Chapter Summaries

Tang Xiao investigated a Force-sensitive crow who brought information about Dathomir and introduced herself as Charal, a fugitive Nightsister. She revealed that the Shadow Queen, Gethzerion, had appeared on Dathomir.

• Tang Xiao left his children with a maid and rushed to his office after Helmut Zemo reported that a talking crow had come seeking him with information about his life and Dathomir.
• Tang Xiao used the Force to seize and crush the crow until it pleaded for mercy, then released it after confirming it was no threat to him.
• The crow transformed into a witch, who knelt before Tang Xiao and offered her loyalty in exchange for protection.
• Charal said she had fled the Nightsister Order more than a hundred years earlier with its sacred Ring of the Crow, which let her turn into a crow.
• Charal told Tang Xiao that the ring had sensed the return of its creator, the Nightsister founder known as the Shadow Queen, Gethzerion, on Dathomir.

Tang Xiao learned from Charal that Gethzerion had already emerged, making the powerful Nightsister matriarch an immediate threat. Charal explained her long-hidden life on Dawn Star Planet and sought Tang Xiao’s protection because Gethzerion would hunt her for betraying the Order and stealing its artifact.

• Charal told Tang Xiao that Gethzerion had emerged, and he recalled the Nightsister matriarch’s strength and feared the danger she posed.
• Tang Xiao questioned Charal about her decades on Dawn Star Planet, and she explained that she had survived there by trading Endor’s goods through former pirates.
• Charal admitted that she and her associates had abducted Ewoks for sale, but said she had stopped after Tang Xiao arrived and made the Ewoks part of the Duchy of Dawn.
• Charal revealed that she had secretly watched Tang Xiao’s group as a crow and lived in a hidden cabin to avoid the Nightsister Order’s oppression.
• Tang Xiao realized Charal’s artifact could have made her a deadly threat, then asked why she had come to him.
• Charal said she feared Gethzerion would kill her for betraying the Nightsister Order and taking its artifact.

Tang Xiao decided to keep Charal and use her knowledge of the Nightsisters to enlist Palpatine against Gethzerion. He revealed that an extraordinary being had returned to life on Dathomir, but Palpatine did not recognize the Nightsister Order’s founder.

• Tang Xiao weighed whether to hand Charal over to Gethzerion or keep her, then realized he could call on Palpatine for help.
• Tang Xiao spared Charal and brought her to speak with Emperor Palpatine through a hologram.
• Palpatine mocked Darth Malthael and demanded to know what he wanted.
• Darth Malthael introduced Charal and reported that an extraordinary being had returned to life on Dathomir.
• Darth Malthael asked Palpatine about the Nightsister Order’s founder, and Palpatine said he knew of such a powerful witch but did not know who she was.

Darth Malthael warned Darth Sidious that Gethzerion had returned and proposed they join forces to kill her on Dathomir. They agreed to meet there in a week, while Tang Xiao began considering how to exploit Gethzerion’s possible lack of defensive magic—and how he might also betray Sidious.

• Charal described Gethzerion’s legendary power, and Darth Malthael warned Darth Sidious that she might threaten the Empire.
• Darth Malthael proposed blockading and bombing Dathomir, but Darth Sidious insisted they travel there with powerful assistants to assess and kill Gethzerion if necessary.
• Darth Sidious and Darth Malthael agreed to meet on Dathomir in a week, each privately considering the chance to kill the other.
• Tang Xiao asked Charal about Gethzerion’s weaknesses, and Charal suggested that Shadow Magic might lack defensive spells.
• Tang Xiao told Charal to stay out of the battle and leave her artifact ring behind, and she reluctantly agreed.

Darth-Lilim traveled alone to Dathomir to investigate the disappearance of twenty Ghost Agents. After finding a weak signal emitter and using the Force to reveal their phantoms, she followed them deeper into the jungle.

• Darth-Lilim learned that twenty Ghost Agents had gone missing on Dathomir and decided to investigate herself.
• Darth-Lilim searched the planet for more than a day before detecting a faint Ghost Agent signal on its night side.
• Darth-Lilim landed in a jungle, concealed her fighter, and moved toward the signal while invisible.
• Darth-Lilim found a buried signal emitter amid powerful electromagnetic and Force disturbances.
• Darth-Lilim used the Force to reveal phantom Ghost Agents advancing in a defensive formation, then followed them into the jungle.

Darth Lilim investigated a hidden battlefield on Dathomir and discovered that the Galactic Empire had arrived. She secretly watched Darth Sidious and his entourage approach the crash site as a powerful storm brought an old woman in red robes before them.

