A Shadow in the Ember

Three years later, Sera has been relegated to the handmaiden of her mother, the queen, and negotiations are tense between the Vodina Isles and Lasania, the main country in A Shadow in the Ember. The Lord of the Vodina Isles tosses Lasania a burlap sack containing the severed head of their Advisor. The Lord requests Sera as part of a new bargain, which is met with a refusal from the Queen, who says her handmaiden is not a part of the bargain. When he leaves, Sera is sent to follow him. At the docks, she tracks him down and kills him.

With her task complete, Sera heads to the Garden District’s “Luxe,” an avenue filled with various pleasures and distractions. Near a townhome, she stumbles upon a goddess using eather, a divine essence, to kill a man and a baby. She prepares to attack with her shadowstone dagger, which is capable of killing gods. Before Sera can move, she is restrained by a stranger who warns her not to make a sound.

The stranger drags Sera into a vine-covered tunnel. He warns her that her actions in the courtyard would have ended badly. Despite her attempts to escape, she finds herself trapped by his strength and realizes she’s not used to being handled like this outside of training or combat. The pair hear the voices of two gods. Sera remains silent as the gods discuss their plan, and she memorizes their names, Taric and Cressa. The stranger releases her before the gods enter the tunnel. She is initially unaware that he is also a god, but figures it out when she sees his silver eyes and fangs. He urges Sera to hide their encounter by embracing her, and they share a passionate kiss. Although she’s aware of the inappropriateness of the situation, she finds herself drawn to him. She’s startled to discover he bit her lip during the kiss, drawing blood. Afterward, Sera heads off without revealing her destination, despite feeling uneasy about leaving him.

Sera leaves the tunnel to return to the townhome, where she saw the man and the baby killed. She’s anxious as she enters the townhome’s courtyard, expecting to find the bodies. However, it’s empty. Suddenly, the unnamed god arrives and reveals he was following the two gods, only to be distracted by Sera. The pair explore the townhome together and discover the residents were siblings, and one was an unwed mother—also killed by a god. The god explains murders have been happening recently. He advises against investigating, but Sera insists on doing so. Their conversation turns tense, and she threatens him with her shadowstone dagger. He asks how she acquired it, and she lies that she took it from her stepbrother, Tavius; in truth, she was given it to kill the Primal of Death. Despite Sera’s threat, the god doesn’t kill her but vows to watch her.

Sera practices her combat skills with Sir Braylon Holland. They engage in a training exercise where she successfully disarms him. However, he chastises her for her feuding with her stepbrother, Tavius, the current heir to the throne. Sera reveals her disdain for the irresponsible prince. The conversation shifts to her role in saving the kingdom from a spreading disease known as the Rot. She feels guilt and self-doubt for not being able to fulfill her role as the Maiden.

After her training, Sera visits her aging nursemaid, Odetta. When Sera realizes the woman isn’t moving, she feels warmth in her hands and goes to touch her, only for Odetta to chastise her. She questions Odetta’s past claim about her being “touched by death and life” (74). Odetta suggests only the Fates can explain.

The following morning, Sera passes through the Queen’s sitting room, reflecting on Odetta’s enigmatic words. She stops to look at a painting of her father, King Lamont, who died shortly after her birth. She questions if she was responsible for him taking his own life, and feels grief and anger toward him. The Queen enters the room with Lady Kala and a seamstress, Andrea Joanis, catching Sera off-guard. The Queen expresses disappointment in her daughter, and they argue about their responsibilities toward the kingdom’s starving population. She orders Sera to leave, and she complies angrily.

As Sera wanders the city, she senses the presence of recent death, which leads her to one of the gods who murdered the townhome siblings: Madis. She follows him to Andreia Joanis’s home, where she discovers the seamstress has been brutally murdered and her eyes burned out. When someone grabs her arm, she unwittingly stabs the silver-eyed god.

While Sera briefly panics over stabbing the god with her shadowstone dagger, he seems to recover quickly. They argue, with Sera blaming him for not announcing his presence and the god questioning her reckless behavior. He destroys the dagger, and she vows to find another one. The tension defuses, and they discuss Andreia Joanis’s murder. The god informs Sera that not all souls are judged upon death, and those whose bodies are not burned cannot pass on. Instead, they cease to exist.

Sera experiences a strange feeling and smells stale lilacs. Then, the body of the dead seamstress reanimates, revealing fangs and inhuman abilities. The god intervenes, subduing her with a shadowstone sword, and the woman disintegrates into ash. The god advises Sera to keep this moment a secret and departs. Before he leaves, he refers to her as “liessa” (“queen”), but doesn’t explain its meaning.

Sera continues practicing with Sir Holland, and asks him about the possibility of a dead person coming back to life, explicitly mentioning the presence of fangs. He asks where she heard about revival, but is interrupted by a knock at the door. Princess Ezmeria (or Ezra), Sera’s stepsister, has come to get Sera’s help. One of her contacts found a girl whose father trafficked his children in an illicit sex trade after the loss of his farm to the Rot. While the girl got away, her brother did not. Sera agrees to help, and she and Ezra prepare to go to Croft’s Cross.

Sera, Ezra, and Ezra’s companion, Lady Marisol Faber, travel to the district of Croft’s Cross, known for its high levels of crime and poverty. As they make their way through crowded, grimy streets, they discuss the challenges faced by common people due to the Rot—including displacement. Sera leaves the other two women, and tells Marisol to ensure Ezra stays out of trouble.

Sera finds the man she’s looking for, along with a woman who looks like she’s been abused. She pretends to be looking for employment. The woman tries to warn her subtly, but Sera smiles. When the man takes her into the back room for sex, she kills him. She then convinces the man’s son to return with her to be reunited with his sister. On the way out, Sera gives the woman some money and tells her to escape. Sera and the boy return to Marisol and Ezra.

Sera walks through the forest surrounding the palace, haunted by her recent murder. She wrestles with her lack of remorse. While walking, she encounters a large kiyou wolf, a rare species, which was wounded by an arrow. Despite her fear, Sera uses an ill-advised power to heal the wolf. Her power also works on the dead, though Andreia Joanis’s revival was not her doing. Once the wolf leaves, she considers the consequences of using her gift, especially with mortals, as she knows such power can be dangerous in the wrong hands. Sir Holland long encouraged her to keep her gift secret. After Sera’s encounter with the wolf, she heads to her favorite place in the forest, a lake, and uses the peace to escape her troubled thoughts. However, as she wades into the water, she realizes she is being watched.