Chapter Summaries

Jarvan IV tried to impress Shyvana with a casual outing and conversation about fashion and architecture, while Shyvana misunderstood his probing questions and hoped to leave Demacia City soon. The chapter ended with Jarvan IV inviting her to lunch at Dawn Castle, a landmark she had not yet visited.

• Jarvan IV consulted his etiquette tutor and chose fashionable everyday clothes for an outing to the Temple of the Lightbringer.
• Shyvana toured the temple, longed to leave Demacia City, and worried when Jarvan IV approached her again.
• Jarvan IV asked Shyvana about Piltover's trends, tattoo dyes, Ionia, and Demacian architecture, while she answered cautiously and at length.
• Jarvan IV invited Shyvana to lunch at Dawn Castle, and she felt another headache coming on.

Jarvan IV confessed to Shyvana and was decisively rejected, while LeBlanc and Vladimir arranged a scheme to place Cuiwei Gothin in the king’s service. In Freljord, Lux realized Jarvan planned to open trade with Shurima and questioned how Demacia could transport grain across the desert safely.

• Jarvan IV invited Shyvana to lunch and showed her around Dawn Castle, but she refused his dinner invitation and rejected his confession before leaving.
• LeBlanc and Vladimir discussed Jarvan IV’s plans for Shuriman trade and arranged for Vladimir to pose as Cuiwei Gothin, a man who had broken with his family for Lanfu Davier.
• A rumor spread that Cuiwei and Lanfu were secretly engaged, and Lanfu introduced Cuiwei to Jarvan IV, who assigned him to the Garrison Legion.
• Cuiwei enforced an old law by striking a noble who rode recklessly through the city, earning the name Iron-Faced and alienating the nobility.
• Shyvana returned to Freljord, and Lux learned from Sona’s news and the Bird Group Squad’s information that Jarvan IV planned to trade with Shurima.
• Lux and Karya considered the risks of transporting Demacian grain through the desert, including heavy losses and danger from rival factions.

Taric’s discovery of Ningwu Dao gave Jarvan IV a potentially profitable underground trade route between Uzeris and Golden Wheel Town. Months later, Sona received Shuriman goods in Freljord, recognized the mutton’s true origins, and discovered that her Golden Wheel Stone collar might let her hear Kayle.

• Taric found Ningwu Dao, a ventilated underground passage stretching twelve hundred miles, and confirmed it was suitable for caravans.
• Barrett analyzed the Golden Wheel trade and traveled with Taric to assess the route, where food could be exchanged for gemstones and dried mutton.
• Five months later, Sona received a Golden Wheel Stone necklace and dried mutton from Barrett, and Lux identified the meat as rock goat raised in Shurima.
• Lux explained that the Solar Sect had claimed credit for the rock goats, leaving Sona disgusted by the sect’s deception.
• Kayle spoke to Sona through her Golden Wheel Stone collar, and Sona hurried off to tell Lux about the possible communication medium.

Sona’s discovery that the Golden Wheel Stone could transmit information led Karya to suspect it was the material used in the Sun Disc, prompting him to explain how Shurima’s dependence on that power source contributed to its collapse. He then outlined a plan to use Shuriman trade to weaken Jarvan IV’s royal finances and enable Lux to lead a noble uprising.

• Sona told Karya that Kayle had used the Golden Wheel Stone to connect directly with her will, and Karya laughed before calling Eno to join them.
• Karya explained that Shurima’s Sun Disc powered the empire, that attempts to replicate it had failed because of its special material, and that its limited capacity helped drive tensions that culminated in the Icathian War and the empire’s fragmentation.
• Karya proposed buying Golden Wheel Stones through Shuriman trade and spreading knowledge of their value to draw the royal family into a costly contract it could not fulfill.
• Lux, Eno, and Karya discussed how the resulting financial crisis could force Jarvan IV to choose between compensating merchants and supporting the army, stirring nobles to revolt and rally behind Lux.
• Lux remembered asking Karya why he had tricked a minor noble when she was eleven, and recalled his reply: “My heart is clear as a mirror.”

