Recaps

Zhao Si and Blaidd? defeated the two Demi-Human Chiefs and drove the horde from Castle Morne. After reflecting on the needless violence of the Lands Between, Zhao Si decided he might use destined death to change its system of rule.

• Zhao Si and Blaidd? split up to fight the two Demi-Human Chiefs while the soldiers held back the remaining Demi-Humans.
• Zhao Si used his shield to turn aside a chief’s attack, then wounded it with ghostflame and killed it with a jumping cleave.
• Blaidd? also beheaded his chief, and Zhao Si’s roar helped send the Demi-Human horde fleeing while the soldiers killed the remaining Misbegotten.
• Zhao Si condemned the Lands Between’s violent rule and lamented the deaths caused by war.
• Zhao Si touched the mark on his wrist and considered using destined death to change the system so everyone could become a lord.

After Castle Morne’s victory, Zhao Si taught Irina the Flowing Sword and set out for the Academy of Magic in Caria to seek help designing new weapons and find a way to approach Ranni. Blaidd? and Alberich returned to Roundtable Hold, while Zhao Si and Helena reached the academy’s guarded bridge.

• Zhao Si shared his understanding of the Flowing Sword with Irina, told her he would leave Castle Morne, and urged her to keep moving forward in life.
• Zhao Si decided to travel to Caria to discuss a new weapon design with Thops or Sellen and considered how the conflict between the academy and the Carian Royal Family might help him meet Ranni.
• Zhao Si stayed with Irina instead of attending the victory feast, where Alberich drank heavily and the dead were mourned before their burial beneath the Minor Erdtree.
• The next morning, Edgar saw the travelers off with a generous gift, and Blaidd? and Alberich parted from Zhao Si to report back to Roundtable Hold.
• Zhao Si and Helena traveled through Liurnia Lake to the Academy of Magic, where Cuckoo Knights and other academy soldiers guarded the bridge.

Zhao Si and Helena explored the prosperous academy town, where they sampled lobster from a boy who described worsening conditions and the Carian Royal Family’s decline. Zhao Si left with a clearer sense of the town’s hardships and the royal family’s troubles.

• Zhao Si imagined developing glintstone technology as he and Helena walked through the Gothic town.
• Zhao Si and Helena bought lobster meat from a boy, enjoyed it, and heard his boast that Godfrey and Radagon had praised his family’s recipe.
• Zhao Si asked the lobster boy about local life, and the boy said unfair taxes and banditry were increasing as people struggled to farm and make a living.
• The lobster boy said Queen Rennala’s decline had weakened the Carian Royal Family and that Princess Ranni was struggling to hold it together.
• Zhao Si suggested that the important people the boy hoped would help might not have considered the town’s problems at all.

Zhao Si discussed the history of magic and civilization in the Lands Between before witnessing sorcerers bully Thops outside Raya Lucaria Academy. He defended Thops’s research into protective magic and knocked out one of the bullies, leaving the other sorcerers facing him.

• Zhao Si reflected on the histories of the Eternal Cities, the beasts, the dragons, and the Golden Lineage while talking with Helena.
• Zhao Si heard sorcerers mock Thops for his failed research and try to take the materials he had bought.
• Zhao Si stopped a sorcerer from grabbing Thops’s shopping bag and challenged the group’s bullying.
• Thops explained that he wanted to create a spell that could protect sorcerers from sorceries and Incantations, and Zhao Si praised his research.
• Zhao Si insulted the sorcerers and punched one hard enough to shatter his glintstone crown and knock him unconscious.

Zhao Si helped Thops escape the academy sorcerers he had knocked unconscious, then offered to support Thops’s research in exchange for help studying new spells. Thops tested a glintstone shield that Zhao Si suggested, but it failed to stop a Glintstone Pebble, leaving Zhao Si to propose making sorcery easier for ordinary people to use.

