After destroying the Tangled One, Whisper and Ernan escape her collapsing domain and emerge upon the seabed exposed by the retreating sea. Ernan feels like his own person again, and the brothers search through centuries of offerings left by the Festival of Drowning. Among the wreckage, they discover Yurias Castus: an ancient, antlered priest of Phaedras who was exiled by the corrupted Watchers and imprisoned beneath the sea by the Tangled One. Although they cannot recover his lost equipment, they find another piece of the Crystallic and Bjorn's long-lost cloak. Whisper and Ernan bring Yurias through the Twilight Temple and back to Keph.
At Keph, Silas becomes the new vessel for the Deathless Flame after taking Helvaegan from Bjorn. He struggles against the voices of Emrys, Normandy, and the other souls bound within it. Ahzarax arrives with Torin and Vyr, destroys Belgor'Vrack's well, and restores the paladins' connection to their divine power. The recovered Crystallic fragment joins with Torin's existing pieces, leaving only one still missing. Yurias receives new armor and attunes to the Tome of Stars, which reveals his exile, the destruction of his former armor, his imprisonment by the Tangled One, and an unknown destination within the heart of Tyve.
Meanwhile, Helena and Bjork travel deeper into the Staring Woods with Wolfgar and Gullfist. Helena encounters an antlered Watcher that claims to observe the entire world, gives her a piece of its antler, and warns that Tyve's light is hungry and always watching. Before the Shadow Claws' elders, Helena argues that Skjold's Helm must represent unity freely chosen rather than rule imposed by one person. She heats a spear in sacred blue flame and drives it through the helm, fixing the old symbol of rulership to a new standard. The Shadow Claws pledge themselves to the Harbingers, and their masked matron reveals herself as Bjork's mother. Beneath the settlement, Helena is introduced to the clan's prisoner: Kethrick Voss of the Karin'Vare.
