Anathema

Allura chastises Maevyth for missing their lesson. She apologizes and asks Allura about Corvugons. Allura says that the Corvugon bones they have found suggest that they grow quickly and bond with whoever hatches them.

Rykaia arrives, and again Allura leaves. Rykaia complains about Allura’s pleasant jasmine smell, and Maevyth says that Rykaia has romantic feelings for Allura. Rykaia pours wine for them, telling Maevyth how she used to abuse sleeping potions. Maevyth says that Rykaia must have been depressed, and Rykaia says that Maevyth is the first person to realize that.

Maevyth tells Rykaia about the punishments for witchcraft in Foxglove. Rykaia teaches Maevyth how to dance, noting the difference between dancing with a man and dancing with a woman. Maevyth is shocked that she could dance, or even mate, with a woman, which is considered heresy in Foxglove. Rykaia tells Maevyth that in Aethyria, gender and sexuality are not seen as choices but as identities.

After three glasses of wine, Rykaia reveals that the drink is a potent aphrodisiac, and she recommends that Maevyth masturbate. Rykaia jumps on the bed to reduce the effects of the wine, and Maevyth is reminded of Aleysia.

Zevander and Ravezio find Maevyth and Rykaia fighting with pillows on Maevyth’s bed and recognize the bottle of Ambrozhyr. Ravezio suggests that they provide Maevyth “release.” Zevander threatens to kill Ravezio if he touches either woman, and Ravezio brings Rykaia to her room.

Zevander watches Maevyth writhing in bed, begging him for help. He remembers when General Loyce forced him to drink a bottle of Ambrozhyr and tied him up. He casts a spell to see if Maevyth is possessed, but she takes over the spell and starts masturbating. Through the magical connection, he feels what Maevyth feels. He collapses next to her, holding her hand. When she has multiple orgasms, they affect him as well. Maevyth loses consciousness, and Zevander calls her Lunamiszka, or “moon witch.”

Maevyth wakes up relaxed but cannot remember the prior night. Zevander is missing when she goes to train; she finds only Dolion and Allura. Dolion says that they need to travel to Calyxar that night. Maevyth demands that they go to the Eating Woods to find Aleysia, as Dolion promised, but Dolion says that Maevyth is not ready. Maevyth leaves to find Rykaia.

Rykaia also refuses to take Maevyth to the Eating Woods and wants Maevyth to come to the Becoming that night. She is hurt that Maevyth wants to leave. Rykaia tells her about the night the Solassions assaulted and murdered her mother. They made Rykaia hold her mother’s hand, which transferred her feelings to Rykaia. Branimir slaughtered the Solassions, and Rykaia could not look at Branimir afterward.

Rykaia wants to go to the Becoming because she knows how terrified Calisza will be, especially because a Solassion won the tournament to “take” Calisza’s “virginity.” Maevyth agrees to go, and Rykaia agrees to bring Maevyth to the Eating Woods.

Rykaia and Maevyth put on their dresses, mask their auras, block Maevyth’s scent, and wear cicada masks. The cicada represents the cicada who traveled from the underworld to tell the stag to rape the Goddess of Fertility, creating the Solassions and Lunasier.

Rykaia introduces herself and Maevyth to the guards with false names. They see Prince Dorjan with Zevander, some of the Magestroli, and Calisza alone in the center. The mages make Maevyth nervous, so Rykaia forces her to talk with one of them, Anatolis, whom Maevyth recognizes as the scribe from Moros’s lunch in Foxglove. Akmyrios and Captain Zivant join them, and Maevyth is relieved that they do not recognize her. Zevander finds Maevyth and Rykaia and is furious that Rykaia brought Maevyth.

Zevander invites Maevyth to dance. She confronts him about Calyxar, but he says that she is in danger. Maevyth tells him about meeting Anatolis in Foxglove. Zevander refuses to ask Anatolis about Aleysia but says that he will interrogate the man. He tells Maevyth and Rykaia to leave once the Becoming Ceremony starts.

Maevyth and Rykaia meet Calisza, who reveals that Rykaia watched over Calisza when she was younger. Rykaia promises to support Calisza during the ceremony, and Calisza leaves. Rykaia tells Maevyth about her own Becoming and realizes that Maevyth has never had sex. Rykaia jokes about Zevander’s preference for rough sex, insisting that he loves Maevyth.

Zevander avoids General Loyce, but Loyce approaches him to say that she wants to have sex with him. Zevander struggles to maintain his composure when she says that Zevander enjoyed her sexual abuse. Kazhimyr comforts Zevander, telling him that Loyce enjoys Zevander’s rage. Finding Dorjan drunk, Zevander brings him to his chamber.