• Darth Lilim followed the lingering souls of her Ghost Agents to a concealed forest clearing littered with signs of a massacre and the remains of her agents.
• Darth Lilim found a Lambda-class shuttlecraft bearing the Galactic Empire's insignia and followed it as it descended.
• A powerful Force user summoned a storm that struck the shuttlecraft with lightning, forcing it to crash.
• Darth Lilim hid nearby and recognized Darth Sidious among the people who emerged from the wreckage.
• An old woman in red robes appeared in a bolt of lightning before Darth Sidious and his entourage.

Darth Sidious tried to recruit Gethzerion into the Galactic Empire, but she turned his offer into a trap and attacked him and his followers with devastating lightning. Sidious and his surviving allies defended themselves and launched a counterattack.

• Darth Sidious met Gethzerion and offered her wealth, power, and a place on his Dark Advisory Council in exchange for helping him kill the Archangel of Death.
• Gethzerion concluded that the Archangel of Death was a threat because he had revealed her existence, and she agreed to discuss killing him with Sidious.
• As they circled each other, Gethzerion proposed using Sidious's corpse as bait for the Archangel of Death.
• Gethzerion unleashed a barrage of lightning on Darth Sidious and his followers, severely wounding the bald man and the cyborg.
• Darth Sidious and the seven cloaked figures blocked the lightning, then Sidious ordered his allies to attack and conjured a black hole and a net of Force lightning.

Darth Malthael learned that Darth Lilim had gone to Dathomir and that Darth Sidious had already clashed with Gethzerion. He led his forces to the planet and confronted Sidious over the Emperor’s show of military force.

• Darth Malthael prepared to depart with the Priestess and Judgment after learning that the two people he had sought had arrived.
• Darth Malthael discovered that Darth Lilim had gone to Dathomir, where she had found Palpatine planning to contact Gethzerion and had fought alongside him before they fled.
• Darth Malthael ordered his forces to follow their original plan and left the Consul-class aircraft carrier with five modified Viking fighters.
• Darth Malthael’s formation emerged from hyperspace near Dathomir and found five Imperial-class Star Destroyers stationed in orbit.
• Darth Malthael contacted Darth Sidious and warned that the Emperor’s show of force would only drive Gethzerion away.

Darth Malthael and Darth Sidious reluctantly joined forces to hunt Gethzerion on Dathomir, while Shen Qiao'en learned their arrival threatened Darth Tenebrus's wider plans. The chapter ended with Gethzerion recovering in a hidden temple as Shen Qiao'en seethed over the unexpected pursuit.

• Darth Sidious told Darth Malthael that Gethzerion had fled and proposed searching for witches hostile to the Nightsister Order to find her trail.
• Darth Sidious revealed that Gethzerion knew Darth Malthael had exposed her resurrection, forcing him to agree to fight her alongside Sidious.
• Darth Malthael and Darth Sidious introduced their followers aboard a Star Destroyer, recognized the Priestess as Depa Barris, and held a tense standoff without fighting.
• Darth Malthael and Darth Sidious dispatched their groups in separate directions to search Dathomir for Gethzerion.
• Shen Qiao'en watched Gethzerion recover in a hidden temple and cursed Darth Malthael for bringing Darth Sidious to disrupt Darth Tenebrus's plans.

Shen-Jon and Gethzerion chose to confront Darth Sidious and Darth Malthael, but Darth Malthael exploited the distrust between the two Sith Lords to leave Darth Sidious facing Gethzerion alone. He finally arrived during the battle, leaving the outcome uncertain.

• Shen-Jon rejected Mother Talzin’s plan to wait and decided that Gethzerion would openly face her enemies.
• Darth Sidious ordered an Imperial-class Star Destroyer to bombard Gethzerion’s storm, then his forces discovered an underground passage beneath the devastated area.
• Darth Sidious and Darth Malthael argued over who should enter the passage first, and Darth Malthael led his group underground.
• Gethzerion ambushed Darth Sidious outside with a storm of lightning while Darth Malthael delayed in the passage.
• Darth Sidious struggled to protect his forces and called for Darth Malthael, who finally arrived at the battle.

Darth Malthael, Darth Sidious, Judgment, and the Priestess fought Gethzerion outside the underground passage. After Gethzerion countered their attacks and unleashed a deadly storm, Darth Malthael appeared behind her with the Death Force.