Lux launched Freljord’s first large-scale disciplinary purge after corruption spread among clerks and Hextech users as trade and port revenues grew. She punished those responsible and discussed with Karya how education, oversight, and stable lives could help prevent future abuses.

• In Demacia, local lords increasingly made use of Illuminator missionaries as administrators and allies, while Jarvan IV’s efforts to reduce noble power remained incomplete.
• Lux ordered a disciplinary review after corruption grew around New Freljord Port and the expanding trade economy.
• The investigation uncovered port inspectors, merchants, an accountant, and a lighthouse keeper colluding to evade more than ten thousand Demacian Gold Coins in fees.
• Lux punished the port officials involved and uncovered further abuses, including trafficking immigrants, gangs stealing their subsidies, and clerks neglecting their duties.
• Lux hanged three clerks, sent eight to the Nullstone Prison, and blacklisted the nobles involved from Northern Trade.
• Karya advised Lux that continued learning, stable relationships, oversight, and targeted disciplinary campaigns could help clerks resist greed, and Lux resolved to keep working despite feeling overwhelmed.

Jarvan IV expanded trade with Shurima to address Demacia’s financial troubles, and the first large caravan returned with goods that sparked a special fair in Demacia City. Sambor bought nearly all the Golden Wheel Stone, while Barrett remained unaware that Freljord’s artisans had discovered its use as a pigment.

• Lux worked to curb corruption in Freljord by removing a fifth of its clerks and strengthening its foundations.
• Jarvan IV sent Taric and Barrett on a trial trade journey to Shurima, and the caravan returned with a reported profit margin above 200 percent.
• Jarvan IV organized a large-scale caravan, which sailed from Demacia City with nearly three hundred thousand pounds of grain and returned seven months later carrying Shuriman goods.
• Taric sold dried mutton quickly in Uzeris and used his supplier status to buy rare Shuriman specialties for Demacia.
• Jarvan IV held a special-goods fair, where Sambor bought nearly all the Golden Wheel Stone after Luxanna had given him a clear purchasing plan.
• Barrett received Sona’s letter revealing that Freljord’s artisans could combine Golden Wheel Stone with Ochre Blue Stone to make brilliant pigment, but he assumed Sambor had discovered its value on his own.

Shuriman trade became a highly profitable royal monopoly, while Lux used the expanding trade fairs to introduce Ice Gold Coins to southern merchants. With the royal finances restored, Jarvan IV reshaped the Magic Seekers by appointing Cuiwei Gothin as commander, and Cuiwei soon confiscated magical objects from a nearby noble.

• Taric's Shuriman goods sold out, and a second successful caravan established a profitable trade route that greatly increased the royal family's income.
• Lux saw northern merchants use Ice Gold Coins at the Shuriman trade fairs, and southern merchants gradually began accepting them.
• Jarvan IV turned his attention to reclaiming policing authority and decided to use the Magic Seekers for that purpose.
• Jarvan IV transferred the Magic Seeker commander to Gate of Sorrows and appointed Cuiwei Gothin as his replacement.
• Cuiwei Gothin confiscated magical objects from a noble whose fief lay near Demacia City.

Zwar confiscated magical heirlooms from noble families, while Jarvan IV tried to use the Magic Seekers to expand royal control over public security. After Zwar’s second raid provoked the Noble Council, the nobles backed Luxanna as a preferred authority on Magic Corruptors and warned the royal family to restrain him.

• Zwar returned to the Gothin Family estate and confiscated its magical weapons, armor, and other heirlooms, leaving his father furious and the family impoverished.
• Jarvan IV defended Zwar’s actions before the Noble Council and proposed that the Magic Seekers take a greater role in routine patrols across the nobles’ fiefs.
• The noble representatives united against the proposed expansion of royal authority over public security, and the meeting ended without agreement.
• After the meeting, Zwar pursued a Magic Corruptor into a noble’s fief, arrested the local magistrate along with the suspect, and confiscated the lord’s magical treasures.
• The Noble Council backed Lady Luxanna of the Gothin Family as a more qualified person to handle Magic Corruptors and warned the royal family to restrain Zwar.

