A Torch Against the Night

Elias and Laia flee from Martials through the catacombs and emerge in the streets to find Resistance fighters revolting in the city. Keris follows the pair and fights them but is knocked unconscious after nicking Elias with her blade. On their way out of the city, Laia tells Elias about her brother and Elias is even more determined to rescue Darin so that he can make weapons for the Empire's enemies. Seizures grip Elias and they realize that Keris's blade was poisoned. In unconsciousness, Elias goes to The Waiting Place, where the dead stay when they are not ready to move on. The Soul Catcher appears and tells him he is dead; he just doesn't know it yet. When Elias comes to, he realizes that the poison is Nightweed which causes 3-6 months of seizures and then death, with no cure or antidote.

Marcus has Helene tortured by Lieutenant Avitas Harper for information about Elias's escape, but she does not break. To save Helene's life, Helene's father trades her sister Hannah to Marcus so that he can marry Hannah and have an heir of noble blood. Marcus orders Helene to hunt Elias, bring him back, publicly torture then kill him. Helene overhears Keris and the Nightbringer discussing Cook and Laia's origins. The Nightbringer catches Helene listening and warns her that she needs to find a teacher for her new singing gift and then worsens her wounds with his voice. Keris assigns Avitas Harper to Helene's mission to keep an eye on her.

Laia enters a market called the Raider's Roost to get Tellis, an herb that might help with Elias's seizures. A Tribesman recognizes her from the wanted posters so he chases her wanting Elias and his bounty. Laia unknowingly makes herself invisible with a new, undiscovered power and eludes the Tribesman for a moment. The Tribesman and his men eventually catch her and Laia promises to take them to Elias in exchange for a cut of the bounty and safe passage to the tribal lands. When they retrieve Elias, Laia sneaks him the Tellis so they both can to fight the tribesmen off. They plan to go to the Tribal lands for the Fall Gathering, when every Tribe will be there in large caravans where Elias and Laia will leave hidden in tribal wagons. Helene gets a message from Raider's Roost that Elias's horse was found there and rightly guesses that Elias will go to the Fall Gathering.

Elias is nearly back to full strength due to the Tellis, a temporary balm for the symptoms but not a cure. Elias is hesitant to get closer to Laia because he doesn't want to hurt her when he dies, and the Soul Catcher told him to stay away from her which Laia disagrees with and they kiss. Having tracked them, Keenan attacks and interrupts but quickly realizes that Laia went with Elias willingly. Keenan with Izzi tells Laia that the Martials are exterminating all the Scholars in retaliation for their revolt. Laia asks her friends to work together to free Darin, but there is animosity between Keenan and Elias. That night, the Soul Catcher reopens an old wound on Elias's arm to prove that she can hurt him if he gets too close to Laia.

In the city of Nur, Elias goes to the apothecary for more Tellis and sees The Black Guard, Helene's men, patrolling and a wanted sign offering a reward for his capture. He overhears Helene give orders to tail Mamie Rila, his foster mother with his adopted family tribe, Tribe Saif. Elias takes Laia, Keenan, and Izzi to Afya Ara-Nur, a tribeswoman who owes him a favor. He demands her to help them out of Nur, take them to Kauf, and aid them in saving Darin. Elias is briefly reunited with his mother and unburdens himself to her, telling her about Blackcliff and the things they forced him to do there.

Mamie Rila goes to the storyteller's stage for “the farewell tale” before the caravans head out. She tells Elias's story to start a riot so that the caravans can leave without Martial inspection. In the confusion and violence, Helene sees Elias so he stays to distract her. Elias saves Helene from being trampled and she makes a half-hearted attempt to take him in. Before leaving, Elias tells her that he misses her and that he will always miss her, even when he is a ghost. Elias makes it to Afya who stops him from trying to save his mother when Tribe Saif's wagons are being burned and his family are on their knees before the Martials.

Elias visits the Soul Catcher again and she tells him he has two months to live. Elias wakes and tells Afya he'll break Darin out alone instead and for her to go to a cave near Kauf where, if he is successful, Darin will be waiting in two months later. As Elias passes the Forest of Dusk, the Soul Catcher appears and tells him that the forest is The Waiting Place in the physical realm and to come inside for her to get him closer to his destination faster. Innside, The Soul Catcher explains she was once a jinn girl, now tied to this place, paying for her crimes by escorting ghosts from one realm to the next, betraying the jinn to the humans and that her name is Shaeva. Elias sees her touch a glowing tree that sets her body on fire, only killing the tree, and she is whole again. Shaeva tells Elias he should not have seen that and she should not have brought him to the forest. With two weeks left to live, she takes him to Kauf.