• Darth Malthael emerged from the underground passage and wounded Gethzerion with Crimson Lightning, then told Darth Sidious that traps had injured the people he brought.
• Judgment and the Priestess joined Darth Malthael, while Charal and the other two women remained inside the passage.
• Darth Sidious attacked Gethzerion with lightning-charged rocks, Force lightning, and an immobilizing Force, while Darth Malthael and his companions charged in.
• Gethzerion repelled Darth Malthael with a fist of stone fragments and summoned living vines and a massive lightning storm against Judgment and the Priestess.
• Darth Sidious laughed as he contended with Gethzerion, and Darth Malthael appeared behind her with the life-devouring Death Force.

Darth Malthael, Darth Sidious, Judgment, and the Priestess fought Gethzerion as she unleashed a devastating Lightning Storm and drained the planet’s life force to sustain herself. After Malthael broke through her defenses, the attackers severely wounded her, but Gethzerion escaped by burrowing into the ground.

• Gethzerion held off Darth Sidious and Darth Malthael while fighting Judgment and the Priestess, forcing the other combatants to take shelter underground.
• Darth Malthael’s Death Force drained Gethzerion, so she rooted herself into Dathomir and absorbed the planet’s life force, becoming immobile.
• Judgment and the Priestess attacked Gethzerion with their Lightsabers as Darth Sidious struck with lightning, but Gethzerion fought back with her own blade and a concentrated lightning attack.
• Darth Malthael withdrew his Death Force and charged through a gap in the storm, striking Gethzerion with crimson lightning as Darth Sidious, Judgment, and the Priestess wounded her.
• Gethzerion’s scream intensified the storm as roots partly reconnected her severed body; she abandoned a leg pierced by Darth Sidious’s Lightsaber and escaped into the ground.

Darth Malthael and Darth Sidious failed to kill Gethzerion, who escaped underground after unleashing a devastating Force scream. As Sidious ordered Dathomir bombarded, Malthael’s group escaped and met Darth Lilim, who said she might have discovered Gethzerion’s secret.

• Gethzerion transformed into roots and escaped underground, leaving Darth Malthael and Darth Sidious shaken and unable to confirm whether she had survived.
• Darth Sidious demanded that Gethzerion be found, then killed the seven Dark Jedi Knights and ordered an orbital bombardment of the area.
• Luna Dream and Luna Illusion revealed themselves, and Darth Malthael led his group away before Sidious’s bombardment began.
• Darth Malthael’s group boarded the Red Comet, collected Darth Lilim, and fled as explosions devastated the battlefield.
• The Red Comet reached the Consul-class aircraft carrier, where Darth Malthael and Darth Lilim exchanged accounts of what they had found.
• Darth Lilim told Darth Malthael that she thought she had discovered Gethzerion’s secret.

Darth Lilim revealed that a blood-red tree beneath Dathomir sustained Gethzerion, while Darth Malthael ordered surveillance of the planet and left before Darth Sidious. On Mimban, he discovered that Luna Meng and Luna Huan had hidden two Imperial-class Star Destroyers among supplies they stole from the Galactic Empire.

• Darth Lilim reported that a subterranean tree bearing corpses supplied Gethzerion with magical power, and Charal identified the old witch tending it as Daka.
• Darth Malthael concluded that Darth Tenebrus had arranged Gethzerion’s resurrection, ordered Darth Lilim and Sefrans Tann to monitor Dathomir, and departed as Darth Sidious left five Star Destroyers behind to watch the planet.
• Darth Malthael questioned Luna Meng and Luna Huan, who explained that they had used illusions to control a Galactic Empire supply station until an inspection led by the Grand Judge forced them to flee.
• Luna Meng told Darth Malthael that they had hidden stolen supplies at an abandoned Imperial base on Mimban, so he traveled there with the sisters aboard the Red Comet Sith Infiltrator.
• Darth Malthael spotted two Imperial-class Star Destroyers at the base and accused the sisters of embezzling them.

Darth Malthael and the others discovered that Luna-Dream and Luna-Phantom had tricked the Galactic Empire into supplying them with two Star Destroyers, a fleet, and enough weapons and equipment for an army. The sisters had kept the equipment and Marines at their base, but had no plan for using their enormous stash.

• Luna-Dream explained how the sisters’ fabricated anti-piracy operations had earned them ships and Imperial medals.
• The group found Clone Trooper equipment discarded around the military base and opened its well-maintained warehouse.
• Darth Malthael discovered the warehouse contained weapons, armor, walkers, tanks, artillery, and over a thousand hover bikes.
• Luna-Phantom revealed that the sisters had kept nearly 20,000 Marines on a space station to fight imaginary pirates.
• Luna-Dream and Luna-Phantom explained that their initial request for food had spiraled into years of fraudulent reports and a huge supply of military equipment.

