Amari And The Great Game

After dinner, Amari finds Julia to ask for her help. Julia takes Amari and Elsie to the Department of the Dead and leads them to a visitation booth to contact Thomas Fletcher’s ghost. Once Fletcher appears, he explains that Dylan tricked him the previous summer, stealing Fletcher’s memory of the night he witnessed the first time freeze, so he is now unable to remember it. He tells Amari that Dylan used a spell called “Dreamcatcher” to steal his memory.

When Amari and Elsie get back to their room, Amari takes out her spell book to learn about “Dreamcatcher.” She finds a hidden section in the book that was written by Dylan, who invented many other foul magick spells. All evidence points to Dylan being behind the time freeze, but since he had not yet escaped from the Sightless Depths at the time, Amari is confused as to how he could have done it. Amari and Elsie’s research is suddenly interrupted by the beginning of the third challenge.

Amari is teleported into a room surrounded by mirrors. When Amari looks into the mirror, she is pulled into her apartment, where a fully awake, healed Quinton playfully teases her for losing a video game. Elsie and Amari’s mother are also present, and the moment feels joyful and comforting to Amari. However, she suddenly remembers that she is in the middle of a challenge and realizes that the scene is not real. Amari refuses to stay with her mother, Elsie, and Quinton, and the illusion breaks. She finds herself back in the mirror room, where she locates the Victor’s Ring. As Amari is about to teleport back to her dorm room, she notices a monstrous creature about to devour Dylan, who is still trapped in his own illusion. Amari then grabs Dylan and escapes with him.

Amari and Dylan land in Amari’s room. When Amari accuses him of causing the time freeze, Dylan denies it. He tells her where he stored Fletcher’s memory before vanishing. Amari, Elsie, and Lara go find the memory in the Department of Dreams and Nightmares, which only exists in a dream. They are plugged into a dream machine and plunged into Fletcher’s memory. They watch as a pack of werewolves attacks the Night Brothers, who respond by freezing them with an enchanted stone.

When Amari, Elsie, and Lara go back to their dorm, Prime Minister Bane summons them to Chief Crowe’s office. There, they meet Bane himself, who is waiting for them along with Harlowe and Director Van Helsing. Bane states that he knows about their investigation and demands a confession. Lara pretends to collaborate with Bane to protect her friends, and Bane declares them traitors.

Amari and Elsie are then taken back to their room, where they recap everything they have learned to understand how the time stone works. They realize that, in order to maintain the freeze for such a long time, it must be very powerful and therefore take a very long time to recharge. They surmise that the Night Brothers only used it once and that the stone must have been recharging for centuries since. They believe that the time stone must be somewhere in the Congress Room and that getting it out could end the freeze and help them clear their name.

At that moment, Amari’s ring begins to warm up. She teleports to the site of the fourth challenge and finds herself in a luxurious train cabin. Dylan is on the other side of an enchanted glass wall in which the Victor’s Ring is encased. After looking through the window, Dylan realizes that they are on a train that runs at the bottom of the ocean straight toward the Kraken, one of the most dangerous mythical creatures in the world. As the train approaches the beast, the two young magicians attempt to get the ring out of the glass despite their terror. When the Kraken starts attacking the train, Dylan eventually gives in to his fear and teleports out. As soon as he disappears, the glass cracks, Amari retrieves the ring, and she escapes just in time.

Amari returns to her room, terrified but safe. She, Elsie, and Lara sneak out of their rooms and teleport to the Congress Room together. As soon as they get there, Amari runs into the frozen room while agents surround Elsie and Lara. Amari then realizes that Merlin must have the stone and must have used it to protect the Congress against an attack. She finds the stone in Merlin’s hand and takes it from him, suddenly unfreezing the room. Merlin snatches the stone back from her and calls out a warning before the room freezes again. However, the few seconds of unfrozen time have now revealed the invisible danger that the members of the Congress were all staring at.

A group of armed wraiths is now visibly frozen as well, poised to attack the Congress members. Since wraiths flicker in and out of existence, the time freeze kept them hidden because it occurred at a moment when they were invisible. However, they are now in full view for all to witness, revealing that they attacked when the Congress voted in favor of UnWanteds’ rights. Bane appears and tries to deny his treachery, but the agents on the scene cuff him. However, Harlowe arrives shortly after and asks everyone to release Bane. The agents obey her and put away their weapons. Harlowe’s supernatural power is the ability to control people, and she has taken control of the supernatural world by manipulating Bane. However, her ability does not work on people with high levels of magic like Amari and Elsie. Harlowe and Bane planned to overthrow the Congress, and Merlin’s time freeze actually worked in their favor. To Amari’s horror, Harlowe also forced Maria to reveal the existence of the League of Magicians and has sent agents to hunt them all down. Amari’s ring suddenly grows hot again, so the young girl grabs Elsie and teleports them out of the Congress Room.

Amari and Elsie land in a field where Dylan already is, so Amari tells her friend to stay hidden. Cozmo announces that, due to the recent events, the final challenge is canceled. Instead, the magicians must fight so a victor can be crowned. Amari tries to argue against a war one last time, but refuses to yield to Dylan. They begin to fight, with Amari drawing power from her fear for her friends and her family. Dylan wears her down, but Amari grows more desperate, and therefore stronger. When he corners her, Amari invokes the Calamity of the Skies, the forbidden spell she read a warning about in her spellbook. She is about to let her fear and anger consume her, but Elsie begs her not to kill Dylan. Instead, Amari casts “Dreamcatcher” on him and takes away his darkest memories until Dylan momentarily becomes good again. The young boy only has time to undo Quinton’s curse before Cozmo dispels Amari’s magic and returns Dylan’s memories to him. Dylan wins the Game, puts on Vladimir’s Crown, and siphons Amari’s magic from her. Now powerless, Amari grabs Elsie and starts running, but Dylan throws a wave of fire at them. Elsie then steps in front of the fire to save her best friend.

Elsie’s bravery causes her to shift into her dragon form for the first time. She protects Amari from the fire, forces Dylan to flee, and flies away. Cozmo tries to comfort Amari, who is appalled at Dylan’s actions. He then teleports her back to her home.

Amari finds Quinton sleeping in his bed, but she is still unaware that Dylan has broken his curse. She reads some news articles stating that the Vanderbilt Hotel, where the Bureau is located, has been burned down. Amari then falls asleep and is woken up later by Jayden. He has found an unconscious Elsie—back in her human form—on a roof and brought her back to Amari’s apartment. Amari is relieved to be reunited with her friends, but she is worried for Lara and everyone else at the Bureau. She starts to despair because she feels overwhelmed and powerless, but Quinton suddenly wakes up. After tearfully reuniting with her brother, Amari regains courage and tells her friends that they should fight.