Lux chose to mediate the growing conflict between Jarvan IV and the nobles, but LeBlanc and Vladimir had engineered the dispute to lure the king north and expose Freljord’s use of magic. Karya explained how Freljord could use the competing Silencer and Magic Seeker organizations to delay a confrontation, leaving Lux to consider how time could help resolve the problem.

• Lux decided to mediate between Jarvan IV and the nobles, insisting that negotiations must prevent armed conflict and keep Freljord out of the power struggle.
• Jarvan IV set out for the North after Lanfu and Cuiwei manipulated the Magic Seekers dispute to create an excuse for his visit and weaken his relationship with Lux.
• Lux worried that Jarvan IV would discover Freljord’s Hextech and its former Magic Corruptors, giving him grounds to enforce Demacia’s prohibition on magic.
• Karya told Lux that Freljord’s Silencers could remain silent about their past, while the Magic Seekers had their own history of recruiting Magic Corruptors.
• Lux understood that Freljord could use the dispute over the two organizations’ jurisdictions to delay the conflict, and Karya said Lux still had time to learn how to handle such problems.

Jarvan IV visited a prosperous Freljord City and discussed trade, noble concerns, and the Magic Seekers with Lux at a banquet. They reached an understanding for Lux to mediate tensions in exchange for Golden Wheel Stone at a low price, while Miss Lanfu left disappointed at failing to find a way to cause trouble.

• Freljord City placed its Hextech users on leave as it prepared to welcome Jarvan IV, stirring memories of their past in Nullstone Prison and their new lives in the north.
• Lux welcomed Jarvan IV to a transformed Freljord City, and he was delighted by its prosperous, orderly streets and residents.
• Jarvan IV stayed at the Freljord Grand Theatre, where Sona began a banquet with the Hymn of Valor and Jarvan IV shared an opening dance with Lux.
• Jarvan IV apologized to Lux over the broken engagement and discussed how his Shurima trade had harmed Freljord.
• Jarvan IV and Lux agreed that she would mediate concerns about the Magic Seekers while he provided Golden Wheel Stone at a low price.
• Miss Lanfu failed to find a weakness in the Hextech users or an opportunity to stir up trouble.

LeBlanc’s plan to turn Jarvan IV against Lux faltered when the Magic Seekers found magic throughout Freljord and raided Beroba’s home. The Northern Wanderers arrested the raiders, and Jarvan IV learned they had tried to extort a prominent Freljord Nullstone engineer.

• LeBlanc ordered the Magic Seekers to search Freljord more aggressively after they found no mages, hoping to make Jarvan IV distrust Lux.
• The Magic Seekers discovered magical auras everywhere and chose Beroba’s house as a target rather than search Lux’s castle.
• Beroba protected his family with a Nullstone doll, reinforced his door with magic, and sent up a distress firework as the Magic Seekers tried to break in.
• The Northern Wanderers arrived, disarmed the Magic Seekers, and tied them up.
• Jarvan IV heard that the Magic Seekers had raided Beroba’s home and tried to extort the Freljord Nullstone engineer.

Jarvan IV presided over Beroba’s trial in Freljord City, where the Magic Seekers’ actions collapsed under scrutiny and left Jarvan questioning Luxanna’s control of magic suppression. After returning to Demacia City, he approved Cithria’s plan to reform the Magic Seekers but realized his old friendship with Lux had changed; meanwhile, Vladimir and LeBlanc discussed their plans to infiltrate the organization.

• Beroba defended himself at Jarvan IV’s trial by arguing that the Magic Seekers’ Nullstone clubs had failed to break his door, and Luxanna’s testimony supported his account.
• The Magic Seekers could not justify their conduct in Freljord City, so the involved members lost their positions and were sent back to Demacia City for imprisonment.
• Jarvan IV canceled the rest of his northern itinerary and returned to Demacia City, determined to overhaul the Magic Seekers.
• Cithria revealed that Beroba had once been a Magic Corruptor and explained that the Magic Seekers had banned recruiting them after Sylas escaped Nullstone Prison.
• Jarvan IV approved Cithria’s request to remove entrenched members and recruit new ones, then felt that Lux was no longer the childhood friend he remembered.
• After leaving Dawn Castle, Cithria met LeBlanc, who questioned Vladimir about his plans to place people within the Magic Seekers.