The Dream Sisters gave Darth Malthael their stockpile of Imperial weapons and ships before leaving for Haruun Kal to grow stronger. After they departed, Darth Malthael set course for Taris to visit an old acquaintance whose soul had recently changed.

• Luna-Dream offered Darth Malthael the sisters’ weapons and warships, and he planned to use the legitimate Imperial supplies to support the Rebel Alliance.
• Luna-Dream and Luna-Illusion said they were going to Haruun Kal to become stronger, despite the danger its dreams and illusions posed to them.
• The Dream Sisters boarded a shuttle and left, while Darth Malthael reflected on his difficult-to-define relationship with them.
• Darth Malthael ordered the Priestess to notify Salatan Morse to collect the equipment.
• After returning to the Sith Infiltrator, Darth Malthael changed their destination from Drai II to Taris to visit an old acquaintance.

Judgment and the Priestess discussed Taris's history, where the Muur Talisman awakened countless Rakghouls and turned the planet's underground city into a deadly sealed ruin. Darth Malthael proposed testing whether Judgment could control them, intending to unleash the horde on the Galactic Empire when war resumed.

• The chapter recounted how Taris declined from a thriving planet into a ruined world after trade collapsed, the Sith Empire bombarded it, and Rakghouls overran its cities.
• The survivors sealed the underground city and rebuilt on the surface, leaving an unknown number of Rakghouls wandering below under the Muur Talisman's influence.
• Judgment recalled fighting through the underground city to retrieve the Muur Talisman and vowed to prevent its power from causing such slaughter again.
• The Priestess warned that Taris's Rakghouls remained a threat if anyone opened the sealed passages.
• Darth Malthael asked whether Judgment could control the Rakghouls, then proposed testing her ability and sending them against the Galactic Empire when war began again.

Darth Malthael, Depa Barris, and Judgment traveled into Taris's underground city, where the Muur Talisman drew countless Rakghouls to them. They found the resurrected Adi Gallia, who reclaimed her identity as the Reaper and learned that the Republic and Jedi Order had fallen.

• Darth Malthael led Depa Barris and Judgment into the ruins beneath Taris, where the Muur Talisman awakened countless Rakghouls that followed them without attacking.
• The group followed a trail of Rakghoul corpses through the sewers to an abandoned treatment plant, where Darth Malthael found Adi Gallia alive atop a heap of bodies.
• Darth Malthael told Adi Gallia that he had killed and resurrected her, then named her Reaper as she struggled to remember who she was.
• Darth Malthael and Depa Barris told Adi Gallia that Palpatine had turned the Republic into the Galactic Empire and that the Jedi Order had fallen.
• Depa Barris led Adi Gallia back to the spacecraft, where Adi regained her sanity and recounted how her hatred of Palpatine and fear of becoming a mindless corpse had driven her to Taris seeking a way to transcend death.

Darth Malthael transformed Adi Gallia into Reaper, a being empowered by death, and sent her to Felucia to slaughter the Galactic Empire. As his group returned from Taris, he revealed plans to clear the Rakghouls and use the planet’s underground city to house immigrants.

• Adi Gallia swore loyalty to Darth Malthael and vowed to kill Darth Sidious, while he reflected on how the Tarot cards related to him.
• Darth Malthael used Death Force to transform Adi Gallia into Reaper and ordered her to go to Felucia and attack the Galactic Empire.
• Reaper rose from her mummified body, alarming Depa Billaba with the scale of her power, while Charal collapsed in terror.
• Darth Malthael's group obtained a spacecraft for Reaper on Taris, then set off on their return journey without her.
• Darth Malthael told Depa Billaba and Celeste Morne that Taris could become a home for immigrants if they cleared the Rakghouls from its vast underground city.

Lothal Planet’s leaders sought autonomy after the Galactic Republic fell, but Grand Duke Tang Xiao’s order to settle Givin there threatened their plans. The planet’s protests drew no help from either the Duchy of Dawn or the Galactic Empire, and Givin immigration proceeded under the Duchy’s public defense of the arrangement.

• Lothal Planet remained isolated and neutral during the Clone Wars, then pursued autonomy after the Galactic Republic collapsed.
• Grand Duke Tang Xiao ordered the Givin under the Duchy of Dawn to immigrate to Lothal Planet, and their first ship arrived less than two months later.
• Lothal Planet’s government protested to the Duchy of Dawn, but its delegation was turned away without meeting Tang Xiao.
• Lothal Planet sought arbitration from the Galactic Empire, whose military supported Givin emigration because it could weaken the Duchy of Dawn’s defenses at Yag'Dhul.
• The Duchy of Dawn defended the settlement by arguing that Lothal Planet had ample land and resources while its residents remained poor and underdeveloped.