Quicksilver

The next morning, Saeris is angry that one of Fisher’s tattoos magically moved to her body the night prior. She insists he take the tattoo back, but he cannot. He urges her toward the healer to seek birth control, but she explains that she, along with 70% of Third Ward girls, was forcibly sterilized as a young teenager. Fisher storms away.

Saeris hikes to the camp forge. She is annoyed when she senses that Fisher has hidden the quicksilver even further up the mountain. She finds Carrion reading in a cave and demands to know why he has so easily accepted his new reality. He insists that he knew about the Fae; unlike other Zilvaren children, he didn’t dismiss the stories his grandmother told him, which came from a book that urged its human readers to anticipate war with the Fae. 

Carrion produces quicksilver for Saeris’s experiments, so she invites him to help. He aids her through three more failed experiments. Fisher arrives, peevish and bloody. He put the quicksilver at a distance to hone Saeris’s skills in detecting it. Carrion flirts with Saeris, angering Fisher.

Fisher, Ren, and Saeris look at the needle-like shards of Danya’s destroyed sword, which are embedded too deeply into stone to remove. Danya cannot merely get a new sword, because hers was an heirloom god sword, which marked her as part of the “Lupo Proelia,” or “Kingfisher’s wolves” (359-60), eight elite warriors who fight together. Danya is annoyed that nobody present is suitably sympathetic to her or angry with Saeris.

Saeris realizes that she cannot control all metal, but only metal that contains quicksilver. Madra hoarded all metal in case someone like Saeris was born; without access to metal, they could not access their skill. Even so, Ren notes that Saeris is unusual, as most Alchemists could only control metal with at least 5% quicksilver in it. Saeris’s power is stronger than that of any other recorded Alchemists. Lorreth, a military captain, wonders how Saeris’s ability could affect weapons-making and thus the war.

Saeris is alarmed and points out that she can’t even make relics. When Danya doubts Saeris’s usefulness, Ren argues that they likely only have a year remaining to win the war, or else they will be overrun by Malcolm’s horde. Saeris’s alarm grows; she asks for Fisher, who is with the healer despite not being outwardly injured. 

Saeris and Lorreth discuss Fisher over drinks. Saeris contends that Fisher lies to her constantly, which Lorreth calls impossible: Fisher is “an Oath Bound Fae” (366), magically compelled to always tell the truth. She asks if Fae can still drink blood, using their fangs. Lorreth, blushing, explains that drinking blood is a taboo sex act. Embarrassed, Saeris asks about how Lorreth became a soldier; he tells how Fisher saved him from near death using a magical rite that transferred part of Fisher’s soul to Lorreth. The rite is dangerous: If Fisher dies before Lorreth, Fisher will live on as a non-corporeal spirit until Lorreth dies. This earned Lorreth’s loyalty, so he stayed to fight as a Lupo Proelia. He also plans to die as soon as Fisher does, so that Fisher’s soul can find rest.

Kingfisher takes an intoxicated Saeris back to Cahlish; she wakes the next day hungover. Fisher doesn’t return until late, leaving Saeris anxious about the time for experimentation she has missed. After seeing the healer, Fisher takes Saeris to a small village called Ballard, which is celebrating a winter holiday. The town is vibrantly decorated, but Saeris is most impressed by the fields growing crops, which she never saw in Zilvaren. The peace and safety of the village fills her with longing.

Saeris comments on the daunting relic task; she also misses her brother. They discuss how Fae children grow to adulthood quickly before their aging slows, which protects them from manifold dangers, including Malcolm. When she teases him about being the “Lord of Cahlish” (381), he bitterly rejects the title—he believes does not deserve it, as he did not adequately protect his people from Malcolm. Saeris is uncertain how to respond to his vulnerability.

Kingfisher starts to discuss their sexual encounter, but they are interrupted by an elderly woman named Wendy, who acts maternally fond of Fisher. Wendy sensed Saeris’s arrival through the quicksilver gate; she knows about Zilvaren. Wendy expresses doubt that Saeris will return to Zilvaren, and then invites them to eat. Saeris teases Fisher about his light, relaxed energy at the fete.

Suddenly, in her mind, Saeris hears the quicksilver voice loudly calling “Annorath mor!” She faints. When roused by Wendy and Fisher, she insists she is fine. As they return to their quarters, Fisher explains that she spoke the words out loud, but that he cannot tell her what they mean. They retire to a long-abandoned apartment that Fisher inherited.

Saeris wakes to Fisher’s screaming. She finds him in bed, awake, having a sort of seizure from his quicksilver poisoning. He insists the episode will pass and that he doesn’t need a healer. Saeris insists on helping him, staying with him through the night as he has hallucinations and pain.

