Chapter 75

Zevander awakens in a squalid hovel, observing two terrified children hiding beneath a table: a horned spindling boy and a severely disfigured girl. Their whispered hopes reveal the boy, Alastor, dreams of becoming a powerful mage to cure his sister, Melisara, despite their status and poverty.

A well-dressed drunk emerges, assaults Melisara, and blasts Alastor with Aeryz. As the man prepares to violate the girl, Alastor stabs him in the neck from behind, killing him. Fearing punishment for murdering a highblood, Alastor takes the man’s vivicantem and swallows it, choosing potential Carnifican corruption over execution to protect Melisara.

Cadavros appears beside Zevander, confirming the vision is his past: Alastor was his birth name, a spindling whose bloodline magic was restored by an excessive dose of vivicantem. He explains he inherited his mother’s Sanguidin identity-theft magic, enabling him to steal faces and positions, ultimately becoming Magelord, while Melisara naturally manifested vampiric fangs.

Zevander realizes Melisara is Melantha, the Magelord’s apprentice. Cadavros admits Melantha murdered sexsells using flammapul to subdue victims, driven by resentment and a desire to walk among mancers unjudged. He frames these crimes as the world’s making of a monster, complicating his long-held disdain for highbloods and institutions.

The scene dissolves into a vast, hollowed tree Zevander recalls from the woods. Hearing Maevyth calling from within, and urged by Cadavros to find her, Zevander enters the tree’s dark interior, pursuing her voice.