• Zhao Si knocked eight academy sorcerers unconscious, and Thops led Zhao Si and Helena away from the pursuing Cuckoo soldiers.
• Thops brought Zhao Si and Helena to his secluded wooden house, where Zhao Si offered to fund and protect Thops’s research in exchange for help studying spells.
• Thops explained his idea for a shield that could block magic, and Zhao Si suggested creating a protective barrier around its user.
• Thops made a glintstone shield and asked Zhao Si to test it in the wetlands, but his protective film failed to stop Thops’s Glintstone Pebble.
• Zhao Si encouraged Thops to make glintstone sorcery accessible to more people, and Thops began considering the idea.

Zhao Si and Thops worked on a firearm that could cast sorcery, and Zhao Si proposed seeking help from Sellen and the two masters. After three days of experiments, their enchanted Buckler successfully deflected a Glintstone Pebble, while an ordinary shield shattered under the same attack.

• Zhao Si showed Thops a breech-loading Glintstone Firearm design, but Thops doubted they could build it or make it cast sorcery for someone without sorcery training.
• Zhao Si suggested using faith-scaled intelligence to power sorcery, and Thops reluctantly considered the idea despite calling it heresy.
• Thops told Zhao Si that Sellen and the two masters were at the Academy studying primeval sorcery, and Zhao Si decided to win their interest with concrete results.
• Zhao Si and Thops spent three days drafting plans and analyzing glintstone creations, with Thops contributing his theoretical knowledge.
• Zhao Si used the Buckler's glintstone barrier and a swing to deflect Thops's Glintstone Pebble, while an ordinary shield shattered when it blocked the spell directly.

Zhao Si and Thops entered the academy to advance Thops's research on a wearable spell-deflecting barrier. After exploring the grounds, Zhao Si approached Sellen, Azur, and Lusat with a new way to investigate the origins of magic.

• Helena healed Zhao Si's arm and scolded him for being careless, while Thops blamed himself for the injury.
• Zhao Si sketched a wearable glintstone device that could automatically deflect incoming attack spells and urged Thops to take their research into the academy.
• Thops agreed to accompany Zhao Si, and the two entered the academy while Helena stayed behind.
• Thops showed Zhao Si the Four-Armed Marionettes and a Crystalian before leading him through the academy and explaining that Carian knights and a Red Wolf guarded the Grand Library where Rennala stayed.
• Thops brought Zhao Si to Sellen, Azur, and Lusat, and Zhao Si offered to share a new way to explore the origins of magic.

Zhao Si pitched a Glintstone Computer to Sellen, Azur, and Lusat as a safer way to explore the primeval current and share discoveries. Sellen questioned his motives, but Thops demonstrated his Barrier Magic shield, and she agreed to test it.

• Zhao Si presented plans for a Glintstone Computer, Telescope, and Network to Sellen, Azur, and Lusat.
• Zhao Si argued that tools could help sorcerers explore the primeval current safely and avoid becoming Star Seeds.
• Azur and Lusat communicated through flashes from their glintstone heads, and Azur asked whether Zhao Si's ideas were feasible.
• Sellen accused Zhao Si of wanting to use them, and Zhao Si admitted that he and Thops needed their help to build the devices.
• Thops showed Sellen his shield and said it could deflect Glintstone Pebble.
• Sellen agreed to test the shield by casting a spell at Thops.

Zhao Si and Thops demonstrated a magic-blocking shield and presented their plans for magical inventions to Azur and Lusat. The masters tried to claim the inventions outright, but Zhao Si negotiated shared ownership with Thops, while Sellen agreed to act as a neutral mediator; meanwhile, Zhao Si’s anger stirred the Frenzied Flame still lingering in his mind.