Lux met the fate-sensing Ascended siblings Shabeka and Shabeke, who came looking for Karya and warned him about a dangerous attempt to reverse death in Shurima. Karya decided to travel there with Eno and address the trouble in Golden Wheel Town on the way.

• Golden Wheel Stone trade between Shurima and Freljord continued, but dwindling production forced Barrett and Sambor to agree on smaller purchases and longer delivery schedules.
• Shabeka and Shabeke arrived at Lux's window and asked her to reveal Karya's location.
• Lux recognized the crows from Karya's story and teased them about losing their feathers and going bald.
• Karya appeared, and Shabeka and Shabeke told him that someone in Shurima was manipulating Ascended Power in an attempt to reverse death and become immortal.
• Karya decided to go to Shurima and told Lux to call Eno so they could handle the trouble in Golden Wheel Town along the way.

Karya traveled with Yin Nuo and Shyvana to Shurima City to deal with problems from his past, after learning that Zilean had trapped Shabeka and Shabeke while researching Azir’s resurrection. They reached the city and found it locked down, with its walls and towers recently damaged, leaving Karya to suspect Zilean was involved.

• Shabeka and Shabeke told Karya that Zilean had trapped them in Antashil, taken their blood and feathers for his research on resurrecting Azir, and released them after finding them useless.
• Karya decided to travel to Shurima City with Yin Nuo and Shyvana, choosing to remain in physical form and carry his broken sword himself.
• Shyvana flew Karya and Yin Nuo across the Great Sai Desert, where Karya explained the Shurima River’s importance and the oasis’s unusual geography.
• Karya, Yin Nuo, and Shyvana reached New Shurima City and found its gates shut under lockdown.
• Karya saw that the city walls had been hastily repaired and its towers blasted apart, and he suspected Zilean was connected to the damage.

Karya, Yin Nuo, and Shyvana entered New Shurima City disguised as explorers from Zaun and examined its imitations of the ancient empire. As Karya recognized the city’s history and shortcomings, she realized the era she belonged to might already be gone.

• Karya found large-scale damage to New Shurima City’s walls and chose to enter cautiously under Zaun’s identity.
• Shyvana presented fake Explorer’s Society papers, and Karya bribed the guards, who let the group into the city.
• Karya explained the Sand Talkers’ history and noted that Shurima City had likely been caught in the crossfire of a battle rather than attacked directly.
• Yin Nuo and Shyvana examined the Wall of a Thousand Gods, where Karya identified herself and Aatrox and discovered a statue that resembled her.
• Karya recognized the unfamiliar statue as Azir, while the narration described how the Regent Elders’ claims and the struggle over Azir’s descendants fractured the Later Shuriman Empire.
• Walking through New Shurima City, Karya saw it as an imitation of the Shurima she had known and felt that her era had passed.

Eno, Shyvana, and Karya learned that Shurima City had turned the battle outside its walls into a popular spectacle, then met with all thirteen Regent Elders to discuss the growing danger. The elders dismissed the threat and suspected Zaun of pursuing power, while Karya concluded that they were choosing inaction and that a mysterious peacemaker might be connected to A Zhi.

• Eno and Shyvana heard battle stories and watched a puppet show about the clash between the two Ascended, while Karya suggested visiting the Regent Elders as Zaunite explorers.
• Karya used his Prince's Feather seal to prepare a letter, then attracted attention at the night market by criticizing and improving the food stall owners' dishes.
• Shyvana presented the letter and met all thirteen Regent Elders, who tested her knowledge of the royal bloodline before she warned them about awakening ancient beings and the threat of war.
• The Regent Elders dismissed Shyvana's warnings, then privately suspected that Zaun wanted to gain control of Shurima and decided to wait before acting.
• Karya told Eno and Shyvana that the elders were giving up and doing nothing, and suggested that the mysterious peacemaker might be connected to A Zhi.

