The Drowned Gods, #1
Curious Tides
by Pascale Lacelle
Contents
Chapter 5: Emory
Overview
In the aftermath of Quince Travers’s death, Baz rewinds time to conceal Emory’s uncontrolled multi-house magic and accuses her of being a Tidecaller, possibly Eclipse-born. Emory pleads for help; Baz agrees to meet in secret. Haunted by a Dovermere vision, she questions her birth, writes her father, and discovers Keiran using illicit magic tied to the spiral mark.
Keiran’s evasiveness confirms a wider conspiracy around the Hourglass ritual, deepening Emory’s resolve to uncover Romie’s fate.
Summary
Authorities confirm Quince Travers’s death as students recount his brief revival. Only Emory’s attempt to heal is mentioned; Baz’s rewind erases evidence of her unleashing multiple houses’ magics. Shaken, Emory avoids her friends’ pity and Baz’s stare until she confronts him.
Baz bluntly declares Emory a Tidecaller and suggests she is Eclipse-born, perhaps due to a falsified birth date. Emory rejects this, suspecting the spiral mark from Dovermere instead. Baz presses that she must tell Dean Fulton; Emory fears the Unhallowed Seal. Desperate, she pleads for secrecy and training. After a tense exchange invoking his father’s branding, Baz grudgingly agrees to meet at seven and keep silent—temporarily.
That night, Emory dreams of Dovermere: an immense silver hourglass, flowers and blood, eight red hands, and Travers accusing her before the glass shatters into a wave of nightmares. She wakes distraught and, at dawn, mails her father asking if her mother lied about her birth.
Returning through the mist, Emory finds Keiran mending a crow’s broken wing—New Moon magic he should not wield. Realizing the spiral enables cross-house magic, she confronts him about the Hourglass ritual, Romie’s S.O. note, and his presence on the beach. Keiran is coy, neither confirming nor denying, then slips away for class as Baz arrives, catching the tail end of their encounter.
Who Appears
- Emory AinsleifHaunted by unleashed multi-house magic; begs Baz for secret training; dreams of Dovermere; writes her father; witnesses Keiran heal via the spiral mark.
- Baz BrysdenRewinds time to prevent Emory’s collapse; accuses her of being a Tidecaller/Eclipse-born; resists, then agrees to a secret meeting at seven.
- KeiranHeals a crow’s wing using New Moon magic despite not being a Healer; marked by the spiral; evades Emory’s questions about the ritual and S.O.
- Quince TraversRecently resurfaced drowning victim; centerpiece of Emory’s guilt and nightmare, accusing her in a Dovermere vision.
- LizavetaAmplified Emory at the beach; later distraught and supportive of Virgil as authorities remove Travers’s body.
- VirgilUsually glib Reaper; visibly shaken by Travers’s death; briefly meets Emory’s gaze with understanding.
- NishaTearful on the beach, leaning on Ife after Travers’s body is taken away.
- IfeComforts Nisha during the aftermath on the beach.
- Henry AinsleifEmory’s father; recipient of her letter questioning her birth and lunar alignment.
- Luce MeraudeEmory’s absent mother; her reported new-moon birth and past raise doubts about Emory’s alignment.