• Thops explained that Zhao Si had helped him devise magical protective films, accessible magic, and new staff designs, while Azur and Lusat reviewed their notes on inventions including a Glintstone Firearm, Computer, and Telescope.
• Sellen fired a Glintstone Pebble at Zhao Si, who deflected it with Thops’s protective-film shield, proving that the prototype could block magic despite cracking under the impact.
• Sellen judged the shield promising but said it needed substantial improvement, and Lusat told Zhao Si that the masters wanted successful prototypes to belong to them while allowing Zhao Si to use them.
• Zhao Si rejected the masters’ terms and proposed that he, Thops, Azur, and Lusat share ownership and make decisions together; Sellen agreed to remain neutral and help resolve disputes.
• As Zhao Si’s arrogance and frustration grew, the Frenzied Flame lingering in his mind stirred and prepared to strike back.

Zhao Si’s confidence in his bargain with Azur and Lusat faltered as Thops and Helena warned that the sorcerers could turn on him. After Zhao Si lashed out at Helena under a sudden surge of anger, Thops led him into the Wetland, where a masked warrior appeared in a tree.

• Zhao Si and the others signed a contract, but Thops warned him that Azur and Lusat might kill him if his ideas failed to produce results.
• The shrimp boy told Zhao Si that a strange warrior from the Land of Reeds, wearing an Old Man Mask, had come to town searching for something.
• Helena warned Zhao Si that he had little leverage in his deal with the sorcerers, and Zhao Si accused her of spying for the Fingers.
• Zhao Si insulted Helena and claimed he would not serve the Greater Will, so Thops dragged him out into the Wetland to calm him down.
• A warrior in lamellar armor and an Old Man Mask spoke from a tree, challenging Zhao Si’s confidence.

Zhao Si’s lingering Frenzied Flame corruption made him lash out at Old Man, who defeated him in a spar and exposed the corruption, allowing the Ghostflame to burn it away. Old Man left a challenge for Blaidd? at the Second Church of Marika, while Zhao Si planned to apologize to Helena.

• Zhao Si refused to take Old Man’s message to Blaidd? and argued with him about how he had reached the Roundtable Hold.
• Old Man challenged Zhao Si to a spar and disarmed him, then cut his chin when Zhao Si boasted that he could fight Blaidd? to a draw.
• Yellow flames emerged from Zhao Si’s wound, and the Ghostflame burned away the Frenzied Flame corruption affecting his mind.
• Old Man told Zhao Si about a swordswoman with a prosthetic arm staying at the Shaded Castle and asked him to pass along a challenge to Blaidd? at the Second Church of Marika.
• Zhao Si agreed to deliver the message and decided to return with Thops to apologize to Helena.

Zhao Si realized his pride had let the Frenzied Flame poison his mind, apologized to Thops and Helena, and reconciled with Helena. He decided to visit the Shaded Castle and seek help from his senior Malenia to reach Ranni and gain leverage at the Academy.

• After the old man’s attack exposed the lingering Frenzied Flame poison, Zhao Si’s Ghostflame eradicated it, and he apologized to Thops.
• Thops told Zhao Si that Helena cared for him like family, prompting Zhao Si to recognize that he had taken her kindness for granted and misjudged the Academy.
• Zhao Si returned to the cabin, apologized to Helena, and accepted her reprimand as the two reconciled.
• Zhao Si asked Helena to accompany him to the Shaded Castle, where he planned to meet his senior and seek help finding Ranni.
• Zhao Si considered using Malenia’s Scarlet Rot and Rennala’s Great Rune, which granted rebirth, as a way to draw Malenia to his side.

Mare Mare, the frail head of House Marais, became infatuated with Malenia after meeting her at the Shaded Castle. Malenia used the alias Milia to hide her identity, but Mare Mare’s admiration and the household’s gossip left her trapped in an awkward situation.

• The chapter described House Marais, its role as executioners, and Mare Mare’s chronic illness and inability to wield the family’s Executioner’s Sword.
• Mare Mare encountered Scarlet Rot and came to worship the disease, while Eleonora proved skilled with the oversized Executioner’s Sword and Ohega’s Dancing Blade.
• Malenia traveled in disguise and met Mare Mare at an inn, where she noticed the Scarlet Rot in him and the Antspur Rapier at his waist.
• Mare Mare recognized Malenia’s illness and the scent of rot, became enamored of her, and invited her to stay at his residence.
• House Marais members and servants criticized Mare Mare for favoring Malenia, and he angrily defended her.
• Mare Mare accompanied Malenia to a sunny cliffside spot, worrying about how to win the favor of the woman he knew as Milia.