Karya, Shyvana, and Yin Nuo left Shurima City and reached the Marrow Seal Market, where Karya explained its reputation as a black market. Meanwhile, Taliyah recounted how she joined Nasus after helping him drive off Zilean, and the pair arrived at the market behind Karya's group.

• Karya concluded that Shurima City's Regent Elders were focused on preserving their authority and appearances, so she, Shyvana, and Yin Nuo left the city.
• After crossing Khar'sai, Shyvana carried Karya and Yin Nuo to the Marrow Seal Market, a sprawling trading city built on the bones of an ancient sea beast.
• Karya warned Yin Nuo not to buy goods too readily, and Yin Nuo discovered that a vendor demanded an outrageous price for Ionian spirit tea.
• Taliyah recalled rescuing a false Royal Descendant in Weikola City, then pursuing kidnappers who were gathering royal bloodlines.
• Taliyah joined Nasus in fighting Zilean in Shurima City, and Zilean fled after Nasus turned the battle around.
• Nasus invited Taliyah to travel with him, and they crossed Khar'sai to reach the Marrow Seal Market shortly after Karya's group.

Karya led the Shuriman tribe south through the desert, charting their route and guiding them to a mighty river after a month-long journey. The tribe named it the Shurima River, while Setaqa rescued Karya after he fell into the water.

• Setaqa oversaw preparations as Karya secured supplies from neighboring tribes with safe-conduct passes and chose a window when the desert storms would subside.
• Karya led the Shuriman tribe south, tracking their route with instruments and recording a map as they traveled.
• On the eighth day, scouts found a saltwater oasis, where the Skarrash drank safely even though the water was too salty for camels and people.
• Setaqa worried about leading three thousand people into the unknown, but Karya encouraged her to eat and trust their route.
• After a month and the loss of a third of their Skarrash, the Shuriman tribe reached a mighty river, and Karya named it the Shurima River.
• Setaqa tackled Karya into the river after he teased her, then rescued him when he revealed he could not swim.

After reaching a great river, the exhausted Shurimans planned to rest before settling nearby, but attackers tried to burn their camp and capture them as slaves. Karya recognized their motive, and the Shurimans ambushed the attackers on their next visit, capturing several for questioning.

• The Shurimans drank from the river, made camp, and decided to rest for three days before searching for a permanent settlement.
• Karya urged caution after a boat fled from the camp, and Setaqa ordered the tribe to prepare for battle.
• Great River people attacked at night with flaming arrows, and the Shurimans put out the fires and drove them away.
• Karya concluded that the attackers wanted to capture the Shurimans as workers, and he and Setaqa planned to seize some attackers for questioning.
• The Shurimans hid a trench near their camp and charged the attackers when they returned at night, capturing several stragglers.
• Karya prepared to interrogate the captives, though neither side understood the other's language.

Karya led the Shurimans west along the Shurima River, learned that powerful tribes threatened them from both directions, and joined Setaqa in defeating the upstream mage tribe. The Shurimans claimed the unfinished castle and rose to become the region’s largest tribe, while Karya and Setaqa celebrated their victory together.

• Karya learned the local dialect, guided the Shurimans to a western marketplace, and brought a fraudulent rock mage back to camp to question him about magic.
• The mage revealed that a powerful tribe led by the self-proclaimed God of Mages enslaved nearby people, while a huge tribe downstream also captured slaves.
• Setaqa urged Karya to confront their enemies, and they infiltrated the mage tribe’s construction site before Karya organized an alliance and planned an ambush.
• The alliance drew the God of Mages into the Shurimans’ trap, where Horok killed him after the mage blocked the falling boulders with a Sand Barrier.
• The Shurimans absorbed many people, took the unfinished castle, and celebrated their victory as Karya and Setaqa became intimate.