Get it? A summary? Of Storm & Strife?

Okay. Here is a cheeky recap of the events of book two and one since it has been quite a while since they came out. Read responsibly, there are many a spoiler ahead.

After narrowly escaping Everness during the Bourjon invasion, our characters have all taken refuge in Port Galan, one of the last free Lindbarrian cities not under Bourjon occupation. With the Lindbarrian Crown overthrown by Bourjony, two distinct sects have emerged in the chaos. There are the Caelish insurgents who are no longer in hiding, but rather holding the north, as well as the Lindbarrian defectors who were not on board with their country’s annexation by Bourjony. With both of these groups converging in the free north, the two cities (Avaree and Port Galan) are stuffed to the gills. Port Galan is under strict military rule to keep order amid the tumult, as the two groups have been at odds for decades. Rations are tight, tension is high.

After the peril of the escape from Everness ebbed, lots of old memories were dredged up for Lukas. Wounds reopened that he had thought closed up. He has shared little about his past, save that he was involved in a rebellion of divers in Khalim under the Veiran occupation many years ago. His best friend was somehow killed during that time, and he left the city shortly thereafter, never truly dealing with his grief. When his friend Ryder never resurfaces after the prison break in Wayward, he starts to get dragged back into that grief. He throws himself into trying to figure out what happened to Ryder while also burning some bridges socially and emotionally.

Ash, technically a fugitive since she was broken out of prison, is stuck doing nothing at first. She schemes with Soviel to win sparring matches to raise coin, and tries to find something useful to do. One day, she impulsively jumps on a harbor patrol ship as it goes out to meet a threat. When her quick thinking and sea-savvy saves the day, she is given a job. Partnering up with a nerdy, awkward inventor named Toscan, she is captain of a mini-speed ship called The Brisk. She is charged with correspondence missions at first, but later becomes the designated courier for Soviel’s coded spy messages from Bramblehall.

After dealing with the very incompetent General Kenrose, who is more interested in his own investments than of the army’s needs, she impulsively steals the (illegal) copy of his seal ring. At the end of Storm & Strife, she and Toscan use this ring to forge an order from Kenrose, sending them south on a privateer mission to the Meddemara to seek out the cetamaris and to interrupt Bourjony’s efforts there. They are also both keen on getting revenge on a certain pirate captain—more on that later. 

Being the heir to an overthrown crown, Rhi is painfully aware of how very dead he should be. Deposed monarchs don’t usually live long, so he makes himself as useful and unambitious as possible. There are still different factions forming within the army, and no one knows how the chips will fall.

Taking up a low-level administrative position within the army. Rhi ends up working with Lieutenant Lachlan Tarrish, a promising young officer with an impressive resume but a temper that lands him in trouble and a rigid sense of justice that does him more harm than good.  Lachlan has been overseeing the two refugees who survived the prison experiments, who are now deeply sick, spewing magic and hallucinating. The two of them travel to the University of Eilbast (now in occupied territory) where Lachlan attended back in the day, to find a specific book that Soviel suggested might aid them in learning the goals of the Danvery Prison experiments.

They link up with Hassan, a tired and overworked grad student doing geology research, who may or may not be Lachlan’s ex. Hassan is studying a strange metal called Aesterium. It seems to be a non precious metal that affects space and time. Lachlan calls bull shit, but Rhi is intrigued. As it turns out, Hassan is beholden to the Bourjon occupying forces, who are holding his family hostage. They are also funding his research. It appears he tipped off the soldiers about Rhi and Lachlan’s presence there, though he does help them escape through a tunnel. They flee across the countryside, pursued by soldiers. Eventually, they try to cross the river but it’s really rough, and some kind of river spirit flushes them violently downstream in her efforts to put out the fires that the pursuing soldiers set. They return to Galan, and get in a fight over Hassan’s research.

Ferrin has been sort of adrift for the first part of Storm & Strife ever since Major Helene Wilcoe, the head of the intelligence unit, is furious with her for going rogue to break the prisoners out in Wayward. Because of her lack of purpose, she has mostly been tagging along with Ash on her missions.