Malenia met Zhao Si on the road to the Shaded Castle, where their sword fight revealed that they had both learned the Flowing Sword from the same master. After Zhao Si convinced her of their connection, she agreed to go with him to the castle to talk.

• Malenia decided to leave after finding no impressive young fighters, and Mare Mare followed her back toward the Shaded Castle.
• Malenia and Mare Mare encountered Zhao Si and Helena, and Zhao Si called Malenia his senior sister.
• Malenia and Zhao Si fought with their Flowing Sword techniques until Zhao Si quoted their master's advice and stopped the duel.
• Zhao Si explained that his combat memories had taught him about their master, and Malenia accepted that his Flowing Sword was genuine.
• Mare Mare invited Zhao Si and Helena to the Shaded Castle, and the group set off together.

Zhao Si visited the Shaded Castle with Malenia and Helena, where he mocked Mare Mare’s portrait of Malenia and offered to help her escape his attentions. He proposed a plan involving Ohega’s Dancing Blade, and Mare Mare agreed to teach him in exchange for help wooing Malenia.

• Zhao Si arrived at the Shaded Castle with Malenia and Helena and saw Mare Mare’s portrait of Malenia in the manor hall.
• Zhao Si criticized Mare Mare for displaying the portrait while Malenia was present, and Helena asked Mare Mare to provide them with a meal.
• At dinner, Zhao Si repeatedly embarrassed Mare Mare by taking his food and wine, then spoke privately with Malenia about helping her leave.
• Zhao Si told Malenia he would learn Ohega’s Dancing Blade from Mare Mare and help her shake him off, but Malenia said she could leave whenever she wished.
• Zhao Si confronted Mare Mare and offered to help him woo Malenia in exchange for being taught Ohega’s Dancing Blade, and Mare Mare immediately agreed.

Mare Mare brought Zhao Si to Eleonora to learn Ohega's Dancing Blade, while Helena and Malenia grew closer in conversation. After Zhao Si passed Eleonora's test by using Ghostflame to burst a piece of wood apart in midair, Eleonora agreed to teach him the technique.

• Helena and Malenia chatted and found comfort in their shared disabilities and growing friendship.
• Mare Mare introduced Zhao Si to Eleonora and demanded that Eleonora teach him Ohega's Dancing Blade.
• Eleonora said Zhao Si had to demonstrate that he could control a weapon and split a piece of wood in midair.
• Zhao Si chopped stationary wood, then threw an axe at airborne wood and used Ghostflame to freeze and shatter it.
• Mare Mare insisted Zhao Si had passed and threatened to take Eleonora's executioner's sword, so Eleonora agreed to teach him.

Zhao Si learned a ghostflame version of Ohega's Dancing Blade and prepared to push Mare Mare toward a change of heart while discussing Malenia's future help in protecting Miquella and Godwyn. After Eleonora's Executioner's Sword disappeared following a dinner, Zhao Si and Malenia offered to search for it, giving them a reason to leave the city.

• Zhao Si learned to use ghostflame to perform Ohega's Dancing Blade, while Helena advised Mare Mare on courting Malenia.
• Zhao Si told Malenia he would stir up trouble to push Mare Mare along, and Malenia accepted him as her junior brother so long as their interests did not conflict.
• Zhao Si asked Malenia to accompany him to Leyndell and warned that a threat to Godwyn could also endanger Miquella; he also considered Morgott a potential ally.
• Helena encouraged Mare Mare to invite Eleonora to dinner, where Eleonora discussed swordsmanship with Malenia and Mare Mare touched Malenia's prosthetic hand.
• Eleonora woke to find his Executioner's Sword missing, and Zhao Si and Malenia volunteered to search for it while Mare Mare kept the loss quiet.

