantly admits she shows no signs of corruption.

Agnieszka shakes the entire Hall of Wizards with an earth spell, forcing the dismissive court wizards to add her to the official list.

Agnieszka discovers a corrupted bestiary in the library's uncataloged books, revealed as a Rosyan gift brought to the court twenty years earlier.

Alosha reveals to Agnieszka that the valley villagers are magically bound to the Wood and cannot truly leave the region.

Marek forces the corruption trial to begin publicly at the king's party by drawing his sword directly against the king.

Crown Prince Sigmund is killed in a Rosyan trap, and soldiers with the Wood in their eyes attack his children inside the castle.

Agnieszka and Sarkan combine their magic to raise a real stone wall around the tower, fortifying it against Marek's besieging army.

Kasia strikes the Wood-queen with Alosha's magic sword, spreading blackness across her body and forcing her essence to flee the hollow husk.

Pool 2 follows the significant scenes that fill in the texture of Agnieszka's journey: her early misadventures in the tower, her first confrontation with the true horror of Wood corruption in Dvernik, and the political battles she faces at the royal court in Kralia. Many of these events reveal crucial information about the Dragon's motivations for taking girls, the danger of corrupted artifacts like the bestiary, and the magical laws binding the valley's people to the Wood. The political crisis in Kralia is explored through the machinations of Prince Marek, the dismissive court wizards, and the king's scheme to quietly execute the queen and Kasia. The pool closes with the violent siege on the tower and Kasia's act of bravery against the Wood-queen, showing how far both women have come since the story began.

The key moments and discoveries that shaped Agnieszka's understanding of magic, power, and the Wood.

The Dragon catches Agnieszka trying to read a stolen book from his library and furiously accuses her of being an enemy's spy.

Kasia's mother Wensa accuses Agnieszka of always having been jealous of Kasia after learning that Kasia cannot be immediately healed.

Agnieszka asks to try Luthe's Summoning on Kasia, and the Dragon explains it is a powerful truth spell that nearly killed her when she first touched it.

Agnieszka shouts at the Dragon that stealing brave girls from their families was cruel, even if he never touched them.

The Dragon and Agnieszka share their first kiss after a combined magic experiment erupts into an uncontrollable burst of light and vines.

Agnieszka and the Dragon use Luthe's Summoning on Jerzy, channeling through his Wood corruption to burn a distant heart-tree.

The Falcon offers Agnieszka a partnership during the group's journey toward the Wood; she senses his hunger for power and refuses.

Agnieszka undergoes the wizard naming ceremony but refuses a formal wizard name, choosing to remain simply Agnieszka of Dvernik.

Agnieszka realizes the Dragon takes valley girls because their bond to the land makes them natural channels to siphon the Wood's power.

Agnieszka creates a vivid illusion of the queen's rescue during the corruption trial, winning the audience's sympathy before the queen suddenly speaks.

Agnieszka goes to Sarkan's bedchamber and the two make love the night before Marek launches his full assault on the tower.

Luthe's Summoning reveals the Wood-queen's tragic origins: she was a tree-person betrayed and entombed alive by the valley's first humans.

Trapped inside the burning heart-tree, Agnieszka sees a vision of the tree-woman Linaya explaining her people's betrayal and the Wood's bitter beginnings.

Sarkan drinks from the Spindle river to gain the power needed to cast Luthe's Summoning and pull Agnieszka free from the heart-tree.

Sarkan returns to the Zatochek harvest festival months later and Agnieszka drags him away to meet her mother.

Pool 3 traces the inner turning points of the story: the moments of revelation, confrontation, and connection that change how Agnieszka understands herself, the Dragon, and the Wood. Early discoveries about her magic and the Dragon's true nature lay the groundwork for a deepening bond between them, one marked by conflict as much as closeness. Her time in Kralia strips away her naivety, forcing her to grasp why the Dragon takes valley girls and how power corrupts even well-meaning people over centuries. The siege at the tower and the journey back into the Wood bring the most significant revelations of all: the Wood-queen's tragic origins and the vision inside the heart-tree that finally allows Agnieszka to offer compassion instead of force. The pool closes with Sarkan's return to the valley, a quiet but decisive signal that he has chosen, at last, to put down roots.

The discoveries, decisions, and emotional shifts that transformed Agnieszka and the world around her.

Naomi Novik

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