The Songbird and the Heart of Stone

As Asar, Mische, Luce, Elias, and Chandra travel for weeks toward the next Sanctum, Mische begins helping Asar repair the gates. She rationalizes her involvement by reasoning that if the Descent collapses, their mission would be impossible to complete.

One night, after fending off wraiths and securing another gate, Mische questions Asar about whether any wraiths specifically come for him. Asar avoids answering and instead shifts the focus to Eomin’s wraith, asking if Eomin was her lover. Mische evades the question but eventually reveals Eomin’s name to him. Curious, Mische asks if souls trapped in the Descent can ever find their way to the Underworld. Asar admits that this happens in rare cases.

The group reaches the doorway to the Sanctum of Breath—the second level of the Descent—and passes through. As they head for the temple at the sanctum’s center, they are pursued by wraiths. Upon arriving, they find the temple surrounded by reptilian creatures known as Souleaters. They try to slip past unnoticed, but chaos erupts when a vampire wraith grabs Chandra, claiming to know her. In the ensuing race to the temple, Mische trips and a Souleater closes in on her. In a moment of desperation, she instinctively draws on Asar’s dark power, blasting the creature with shadows. This buys them enough time to escape into the temple.

Inside the temple, the group is greeted by a mysterious woman who is neither fully alive nor dead. She addresses Asar with familiarity, claiming she has missed him. While the woman is distracted, Asar silently signals the others to flee. Navigating the temple’s maze-like halls, Chandra, Elias, and Mische become separated. Mische discovers carvings of Atroxus’s glyphs along the walls and uses a spark of his magic to illuminate a path forward.

At the maze’s end, Mische stumbles upon a mass of dead wraiths, victims of the woman. The woman finds Mische and binds her with shadows. Having seen how Asar already cares for Mische, the woman warns Mische that his love will ruin her, too. Asar arrives and lures the woman away by offering himself to her. She walks willingly into his embrace, giving Chandra enough time to use Atroxus’s magic to open the door at the maze’s end, revealing stairs. After the rest of the group passes, Asar releases the woman at the last moment and dives for Mische, falling through the door with her just before it closes.

At the bottom of the stairs, the group encounters translucent gold panthers—guardians of this Sanctum. The panthers warn Asar that he will not survive the journey he intends to take. Asar proves his intentions are to resurrect Alarus and preserve the natural balance of the Underworld. Satisfied, the panthers relinquish the piece of Alarus’s essence they protect: poppy petals. When the petals are touched, they reveal a flashback—Alarus and Nyaxia’s first kiss and the beginning of their doomed romance. A doorway materializes, offering a path back to Morthryn. Before Asar and Mische step through, the panthers warn them not to succumb to the same fatal desires that once consumed Alarus and Nyaxia.

Upon returning to Morthryn, a furious Elias confronts Asar, accusing him of knowing they would encounter the woman in the temple and suggesting the entire mission is a personal quest driven by Asar’s connection to her, not one sanctioned by Nyaxia. Mische intervenes to calm the situation, but Elias strikes her. Luce growls in warning, and Asar immediately steps in to defend Mische. The argument reveals that the woman from the temple was created by Asar’s failed necromancy. Elias, frustrated and unwilling to risk his life for what he deems a fool’s errand, proposes that they abandon the mission. Instead, he suggests using the two relics of Alarus’s magic they’ve already obtained to their advantage. Both Asar and Mische refuse to entertain this.

Elias tells Mische that harpies have brought news: Her friends in the House of Night have gained possession of a powerful weapon after earning Nyaxia’s wrath, killing a Shadowborn prince, and making enemies of the Bloodborn. He also reveals that the House of Blood has conquered a human nation, suggesting that all vampire houses are taking power where they can. Asar commands Elisa to drop the subject and suggests that everyone get some rest.

In the days that follow, Mische is haunted by increasingly vivid nightmares about Saescha and Eomin. Though Mische desperately wants to help them, she remains unable to do so. One night, Mische wakes to the call of Morthryn itself. It draws her toward a broken gate where the voices of wraiths echo, one of them belonging to Eomin.

Asar shakes her awake from the dream, which she believed was real. He explains that as they descend further, the boundaries between worlds grow weaker, and the Sanctum of Psyche will exploit this instability, preying on their minds. Mische begins to cry and confesses that she has not seen Eomin among the wraiths they’ve encountered at the gates, nor the Sanctum of Breath. The thought of his fate—being consumed by Souleaters or enduring something even worse—gnaws at her. Asar tells Mische not to worry and asks her to come with him.

Asar guides Mische to a creek of blood and commands her to place her hands in, touch the bottom, and speak Eomin’s name. When she does so, Eomin’s reflection appears in the water—whole, healthy, and as perfect as he was in life. Asar tells her that Eomin is fully dead. He explains that he helped Eomin cross to the Underworld. Mische is moved by his kindness. Mische asks Asar about the woman they encountered in the Sanctum of Breath, but Asar avoids answering and instead suggests they return. Before they leave, Mische hugs Asar and thanks him for what he did for Eomin.

The group approaches the Sanctum of Psyche, where the paths grow increasingly convoluted. Mische’s nightmares intensify, replaying her sister’s death, her Turning by Malach, and the loss of Atroxus’s blessing. Meanwhile, Asar and Mische continue their work on the gates and become closer. Eventually, Mische dreams of her and Asar giving in to passion, but she hears Atroxus’s call in the distance, urging her to remain on the path of light and complete her quest.