Zhao Si explained how he stole the Executioner's Sword and urged Malenia to seek help from the Full Moon Queen, despite the risk of trespassing in Ranni's territory. Malenia overcame her hesitation and agreed to go with Zhao Si and Helena to look for a cure for her scarlet rot.

• Zhao Si struggled to lift the Executioner's Sword, and Malenia tested his strength by tossing it to him before he stored it in his Inventory with ghostflame.
• Zhao Si told Helena and Malenia how he had used Mare Mare's banquet to distract Eleonora and steal the sword.
• Malenia stopped before Ranni's territory, worried that entering without permission could provoke a war, and questioned Zhao Si's claim that Ranni was connected to the plot against Godwyn.
• Zhao Si left with Helena after Malenia suspected the Two Fingers might be manipulating him.
• Malenia caught up with Zhao Si and agreed to seek the Full Moon Queen's help, deciding that the chance to cure her scarlet rot was worth pursuing.

While Zhao Si prepared to meet Ranni, Shabriri returned to Liurnia and spread the frenzied flame through a village, launching a large-scale assault on the Academy of Magic. The chapter ended with the Academy under siege as the Frenzied Flame Ball attacked its defenders and burned away the Erdtree’s grace.

• Zhao Si worried about how to speak with Ranni and considered revealing that Radagon was Marika if she became angry.
• Thops told the prawn seller that Sellen had helped him develop his Barrier Magic, while Azur and Lusat struggled to understand Zhao Si’s Glintstone Computer blueprints and successfully tested a Glintstone Firearm.
• Shabriri possessed a corpse and began infecting a village near Liurnia, planning to gather a frenzied legion and attack the Academy of Magic.
• The frenzied flame erupted in Gatefront Town, forcing healthy residents to seek refuge at the Academy as the Cuckoo Legion and sorcerers fought to protect them.
• Shabriri’s infected horde advanced on the Academy, and a giant Frenzied Flame Ball fired deadly beams at its defenders while burning away the Erdtree’s grace.

Thops and Shrimp-Meat Boy watched the Academy endure a siege by Shabriri’s frenzied-flame forces while both sides struggled with the costs of a prolonged war. Azur and Lusat unleashed their legendary spells against the attackers, ending with their magic striking toward the Frenzied Flame Ball.

• Thops reassured Shrimp-Meat Boy that the Academy could withstand the siege, while Shrimp-Meat Boy worried about Zhao Si and Helena.
• Shabriri concluded that his afflicted forces were poorly suited to a prolonged war, as the Academy faced dwindling supplies and its sorcerers struggled to recover their focus.
• Sellen and the two masters recognized that ordinary sorcery could not reach the Frenzied Flame Ball, and Azur and Lusat agreed to use their legendary spells.
• Azur cast Comet Azur, piercing the wall of frenzied flame and scattering the afflicted in the streets.
• Lusat cast Comet of Destruction, sending twelve dark meteors after Azur’s comet toward the Frenzied Flame Ball.

Zhao Si and Malenia attacked Shabriri’s Frenzied Flame army and broke the siege of the Academy. With Shabriri defeated and the orb destroyed, the Cuckoos joined the fight as the survivors considered whether the afflicted could be cured.

• Shabriri’s Frenzied Flame orb absorbed its followers’ prayers and survived the Academy sorcerers’ powerful attack, though it shrank and the two masters collapsed.
• Zhao Si arrived with Malenia and Helena, then charged the Frenzied Flame camp while Malenia attacked from the flank.
• Zhao Si used Ghostflame to counter the orb’s attacks, while Malenia’s Ghostflame-enhanced Waterfowl Dance killed the praying sufferers and helped destroy the orb.
• Zhao Si struck Shabriri with a dagger and cut off his head, then joined Malenia in clearing out the remaining Frenzied Flame sufferers.
• The Cuckoos rushed out to help and cheered their two reinforcements, while Zhao Si and Malenia discussed whether Ghostflame could cure the afflicted.