Torryn and Rykaia go to get wine; Zevander spots Anatolis leaving the party and signals Maevyth to follow him. They track Anatolis to an alley where Zevander confronts him. Anatolis admits to being in Mortasia, where he confirmed that Moros found a vein of vivicantem. Cadavros is alive, and the Magestroli plan to kill him and strengthen the Umbravale.

Zevander knows that this task would require the septomir, and he pushes Anatolis for more information about the king, Cadavros, and Aleysia. Anatolis reveals that Moros and Aleysia returned to Foxglove and that they did not know that Maevyth made it through the Umbravale until this evening. He suddenly collapses and vomits his own organs, which Zevander interprets as a silencing spell.

Villagers start attacking the guards, and guests and guards flee into the castle. Zevander orders Maevyth, Rykaia, and Torryn to go back to Eidolon and then enters the castle to find Dorjan.

Solassions approach, and Torryn takes out his weapon, telling Rykaia to go back to Eidolon through a portal. Rykaia opens the seam, passes through, and calls to Maevyth. Before Maevyth can enter the portal, a mage grabs her.

Maevyth wakes up bound with copper chains in a room full of mages. The Magelord takes her silver whistle. They chant for Magekae to grant them strength, and Akmyrios announces that Maevyth’s bloodstone will protect them from the Black Pestilence. He forces Maevyth to consume sablefyre.

Maevyth retreats to Caligorya, where Morsana tells her that she can control the sablefyre. Maevyth wakes up and breathes sablefyre over Akmyrios, killing him. Two of the mages cast spells to choke Maevyth. She blacks out, and when she wakes up, she finds the two mages turned into ash. Sablefyre surrounds the room, and the mages gather at the exit, unable to pass through the flame. Maevyth sees that her bindings have melted, but she does not know where to go.

A portal opens, and Rykaia and Dolion pass through. Dolion tells Maevyth to open a path through the sablefyre. It works, and an opening appears, but Solassions soldiers rush toward them from a hallway. Dolion creates a ward to keep them back, and Maevyth searches Akmyrios’s body for the whistle.

Melantha appears and holds a dagger to Dolion’s neck. She casts a sleeping spell on Rykaia and opens another portal. Through the portal, Maevyth sees Aleysia pacing and biting her nails. Melantha tells Maevyth that Dolion sent Zevander to kill Maevyth and that Aleysia is waiting for Maevyth back in Mortasia. Dolion tells Maevyth not to trust Melantha, but Maevyth remembers the vision of the dead woman saying not to trust “him.”

Maevyth tells Melantha to let Dolion and Rykaia escape and bring her to Aleysia. Melantha agrees. Rykaia wakes up, recognizes Melantha, and says that she “remembers everything.” Maevyth tells Dolion to take Rykaia back to Eidolon.

An hour earlier, Zevander struggles through the crowd to Durjan’s room, where he revives the unconscious prince. Durjan is upset that his father’s poor leadership has led to a revolt, but Zevander leads him underground to a bunker for the royal family. Inside, they find King Sagaerin, Calisza, Ravezio, and Kazhimyr, as well as the Solassion royals King Jeret, Queen Sonnehild, and Captain Avith with some guards. Durjan criticizes the king, who sends him away, thanking Zevander for bringing the prince safely. The king calls Zevander “Leoric” and tells King Jeret that he is a combat tutor.

Zevander leaves and finds Captain Zivant talking with General Loyce. They unveil their plan to kidnap Rykaia and Maevyth, forcing Zevander to choose between them. Cadavros is alive, and Loyce wants to kill Maevyth to make the septomir. Zivant is betraying Sagaerin to save himself with the Solassions, but he wonders if some cure to the Black Pestilence can be found.

Zicant leaves, and Zevander follows him, cloaking himself in smoke. They arrive at a large door guarded by a mage. Inside, Zevander sees an altar, a group of mages, and walls of sablefyre. He checks the bloodstones in a couple of piles of ash, feeling relieved that none of them belong to Maevyth. Akmyrios is alive, though he is severely injured and blind. Zevander takes Maevyth’s whistle from his robes before Zivant interrogates him.

Zevander spots a gap in the flames and steps through, finding a ward that dispels his cloak of smoke. On the other side, Rykaia is lying on the floor unconscious next to three dead Solassions. Dolion appears and explains how Melantha took Maevyth.

Zevander revives Rykaia, who reveals that Melantha was the flammelian who hurt her. Zevander reluctantly chooses to abandon Maevyth to protect Rykaia, but Dolion explains his visions of Maevyth, which show that Zevander and Maevyth are fated to be mates and have a son. Zevander does not know if he can believe Dolion, but he agrees to pursue Melantha. Dolion takes Rykaia through a portal to Eidolon, while Zevander goes through the portal left by Melantha.