Contents
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Overview
Lore, Gabe, Malcolm, Alie, and Michal prepare to flee to Caldien, sharing tearful farewells with Val and Mari. Bloodcoats ambush them at dawn; Lore is shot but heals herself, reveals the vessels’ powers, and uses Mortem to force Gabe and Malcolm onto the ship. Val, Mari, and Michal sail with them, while Alie is taken and Lore submits to capture, ensuring the others’ escape.
Summary
At Val and Mari’s warehouse, the group finalizes plans to take a hidden ship to Caldien. Lore struggles with leaving Bastian under Apollius’s control and with the fear that her parents will face questioning. After emotional farewells, they head toward the docks at dawn, Lore and Alie walking behind the others and reflecting on past confines and newly possible futures.
A gunshot cracks the morning; Lore is hit in the stomach. As bloodcoats swarm from hiding, Alie is seized, and Gabe and Malcolm begin openly wielding divine powers—fire and binding grasses—exposing that more vessels exist. Lore focuses through the pain, uses Spiritum to extract the bullet and heal herself, and assesses that escape is only possible if some of them get to the ship immediately.
Determined to secure the others’ survival, Lore orders Gabe and Malcolm to flee and then rips Mortem through the cobblestones, exploding the street in controlled blasts that drive them downhill toward the docks. Val covers the retreat with deadly pistol fire while Mari and Michal hastily cast off. Recognizing the fatal risk of delay against guns, Gabe drags Malcolm aboard as the ship pulls away prematurely.
As bloodcoats close in on Lore, she sees the vessel gaining distance with Gabe, Malcolm, Val, and Mari aboard, Michal at work, and warehouses burning behind them. Accepting she cannot save everyone, Lore allows herself to be shackled, intending to bargain later with Apollius for Alie’s life. She watches the ship shrink on the horizon while Alie is hauled away.
Who Appears
- LoreProtagonist; shot during an ambush, self-heals with Spiritum, wields Mortem to secure friends’ escape, then surrenders and is captured.
- GabeReveals Hestraon’s fire, fights bloodcoats, then retreats as Lore forces him toward the ship; escapes aboard.
- AlieSummons wind but is overpowered, shackled by bloodcoats, and taken during the ambush.
- MalcolmUses grass to bind attackers; dragged by Gabe onto the departing ship to escape.
- ValLore’s mother; covers the retreat with precise pistol fire and departs on the ship.
- MariLore’s mother; organizes the vessel’s readiness and sails away with the escaping group.
- MichalShip’s captain; readies and launches the vessel under fire, escaping with Val, Mari, Gabe, and Malcolm.
- BloodcoatsRoyal soldiers who spring the dockside ambush, shoot Lore, capture Alie, and arrest Lore.