Early in the book, she and Lukas go and explore a sea cave she found, where they locate a crusty old chest with a map inside it. The map is marked with a strange symbol out in the ocean. The symbol is also marked on the inside of Lukas’s strange pocket watch that never keeps time. They go check it out with the rest of the squad, sans Rhi (this is while he’s on his roadtrip with Lachlan) and they are greeted by a weird silvery sea dragon named Norhi, who says he’s a portal guardian. He explains about this door that will take a person a great distance. The Door looks a lot like a pile of rocks on a sand bar. Norhi explains that it will probably drop Ferrin off at this special island where she might learn some useful information, and then alludes to Lukas’s pocket watch being a useful tool for navigating these Doors, of which there are many throughout the world.

They all return to Galan and think about all this.

There is a big explosion in the cliffs near the barracks, which turns out to be one of those natural disaster creatures (rasernemauds) from Wayward, and Soviel uses her healing magic to kill it.

At midsummer, there’s a fun bonfire celebration, but wait! Everyone is miserable. Ferrin and Lukas get in a stupid fight and she storms off, only to be fetched by one of Wilcoe’s assistants. She goes to Wilcoe, excited that maybe she’ll be forgiven for going rogue and be given another job. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Her terrible ex boyfriend Zare (the one who poisoned her and sold her back to the Lindbarrian crown setting off the events of book one) is there, and said he’d only talk to her. This is distressing, obviously.

The next day, Ash finds out he’s there, and wants to kill him before he can use his poison words to create more chaos and misery. Ferrin stops her because he claims to have information on the cetamaris, which they have heard of through Soviel’s spying. Major Wilcoe insists that this is important and he must be treated as an asset for the time being, so they try to barter with him.

In bartering with Zare, Ferrin drives even more of a wedge between herself and Lukas. In the end, Zare hangs around for a little while and stirs the pot. When he’s done enough damage, he kills the guards watching Ash’s boat—including Toscan’s brother—steals said boat, and leaves the gem behind along with a cryptic note. (This is what motivates the previously mentioned revenge)

After all of this happens, Ferrin decides its time to go to the mysterious island, where she does a series of tasks to prove her readiness/worthiness for the power and information they have about the current issues going on in the world. This is all intentionally vague on behalf of the island dwellers. The first task is an obstacle course which she fails twice, and only succeeds on her third go because one of the priestesses aids her with magic. She goes to talk to the priestess who explains the guilt she has because of the friend who came to Vaiorka with her and ended up being a religious zealot who ripped a hole in the sky and absconded with important information. This friend was named Lada.

The second task comes when a big flying monster comes through the hole in the sky. The third task is to sail out beyond the shallows and retrieve a key from a shoal, then return with it. While she is on her way back with the key, a huge storm overtakes Ferrin’s boat and she is lost at sea.

Soviel, a spy for the Caelish resistance and a magically gifted healer, is sent on a mission. She assimilates into a circle of ladies-in-waiting for a prominent Lindbarrian Duchess further south at her home, Bramblehall. The Duchess’s husband is none other than Duke Hadringston, the man funding Danvery Prison (and the human-experimentation with the drug popava) that was occurring there in Wayward.

The Duchess is a bit of a ditz, but mostly means well. In her time under cover, Soviel learns more about the popava experiments, sees the lab beneath the castle at Everness, and learns that Hadringston is sending a mercenary to the Meddemara to search for a sea gem called the cetamaris. In her spying, she also uncovers time-sensitive information about an attack on Port Galan, and rides cross-country to warn them in person. She is able to return to Bramblehall with her cover seemingly still in tact.

After the battle at Port Galan, Soviel is able to return to Bramblehall—against Major Wilcoe’s instructions. She is determined to maintain her cover and do damage control so that she may be invited to Larais with the Hadringstons that fall. However, Soviel returns to find a familiar face. Nimhe has insinuated herself at Bramblehall as a maid. Nimhe was a lady’s maid for Ferrin, who turned out to be a spy for the other side. She and Soviel get into an altercation where Soviel accidentally kills her with magic—something she thought impossible. In between her duties, Soviel must dispose of Nimhe’s body and deal with the emotional consequences of killing someone who was once her friend, and of having used magic to do so.

In the epilogue: an unnamed Queen Regent is in her office. A Bourjon General comes in after the big battle between the Bourjons and Port Galan. He says it’s unfortunate they had to abandon the battle before they could claim the last sliver of the isle, but that they got what the Regent was really after: a mysterious chalice, presumably found in the sea caves. While his men were searching the sea caves, they also took a strange feral woman hostage and he reveals her to be ‘the Witch of Galan’ who, according to certain myths, created the cetamaris sea gem.