Chapter 39: Emory

Free-falling into darkness, Emory lands on a star-lined path she recognizes as the true sleepscape—a physical liminal world between life and death. She cannot sense Romie and fears she is gone. Keiran arrives, calling it the purgatory to the Deep. Emory realizes Romie has been trapped here physically, unable to wake without a key.

Confronted, Keiran admits he invisibly witnessed Dovermere, feigned synthetic magic to win Emory’s trust, and traced her lineage through Adriana Kazan (Luce Meraude) to discover eclipse-born Tidecallers who first manifest as Healers and awaken through near death. He urges Emory to continue to the Tides, promising to plead for Romie.

Emory considers destroying the door to stop the Tides, but umbrae surge from the dark. They overwhelm Keiran, who begs for help; Emory, remembering his violence, cannot watch but does not intervene as the umbrae drag him off the path. When an umbra seizes Emory, despair hollowing her out, a star streaks in—Romie’s voice and light cutting through the dark. Romie fends the umbrae with burning stars.

Seeing the rift back to the caves still open and umbrae moving toward it, Emory uses her Tidecaller key to lock the door, but too slowly. The shades encircle Emory and Romie. Refusing to accept their end, Emory takes a star, embraces all facets of her magic, and chooses to heal the umbrae—once-people lost between worlds.

The resulting blast unmakes the umbrae into a new constellation, the rift fully seals, and the sleepscape quiets. Emory releases the magic and collapses with Romie among newborn stars, the door locked and the immediate threat ended.