The Drowned Gods, #2
Stranger Skies
by Pascale Lacelle
Contents
Chapter 14: Baz
Overview
On Quadri morning, Baz learns the Regulators plan illicit tests on the Reanimator, then witnesses Drutten seize control of the ceremony. Drutten brands Emory a Tidecaller and orders Memorist interrogations, targeting Baz first. An explosive blast interrupts Baz’s arrest, shifting campus tensions into open crisis.
Summary
At dawn, Jae and Professor Selandyn meet Baz in Obscura Hall. Jae reports Vera’s intel: the Regulators are secretly moving the captive Reanimator, likely for illicit testing. Selandyn, having studied Clover’s journal, hints its notes align with her research on erratic tides and the Shadow. Kai stumbles in, exhausted, claiming he sleepwalked; tension lingers from the Hourglass dispute, but Baz and Kai share a terse, protective goodbye before Jae and Kai leave for the Quadri.
Campus swells with visiting delegations, some visibly shaken. In the assembly hall, Regulators seal the exits. Drutten cancels the opening ceremony, blaming early-morning apparitions and reanimated corpses in Cadence on the escaped Reanimator, Freyia Lündt, and alleges a Shadow-cursed uprising near Elegy.
Drutten escalates further, declaring the tides’ instability part of a larger threat and revealing that Emory Ainsleif secretly possessed Eclipse magic. With Dean Fulton’s selenograph “evidence” and witness testimonies, he brands Emory a Tidecaller—the Shadow reborn—and claims conspirators will try to resurrect her. Baz realizes Jae, Kai, and his father are in immediate danger if the Regulators search the lighthouse.
Drutten orders Memorist interrogations of all Eclipse-born and singles out Baz as Emory’s close friend. As Regulators move in with damper cuffs, the floor detonates, hurling the enforcers back and dropping Baz to his knees, abruptly halting his seizure.
Who Appears
- Baz BrysdenEclipse-born student; attends Quadri ceremony; targeted for Memorist interrogation; nearly seized before an explosion saves him.
- DruttenRegulator who cancels the ceremony, blames Freyia, exposes Emory as a Tidecaller, and orders Baz’s seizure.
- Kai SalongaArrives exhausted, claims sleepwalking, urgently wants to talk; shares a tense but warm goodbye with Baz.
- JaeBrings Vera’s intel about the Reanimator’s movement; departs for the ceremony with Kai.
- Professor Beatrix SelandynStudies Clover’s journal; connects its insights to erratic tides and Shadow research.
- Dean FultonOffstage; allegedly provides selenograph evidence used to brand Emory a Tidecaller.
- Freyia LündtOffstage Reanimator; blamed for apparitions and corpses; said to have escaped to aid a rebel movement.
- VeraOffstage ally at the Institute; warns via Jae that Regulators plan illicit tests on the Reanimator.