18 // Zero // Past Revealed

The Flame, still scattered across Fey Ember, push through their separate trials in hopes of overcoming the darkness closing in.

Templeton reunites with his father, Commander Cecil P. Hedgepaw, and immediately struggles to assert himself as a soldier rather than the battalion leader’s son. Cecil is overwhelmed with joy but fumbles to express affection, especially as Templeton presents himself with disciplined, stoic composure. Their reunion is short-lived. After Templeton reports the attacks on Fey Ember, Cecil orders half the Outer Force to circle the city and flank the Onyx Order army while he and Templeton lead the charge back into the city.

Fert frees the prisoners at the base of The Kept and, with the help of Baba Noosh, rallies a terrified group to search for a rumored hidden escape route. As the civilians scatter through the lower chambers, Fert braces the barred doors between them and the intensifying waves of Onyx Order guards, holding the line alone to buy the prisoners precious time.

Scraat infiltrates The Kept under the illusion of an Onyx Order guard, slipping through chaotic hallways toward the control panel that governs the fortress’s outer gate. Along the way, a quiet internal question—“What am I missing?”—awakens the Watcher Within. Fragments of previous lives flare to life, granting him new insight and the ability to perceive the world from multiple perspectives as he approaches the mechanism that could free thousands.

Smurk continues fending off guards after trapping an entire squad within his Force Cube. His battle abruptly halts when the sky splits open to the south, at Fey Glade Crossing—the source of the protective Mythal. Reality shifts, casting Smurk into a red-and-black world strewn with corpses and dominated by a beam of crimson energy erupting from the fissure’s origin. Within this nightmare vision, the voice of his mother whispers a warning: he must stop the source before the sky breaks entirely.

Chappy makes gains in his prosecution against Councilmember Elijah Gimble—until the councilman springs a devastating trap. A second Chappy is escorted into the arena, Fey-lost and confused. Gimble declares this newcomer the “real” Chappy and paints the one standing before the Colosseum as a fraud—a changeling impostor manipulating the trial. The crowd reels as Gimble stokes distrust. In a final inner monologue, Chappy reveals the truth: the Flame’s companion has always been a changeling with two differently colored eyes—one belonging to his master, an ancient hag of the Fey.