Contents
Chapter Seventy-One: Arin
Overview
On the bridge before the raised fortress, Essiya reveals the true history of the Awaleen and Rovial’s reincarnating magic—now lodged within her. Fearing inevitable madness and catastrophe, she chooses entombment beneath Sirauk rather than crossing. Before vanishing into the mist, she animates the raven from Rawain’s scepter and sends it through the barrier into Arin, leaving him burning.
Summary
Arin confronts Essiya on the bridge after she raises the fortress, noting her stilled, gold-silver eyes and fearing what it means. He orders her to retreat before the mist returns, but Essiya rejects his authority and sets down Rawain’s scepter. As Arin hacks futilely at the fortress, Essiya dismantles accepted legends, admitting the Awaleen were flawed and that her own past differs from the myths.
Essiya reveals the hidden truth: the Awaleen did not drag her to entombment; they killed her by tearing out her magic and casting it into Hirun, then ripping Rovial apart. Rovial’s power reincarnates every century, causing recurring magic-madness and devastation. Essiya now carries Rovial’s magic and recalls layered past lives that feel alien, while the magic itself feels constant and overwhelming.
Recognizing that such immortal, annihilating power cannot safely exist, Essiya refuses to cross the fortress to Arin, fearing she will lose her humanity and control. She chooses to let the mist take her into entombment with the Awaleen to lock the magic away. Arin begs, promises to find another way, and even offers to join her, but she rejects solutions that sever her from magic and insists the true anchors were their people—naming allies—and Arin himself.
As the mist climbs to her waist, Essiya crushes the scepter’s glass orb, snaps off the raven, and proves her altered state when the shards cannot wound her. She animates the raven, breathes on it, and it flies through the impenetrable fortress barrier.
The raven slams into Arin’s chest. Arin collapses to his knees, consumed by burning pain, as Essiya disappears into the rising mist and her chosen entombment.
Who Appears
- ArinNizahl Supreme; pleads with Essiya to step back; vows to join her; struck by the animated raven and burns.
- EssiyaReveals she holds Rovial’s reincarnating magic; chooses entombment to prevent catastrophe; animates the scepter’s raven and sends it into Arin.
- RovialAncient power whose magic reincarnates each century; source of Essiya’s overwhelming, potentially world-ending magic.
- JeruReferenced as having been knocked out by Arin earlier amid the battle; off-page presence.
- Raven (from Rawain’s scepter)Scepter ornament Essiya animates; passes through the fortress and slams into Arin’s chest.