Helene holds Elias's family prisoner. While searching for him, Helene comes across Keris capturing and killing Scholars. Keris kills several children in front of Helene, over her objection. Harper tells Helene that he knows she let Elias go. Marcus orders Helene to ride for the capital, Antium, and delay her current mission. Marcus believes that the noble houses, the Illustrian Gens, have declared war on each other and threatens his position as Emperor. Keris, Marcus, and Cook are already at Antium when Helene arrives. Marcus orders Helene to bring him the heads of several Gens patriarchs, and she asks for proof that they are truly traitors trying to replace him with another emperor. Marcus says he doesn't need proof, but Helene tricks the Gens Paters to come to her father's house and discuss their treason. Ten Paters are executed and Marcus orders their heirs to swear fealty to him. Marcus tells Helene that if she does not capture Elias by an impossible deadline, he will kill her entire family, including his fiancé. Cook comes to Helene with a stomach wound and promises to tell Helene where Elias is headed if Helene heals her. Cook tells Helene that Elias is going to Kauf to free Darin and warns Helene that if she hurts Laia, she will regret it.

Elias sneaks into Kauf prison and the sight and sounds bring him back to the horror of performing guard duty there as a child where his natural empathy caused him to suffer along with the tortured prisoners. Posing as a guard, Elias asks about Darin and is told that Darin died in the interrogation cells weeks ago. The Warden finds Elias and recognizes him on sight, saying that he has been waiting for Elias. The Warden holds a knife to a Scholar slave child's throat to prevent Elias from fighting his way out. The Warden gleefully says he has not experimented on a mask in a long time and houses Elias in the interrogation block.

Laia forces Afya to hide two families of Scholars who ran to the caravan wagons, pleading for help. They say Keris is hunting them and she has been executing Scholar prisoners. Laia makes herself invisible, but Martials find Keenan, Izzi, and the Scholar families in the wagons' secret compartments. Laia uses her invisibility to free Keenan and fight the Martials. Izzi is killed in the fight and the survivors run into the woods. Keenan and Laia separate from Afya, and Afya goes to reunite with the rest of her tribe when Laia releases her from her promise to Elias. Laia and Keenan make their way to Kauf together, with Keenan comforting Laia about Izzi's death and the two have sex.

In Kauf, the Warden tortures Elias and mangles one of his hands. Elias names a Scholar slave boy who cleans his wounds and admires him, Tas. When a guard kicks Tas, Elias pummels the guard. The Warden punishes Elias by torturing Tas in the next room so that Elias can hear his screams. Elias returns to Shaeva in unconsciousness, deprived of his Tellis, the poison killing him slowly. Elias wakes to Tas cleaning his wounds again. Tas tells him that the man they are currently hearing scream is called The Artist, who cries out the name Laia in his sleep. Tas tells Elias that the Scholars in the pits have a rebel movement-the Skiritae-led by a man named Araj.

Helene arrives at Kauf. A former Blackcliff classmate tells her that Elias used to sneak off to a nearby cave as a child to get away from the prison. In the cave, Helene finds Elias's scims. Harper confesses that he is no longer Keris's spy. Keris told Harper to poison Helene when she got too close to Elias. Helene speaks with Kauf's Warden and deduces that the Warden already has Elias and the Warden confirms it. Laia and Keenan make it to the cave and Helene finds them, but she lets them go, more concerned about what Keris is planning. Keenan and Laia plan to enter Kauf but he discourages Laia from using her invisibility powers during the plan. The Warden sends Helene a message that Keris is near Kauf to continue her Scholar genocide. Helene spies on Keris and overhears her talking to the Warden. They share a master, the Nightbringer, and Keris plans to attack Antium with an army, take the throne from Marcus, and become Empress.

In the Waiting Place, Elias talks to Izzi and helps her cross over into the afterlife. In Kauf, Elias escapes his cell and finds The Artist-Darin. Darin says the Warden has not asked a single question about the Teluman weapons; he only asks about Laia. Darin tells Elias what he told the Martials about Laia, and Elias recognizes those exact words coming from Keenan's mouth. Suddenly, Elias knows Keenan is a traitor and the one who told the Warden that Elias was coming to Kauf. Elias and Darin try to walk out, but the Warden ambushes them. The Warden questions Elias about Laia, but Elias does not know what information is relevant.

