Chapter 43: Emory

Emory follows an offshoot blood trail into a cellar and finds the Night Bringer hiding—wounded and wearing Keiran’s reanimated body. Pressed, he reveals his true identity: the Shadow, the first Eclipse-born deity, once imprisoned in the sleeping realm and escaped by inhabiting Keiran’s corpse.

He explains he is weakened by the mortal vessel and cannot easily change bodies or traverse liminal spaces. He also claims the Sculptress/Forger/Tides/Celestials are facets of one deity splintered across worlds, whose pieces live in Emory’s friends. Emory realizes she is not a key but a Tidecaller who can turn keys, and that her friends carry the deity’s parts that the Shadow wants destroyed.

When knights close in, Emory debates helping him. Needing his guidance to master her magic yet unwilling to endanger her friends, she sends him a burst of healing and flees as the knights discover the ruse.

Emory reaches the dragon’s cell as the ceiling collapses and sunlight pours in. Tol defeats the Knight Commander nearby while Romie, Aspen, Nisha, Virgil, and Vera sit astride the freed dragon, which speaks into Emory’s mind. The dragon snatches Emory and Tol in its talons and launches skyward, carrying the group toward freedom.