A Light in the Flame

Sera and Nyktos cool off in the pool. Nyktos tells Sera that her habit of holding her breath may not be a weakness, as she may have thought, but a result of having the Primal embers of life in her. Sera’s tendency to hold her breath is just a fact, neither good nor bad. Nyktos’s words make Sera feel immensely better. She and Nyktos splash each other in the pool. Sera is amazed to see the playful side of a Primal of Death, who is supposed to be somber.

Back in the palace, as Sera and Nektas talk, Nektas’s eyes briefly change from red to a brilliant blue. Later, Nyktos tells Sera that all the draken once used to have blue eyes. However, this changed when Kolis took the embers of life from Ethyos, severing the Primal bond between the draken and Ethyos. Nektas’s changing eye color suggests that the bond is reviving, and this is due to the growing power of Sera’s embers. Sera may be closer to Ascension than they have thought.

Since Sera is close to Ascension, she must go to the Pools of Divanash to seek the whereabouts of Delfai. The next morning, Nyktos, Sera, and Nektas travel out of the Shadowlands. On the way, they see a heavy mist, which is departed souls waiting to enter the Pillars of Asphodel, where Nyktos receives departed souls. The embers in Sera’s chest begin to hum; Nyktos tells her that it is because she wants to use them to revive the dead. Ethyos had the same tendency, so he did not venture close to the Pillars for long. When they reach the Vale, Nyktos hands Sera his swords for protection and tells Nektas to take care of her since she is very important to him. Sera tells Nyktos that she wants to be his Consort as they part.

Sera and Nektas emerge into a beautiful sunlit vista, with green hills topped with flower-bearing trees on either side of the road. Nektas tells her that the Vale appears to an individual soul as their ideal landscape. Soon, the landscape turns rocky, and they come to the large mountain under which the Pools of Divanash lie. Sera and Nektas slide down a tunnel opening in the mountain to reach the underground lake of Divanash.

Nektas tells Sera that the lake demands a fee to show the truth: a drop of her blood and a truth that she has not admitted to others or even to herself. Sera gathers her courage and nicks her finger. As the blood drips in the pool, she reveals that when she took too much sleeping draft (in the first book), it was not an accident. She had wanted to never wake up. The water of the Pools begins to roil, and Sera asks it to show Delfai. The water rises in the shape of Delfai talking to a young woman, whom Sera recognizes as Kayleigh, the Princess of Irelone. This suggests that Delfai can be found in Irelone.

As they walk out of the Pools, Sera mulls over the fact that Nektas now knows the secret that she told the Pools of Divanash. Nektas senses her confusion and tells her that she is always safe with him. The draken’s kindness floors Sera. Close to the crossroads, they find Nyktos missing. They have no time to worry about this because they are soon attacked by nymphs. The once beautiful, kind creatures have been corrupted since Kolis stole Ethyos’s embers. Now, they feed on the pain and misery of others, their ruined physical form reflecting the change. Just as a nymph is about to get her claws in Gala, Sera projects eather on her, exploding the creature. Nektas is shocked since only the eather of a Primal can kill a nymph. Back at the palace, Sera figures that Nyktos must be in his office and visits him. As she opens the door, she finds the goddess Veses in Nyktos’s lap, moving against him and feeding from his throat.

Jealousy and humiliation flood Sera, as she assumes that Veses and Nyktos are having sex. Consumed by rage, Sera walks out of the office and down the stairwell to the underground stone pool. She feels foolish that she ever trusted Nyktos, who has made it clear to her that he could never love. The anger begins to pour out of Sera as uncontrolled eather. She explodes the stone table on which she and Nyktos had made love. The walls of the pool crack, and roots begin to push through its floor. The roots wrap around Sera, and she holds her breath. Nyktos and Rhain run into the chamber and ask Sera to practice breathing to calm down. The roots keep moving, and Rhain urges Nyktos to stop Sera unless he wants the entire palace crashing on their heads. Nyktos asks Sera to sleep, and she faints.

In her dreams, Sera sees herself swimming in her lake, with a white wolf—the sigil of Nyktos—watching her. When she wakes up, she is in Nyktos’s bedchamber, with Bele by her side. Bele tells Sera that she has been asleep for three days. Rhain joins them. According to Rhain, the roots that came out of the ground did not mean to strangle Sera, as she assumes, but to protect her. Since she has Primal embers, she is part of “the very fabric of the realms” (372). Thus, nature reacted to her crisis. Sera did not really sleep but went into stasis, a way for the body to shut down to heal. Sera reflects on what she considers Nyktos’s betrayal. One part of her wants to storm out of his palace, but the rational part of her argues that she must become his Consort for the protection that it offers. Then, she can get closer to Kolis and accomplish her mission.

Meanwhile, Nyktos assures Sera that he was not having sex with Veses but also refuses to explain the nature of their relationship, calling it “complicated” (386). His tight-lipped response hurts Sera. She tells him that the deal between them is over. She will become his Consort, but only in name. Once Nyktos removes the embers and defeats Kolis, Sera wants her freedom from him. Nyktos grows still and says, “Then so be it” (387).