Laia promises to be Keenan's family and gives him her mother's armlet who changes into the Nightbringer. Keenan was the Nightbringer the entire time. He betrayed her parents to Keris. He posed as a five-year-old child and “grew up” in the Resistance. He is seeking the pieces of the shattered silver Star, the weapon that imprisoned the jinn. Laia's armlet is a piece. Laia looks into his eyes and sees these truths and those memories. The Nightbringer asks Laia what she is and then disappears. In the Waiting Place, Elias asks Shaeva why the Nightbringer and the Martials are interested in Laia. Shaeva tells Elias what Laia just found out: that Keenan is the Nightbringer. Shaeva tells Elias that the pieces of the Star have to be given willingly out of love and trust. The Nightbringer wants to free the jinn living in Shaeva's grove of trees, but Shaeva thinks he should not because their imprisonment has driven them mad. The Nightbringer cannot kill Laia; all who have been given the Star are protected from him by its power. That includes Elias, because Laia let Elias hold the armlet once. The Warden and Keris don't know about the armlet or why the Nightbringer is interested in Laia. The Nightbringer wants to use the jinn to kill first the Scholars and then all of humanity. Elias wakes, back in Kauf, with a plan, and asks Tas for help. Laia sends a message to Elias through another Scholar slave child and Tas, and they plan together through the children. Afya meets Laia at the cave to help.

Helene asks the Warden to give her Elias. He agrees if Helene will stay a few days and let him experiment on her; he is interested in her healing powers. Helene knows that, if she stays, it will give Keris time to attack at Antium and overthrow Marcus. She puts the Empire first and rides to stop the coup, fearing that Marcus will kill her family because she left without Elias. Before she leaves, she helps Laia with her plan to get to Darin and Elias.

On the day Shaeva said Elias would die, Tas brings Elias keys and lockpicks. A weakened Elias frees himself from his cell and gets Darin out of his. An altercation with a guard leaves Darin unconscious. Elias and Laia's scholar children allies start a fire in the prison. As Elias carries Darin through the burning prison to freedom, he dies, unable to open the locked door to the outside. In the Waiting Place, Elias asks Shaeva to send him back. Shaeva said Elias caught her attention because the spirits he killed were not angry with him, because he grieved for them. She said that when he first came to the grove, he was a natural with the spirits. Shaeva told Elias to stay away from Laia to keep him lonely. She wanted Elias to take her place as the Soul Catcher, but she now advises him to accept death. Elias asks her to bring him back to life, and he will be Shaeva's successor and allow her to train him to replace her. Shaeva accepts. Elias wakes, still hurting from the torture, but strong because the poison is gone from his blood. The door is open and Elias carries Darin and Tas outside. Laia, Elias, Afya and Tas fight the guards and free the Scholar prisoners. Tas kills the Warden. They all escape, with the unconscious Darin, in boats.

Helene arrives in Atium and tells Marcus about the coup, but the Nightbringer has brought Keris there first. Keris says Helene is deluded by her obsession with Elias and should not be believed. Helene realizes that Elias was poisoned by Keris so that he would die slowly, but he could still be chased by Helene long enough to waste Helene's time so that she would not discover or report the coup. Because Helene did not return with Elias, Marcus kills his fiancé and Helene's mother. Before being killed as well, Helene's father says war will come from outside Serra and six thousand martial citizens are depending on her. Marcus leaves Helene's youngest sister, Livia, alive to be his new fiancé. Marcus tells Helene that he knew about the coup and her running in and shrieking about it undermined him. Marcus says that if Helene is anything but totally obedient in the future, he will make her last living family member suffer more than she can ever imagine.

One month later, Cook finds Helene and tells her that when she is ready to take on Keris, Cook can help. Keris had disbanded her army when she realized Helene was going to tell Marcus about the coup. Marcus sends Helene a letter saying it is time to kill Keris. Helene tells Harper she is going to find Elias's grandfather, Quin. Harper tells Helene that he and Elias share a father and are half brothers. Near the Waiting Place, Laia and Darin live in a cabin. Elias has to be close to the Forest. The Scholars make for the free lands, Tas leaving with them. Afya also says goodbye and returns to her tribe. Elias and Laia kiss and lie entwined in the cabin. Darin wakes up.