Saeris tells him of her past. Her father died when she was young; her mother Iris turned to sex work to earn income, which earned disdain from neighbors. Saeris apprenticed with Elroy, who loved Iris and took Saeris on as a favor. Iris began smuggling weapons to Madra’s opponents. These rebels taught Saeris various survival skills, including siphoning water, which Saeris used to provide for Hayden. Iris was killed when guardians found her carrying weapons; Saeris witnessed Iris’s murder. Shortly after, Third Ward was put under quarantine by Madra’s regime. Saeris and Hayden began squatting and stealing to survive. Fisher asks Saeris to lie next to him and quietly confesses that his mother was also murdered.

Saeris wakes in Fisher’s bed, anxious that he will push her away again. When he tentatively reaches for her, she returns the gesture. They have sex. Saeris is surprised to realize that she can hear Fisher’s thoughts; she uses this connection to urge him to bite her. He does, which brings them both physical pleasure and a sense of closeness.

When Saeris wakes again, she fears that Fisher is gone, but he has merely retreated to make breakfast. She is shocked to observe that more of his tattoos have moved to her body. Runes now cover her hands and forearms. Her panicked thoughts—and Fisher’s response to them—reveal that they can still speak telepathically. Fisher vaguely explains the tattoos as Alchemist magic and temporarily hides them. Saeris has a month to decide if she wants them to return; after that, they will be lost to her. His biggest tattoo represents sacrifice, causing Saeris to view the runes as sort of prophecy. The bite mark on her throat makes Fisher withdraw.

Later that day, frustrated with more failed experiments, Saeris smashes bottles of ineffective ingredients. She explains to Carrion that the quicksilver is laughing at her. He suggests she simply ask the quicksilver to become a relic, as this is how she describes shifting it between its liquid and solid states. Saeris agrees to try, though she is annoyed at the possibility of Carrion being the one to solve the puzzle.

When she approaches the fragments of Danya’s sword, Saeris hears the quicksilver speak more clearly than it ever has before. She communicates telepathically with the quicksilver, which refers to itself in the first-person plural. It agrees to be reformed into a sword in exchange for a song, but refuses to imbue the blade with magic until it has tested worthiness by “tast[ing] the blood of the one who would carry [it]” (425). The metal shards come out of the stone. Saeris gathers them and asks Lorreth, a former singer, for a song.

Saeris feels the quicksilver observing her as she re-forges Danya’s sword, though the substance is cooperative. While she works, Carrion and Lorreth playfully snipe over a knife-throwing bet, which Carrion loses. Saeris works through the night tempering the blade. Lorreth carves a wolf’s head to make into a casting mold. Fisher telepathically tells her to rest, but she refuses to stop until her task is finished. She nearly collapses in exhaustion, but she is pleased with her efforts, which have produced a beautiful blade.

Lorreth cuts his finger when he touches the sharp blade. An aurora shines in the sky for the first time in a millennium, which Fisher considers a blessing. Lorreth sings a tribute to Kingfisher, which makes Fisher uncomfortable, though he doesn’t interrupt. The sword accepts the song, but decrees itself Lorreth’s sword, not Danya’s. Lorreth cannot remember the song he just sang; the quicksilver whispers that the song now belongs to it alone. Saeris only remembers it because she is an Alchemist. She worries what other bargains she will have to make with the quicksilver to make the relics. Lorreth names his blade Avisiéth. As soon as he does so, it shines with bright magical light called “angel’s breath.”

The camp is excited and curious about the appearance of angel’s breath. 

Fisher gives Saeris a bath. She finds the tender touch intimate. They fall asleep together, Saeris determined to enjoy the moment despite their uncertain future. She marvels at how her life has changed: She has gone from being an impoverished pickpocket to someone who can forge magical swords. She mentally reaches out to the “Annorath mor” chanting of the quicksilver.

Saeris asks the quicksilver to leave Fisher, but it claims it cannot: They have been bonded into a weapon after Fisher allowed the quicksilver to bind itself to him in exchange for his life when he went into the pool without a relic, centuries prior. Fisher, who overhears part of this telepathically, confirms that the quicksilver is an inextricable part of him.

Ren bursts in. The Feeder horde has returned to the riverbank. Saeris insists on joining them, relieved when Fisher allows her to instead of using the oath magic to compel her away. She promises to follow his commands during the battle. She is emotional when Fisher gives her Solace, his father’s sword, the sword Saeris initially pulled from the pool.

Fisher, Ren, and Saeris plunge into battle. Most of the vampires are swept away by the river, where the ice is already broken, but several find a narrow path to cross. Fisher waits for them to cross the midpoint before the rules of war will allow him to use magic; then he and Ren send them into the water. Even as the Yvelians celebrate, Saeris notes the fleeting nature of the victory, as the ice will re-freeze and the vampires will come again.