Zhao Si and Malenia sought an audience with the Full Moon Queen after helping the Academy, while Zhao Si wondered whether Shabriri’s attacks were weakening the Erdtree. Their request brought Loretta and the Carian knights to the Debate Parlor, where Malenia revealed herself and a mysterious princess arrived in a surge of cold.

• Zhao Si considered whether the Erdtree was weakening and whether Shabriri’s frenzied flame outbreaks deprived it of bodies.
• Zhao Si, Malenia, and Helena entered the Academy and asked to meet the queen, while Thops delivered a Glintstone Firearm and took the Executioner's Sword away with Shrimp-Meat Boy.
• The Academy brought Zhao Si and his companions to the Debate Parlor and left them waiting behind closed doors.
• Loretta arrived with ten Carian Sorcerer Knights and challenged the group over their request to see the queen.
• Malenia removed her disguise and introduced herself, prompting a sudden frost as an unseen voice asked what Radagon and Marika’s daughter was doing there.
• Loretta and the knights knelt and addressed the arriving figure as "Princess."

Malenia sought Rennala’s help at the Academy, but Ranni rejected her because of Radagon’s betrayal of their mother. As Malenia and Zhao Si prepared to leave, Zhao Si hinted at a secret involving the conspirators and told Ranni that the Fingers already knew.

• Ranni arrived at the Academy with Blaidd, Darriwil, Adula, and her enchanted knights, confronting Malenia and her companions.
• Malenia asked for Rennala’s help with her illness, but Ranni called her presence a provocation and condemned Radagon for abandoning Rennala.
• Zhao Si tried to intervene, but Blaidd refused to let him speak privately with Ranni, and Malenia apologized for her junior brother.
• Blaidd ordered Malenia and her group to leave Caria, but Zhao Si decided to reveal his knowledge publicly.
• Zhao Si looked at Ranni and told her that the Fingers already knew.

Zhao Si bluffed that the Two Fingers knew Ranni planned to steal the Rune of Death and revealed his claim that Radagon and Marika were one person. Malenia's Scarlet Rot surged as she struggled to process the revelations, leaving Zhao Si pleading with Ranni for help.

• Ranni transported Zhao Si, Malenia, and Blaidd to her moonlit domain, where Blaidd attacked Zhao Si and Malenia deflected his strike.
• Zhao Si claimed the Two Fingers knew Ranni planned to steal the Rune of Death and warned that someone intended to kill Godwyn with Destined Death.
• Zhao Si told Ranni and Malenia that Radagon was Marika, explaining that they shared one body and recounting Radagon's relationships with Rennala and Marika.
• Malenia's Scarlet Rot surged as the revelations overwhelmed her, and Zhao Si held her and begged Ranni to help.

Zhao Si and Ranni stopped Malenia’s Scarlet Rot from taking hold, and Malenia accepted Zhao Si’s account of Radagon and Marika. Ranni revealed her plan to use the Rune of Death to kill her own body and sever her ties to Radagon, while the group uncovered questions about rebirth and the plot involving Godwyn.

• Zhao Si restrained Malenia as her Scarlet Rot worsened, and Ranni calmed her with [Calm] before dispelling the Rot’s released energy with [Ranni's Dark Moon].
• Malenia thanked Ranni and believed Zhao Si’s account of Radagon and Marika, recalling that her parents were rarely together and that Miquella had given Radagon [Rings of Light] on their wedding anniversary.
• Ranni admitted she planned to use the Rune of Death to kill her flesh while preserving her soul, and urged Malenia to reject Radagon’s deception.
• Ranni said her mother’s power of rebirth had never restored anyone to good health, while Blaidd identified a Larval Tear from the Eternal City as an important item for the process.
• Zhao Si asked what Ranni knew about Godwyn and who had contacted her; Ranni denied knowing about his death, and Blaidd said unknown shadowy assassins had led the effort.