Spark of the Everflame

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, child death, and graphic violence.

Diem and Henri get a room at an inn and then spend the evening in the tavern. Over dinner, Henri nags Diem about the flameroot, but the sudden appearance of his friend Brecke Holdern interrupts their conversation. Brecke joins them and reveals that he knew Auralie. He then gives Diem a blade made of Fortosian steel—“one of the only substances that [can] pierce Descended skin” (115).

Diem wakes up alone in the inn room, overcome by thoughts of Auralie, Luther, Teller, the wolf, and the flameroot. She goes downstairs and finds Henri and Brecke having an intense conversation. When she hears them mention a war, the strange inner voice once again tells her to fight. Suddenly, she is overcome by a vision in which she is bloodied and standing on a battlefield, holding the Fortosian blade. She dismisses the vision and notices that Brecke has the same tattoo as Henri. She pulls Henri aside and demands to know the tattoo’s real meaning. Henri explains that he got the tattoo after he saw a Descended run over a mortal boy in the street.