Then, to everyone’s shock, the vampires crawl out of the freezing water. Fisher leaves Saeris with Ren as he rushes off to fight. Ren tells Saeris she is Fisher’s “sole reason for living” and therefore must not die (459). She and Ren work together to kill the countless vampires that emerge from the water. She finds herself magically competent at wielding Solace, earning praise from Ren and Fisher. Lorreth, with his new magical sword, is heralded as the hero of the day. Suddenly, Everlayne appears on the far side of the river, surrounded by vampires.

Ren and Fisher argue over how to rescue a panicked Everlayne. Fisher wants to plunge into the river to save her, but Ren argues that without Fisher’s magic, he and Layne will be killed instantly. A vampire named Taladaius has leashed Layne with a magical gold cord. Taladaius reveals that Malcolm has bitten Everlayne, making it impossible for her to return home. If Fisher doesn’t deliver Saeris to Malcolm at Gillethrye (the city Fisher destroyed), Malcolm will finish Everlayne’s transformation and subject her to torment for all her immortal life.

Lorreth and Ren are angry and defeated. Now that Malcolm has bitten Everlayne, she is mystically enthralled. Because Malcolm’s venom is lethal, either Everlayne will complete the transformation to immortality by drinking some of Malcolm’s blood, or she will die and return as a Feeder.

Danya enters and insists that Lorreth return her sword, though Fisher insists this is impossible. When she tries to take the blade by force, it magically surges, cutting off her hand. Fisher offers to take her to Cahlish to see a healer; her hand could be regrown. Before they depart, Lorreth, Ren, and Fisher perform a ritual acknowledging Saeris’s first battle. During the ritual, Fisher says her full name for the first time, as opposed to a nickname.

Back at Cahlish, Saeris sits at her usual place at the dinner table—next to Fisher—which causes Danya to mock her for choosing the seat that “is reserved for the lady of the house” (477). Ren and Fisher both defend Saeris’s right to sit there as Saeris and Fisher belong together.

Saeris and Carrion return to the forge to work on the relics. Carrion probes into Saeris’s relationship with Fisher; she has forgiven Fisher for using oath magic against her, as none of his commands hurt her. This time, the quicksilver agrees to transmute in exchange for a secret; Saeris confesses that she doesn’t want to return to Zilvaren permanently, wishing instead to retrieve Hayden and Elroy and bring them to Yvelia. Mentally, she adds that she doesn’t want to leave Fisher, despite their uncertain relationship.

The quicksilver accepts the offered secret, telling her that her role is to stay and save Kingfisher, an order Saeris doesn’t understand. When she seals the newly forged relic ring with blood, Saeris knows she has been successful, though she’s frustrated that the quicksilver grows quiet and won’t give more information about what dangers Fisher faces. Saeris puts on the relic and hears “Annorath mor” chanted at a deafening volume until she removes the ring.

Te Léna, Cahlish’s healer, comes to the forge to check on Saeris following battle. Carrion flirts with Te Léna, who responds by showing him the tattooed runes on her arms as evidence of her marriage. She explains that Fae couples tattoo the marks on their fifth wedding anniversary; in the past, the marks would sometimes appear spontaneously, signifying “true mating bonds” (487), but these stopped occurring when the gods left Yvelia. Te Léna cites seven as a high number of runes and adds that there are even stories of runic writing around wrists, called “a God Binding. A blessing from the gods themselves” (488). These stories always ended with one of the mates dying. Saeris knows far more than seven runes appeared on her arms and hands.

Saeris, alarmed, hurries to find Fisher. She explains her encounter with Te Léna and demands Fisher explain why he refused to speak her name for weeks. He explains that Oshellith, the basis for her nickname, means “Most Sacred,” and references beautiful butterflies that hatch once per millennium and survive briefly in a hostile climate. To Fae, names have power, so when he met Saeris (who his mother, an oracle, once foretold would be his true mate), he gave her a nickname to help manage his feelings about her vulnerability in only having one human name.

Fisher struggles against the magical compulsion that prohibits him from speaking openly. His mother, he reports, drew Saeris based on her visions, though these visions showed Saeris as Fae, not human. Fisher recognized her immediately and decided to be unkind to her to protect her from the dangers of the Fae world. He was surprised when the marks appeared without them declaring their love, but their number makes him worry, as stories show people with many mating runes meeting tragic ends.

He fears bonding with her because his quicksilver-induced hallucinations are increasing as the magic in his pendant wanes. When he hid her runes in Ballard, a period during which either of them can reject the bond began. However, he cannot bring himself to wholly reject the connection between them, even if doing so would protect Saeris from his decline.

Saeris is furious that Fisher planned to let the bond disappear and send her back to Zilvaren without asking her opinion. She grows angry when he reports his intent to have Ren help him die by suicide once he fully succumbs to the quicksilver. She explains Lorreth’s plan to die immediately following Fisher so that his soul can be complete. She storms away, planning to research how to save both Fisher and Layne.