WARNING: Spoilers abound throughout this section.
- A novella of interconnected flashback scenes detailing back stories of Xax, Jovel Wrenrot, Harry Mang, and the Burnhelt family.
- Twenty-five centuries before the Eruption, Gathiner meets Xax as he emerges from the Irrealm to help him fight another Weird One, the Divided Woman.
- Mere days before the Eruption, Gathiner, Xax, and Bennet commiserate about the paths they’ve taken in life before they fend off attackers in a Grellish city and attempt to save the world from the Eruption. And ultimately fail.
- 1500 years later, Xax, Wrenrot, and the other Bucklers find out the Draqu, Crimsa, has infected Wrenrot’s mind with her larva offspring. However, they also learn of a looming attack by an army led by an Arch Demon from the Shade Lands, and they decide they must first stop that before reaching out to Ben and Vick Burnhelt.
- Xax, Wrenrot, and the other Bucklers meet with Ben and Vick atop the Fire Well’s Outer Wall. Xax tells them that the Arch Demon they fought was actually Mol Granz. The Weird One’s diluted Irreality fist cone snapped her out of her enraged state. Ben tells Wrenrot that he was infected by Corsis by the larva that became Crimsa long ago, and there is no way to stop the Draqu from emerging, but he gives him tips to keep her from gaining too much strength and to kill her as soon as she emerges.
- Wrenrot instead goes off on his own in a fight with a Holy Alliance scouting party. And he sees Mary Night in a pond’s reflection. She spawns into existence. Rather than attempting to kill her, Wrenrot implores her to not bring his nightmares to life. She gleefully rejects him and Shadow Shifts away to engage in an infamous spree of madness.
- Two years later, Wrenrot and Xax at last corner Mary Night on the top floor of a skyscraper in Crystal Keep. Following a brutal fight with Xax where the Weird One immobilized her, Wrenrot stabs her through the chest after she asks him to help her. The mania melts away from her as she dies. Wrenrot remains mournful that he couldn’t save her.
- 70 years later, Harry, as a younger man, fends off an amassed attack group of Dread Corps largely on his own, aside from the help of a pilot of a damaged fighter jet. He has a tense exchange with his suicidal superior officer, Diana Quentra (whose surname Mary Night later takes as Candice Quentra). He also meets Meve for the first time after he lands the fighter jet.
- Harry kills two Dread Corps leaders, and one of them utters to Corsis that they’ve found him. Harry doesn’t identify the significance of this and ultimately forgets the name the dying leader said.
- Five years later, Harry and Avril end their forbidden opposite-sides romance after a final fling in a cozy cave. Avril tells him she’s intent on freeing Celsis Kri from his nation. He wishes her luck and does not see her again for a long while.
- Eight years later, Harry and Meve kill the original Grey Jack after an extended fight. They learn of the location of the mad genius’s backup armor and ship. They both distrust what the Holy Alliance would do with it, so they instead hide the gear, intending to use it if they ever need it in an emergency.
- Seven years later, the adolescent Ed, walks along New Grelland’s Krullin Wall with Kindra Shalai, his mother. She tells him of the powers he will one day manifest and reaffirms the “Burnhelts do what is hard” family motto to him.
- Dread Corps attacks the remote Burnhelt family home far outside the city of Ruby’s borders. Heathren fatally wounds Kindra as she defends Ed and an unconscious Matt from the Demonic woman. Vick, Een, and Fernallus (who’s an unnamed Dragon to Ed at this point) attempt to save Kindra, but they can’t. Kindra bequeaths her Perceptia to Een in a silent exchange. Vick kisses his dying wife with her blood smearing his white armor. She says “Vengeance” and dies.
- Weeks later, Vick and Een make love in the dual moonlight. Vick is racked with guilt, feeling like he betrayed Kindra. Een tells him she can wait for him to come around.
- Two years later, Ed’s powers manifest and he must spend all his time in a sensory-adjustment chamber in order for his mind to orient to his accelerated perceptions.
- One year later, Ed at last mastered his powers, and he’s able to interact with the world again. Bennet tells him of the vendetta against Burnhelt romances, but doesn’t elaborate further.
- Fernallus reveals he’s a Dragon to Ed, Matt, and Tamona. He shows them the hibernating Clan Fiomeli, completely buried in a cave without entry beneath the old Burnhelt residence.
- Bennet, Vick, and Een remotely watch the young generation from Bennet’s Library in Ruby, heartened that they are bonding. After Vick and Een leave, Ben encounters a mirage image of Corsis. Following a heated conversation, Corsis says he can always make Bennet suffer. “Know it.” Bennet banishes the image and says, “This time will be different. Know it.”
