Prepare yourself. Penellaphe, known to very few as Poppy, is THE Maiden. As such, she is heavily protected and under the care of the Duke and Duchess of Masadonia. But tonight, she has snuck out of Castle Teerman to go to the Red Pearl, where you can find pleasures of every kind. She’s hiding her identity since being out and alone would get her punished, but there’s no one there who would recognize her face anyway. She hasn’t seen her brother Ian since he ascended and was pushed into an arranged marriage with Claudeya, and her face stays completely covered when she’s in public as the Maiden - even her eyes. As Poppy hears a sensual rhythmic music start to play from behind a closed curtain and moves to see what is happening, she is stopped by a woman who works at the Red Pearl. The woman has surmised who she is (Poppy suspects she’s a seer, and Poppy thought they were all gone!) but the woman doesn’t want to turn Poppy in. The way she speaks makes Poppy suspect the woman is a Descenter, a supporter of Prince Casteel. Casteel is a man from what used to be Atlantia, a kingdom that had fallen at the end of the War of the Two Kings, and who the Descenters believe to be the true heir instead of Queen Ileana and King Jalara. But the woman warns Poppy just before a man comes in who definitely would recognize Poppy, her guard and someone who is more like a father to her. Someone who would recognize her masked or otherwise. Vikter Wardwell. The woman tells Poppy to hide in a room upstairs until it’s safe for her to sneak away, the woman will come get her at that time, and Poppy has no choice but to trust her. But when Poppy enters the specified room, she finds that it is not empty. It’s occupied by Hawke Flynn. Poppy knows Hawke (everybody does) since he’s super tall and ripped. But Poppy also has a gift from the gods, she can feel the pain of others - physical or otherwise. She knows that Hawke is in constant pain although you can’t tell it from the outside. It’s the fact that he doesn’t let that pain overwhelm him that has caught Poppy’s attention. She doesn’t know anyone else like that. Hawke recognizes the cloak that Poppy is wearing. The cloak she “borrowed” from Britta (the castle maid who it turns out Hawke has been discreetly meeting with for trysts). Hawke believes Britta followed him tonight for just that reason and Poppy immediately clocks that a) the bed is still made so he wasn’t already using it that night and b) there are two glasses on the table so while they didn’t use the bed, he was certainly meeting someone. He doesn’t seem happy about the idea of Britta following him, but he isn’t going to talk about it tonight. Instead, Hawke picks her up, carries her to the bed, lays her down, and kisses her. Since the room is dark, Poppy is wearing a mask, and she’s about the same size as Britta, it’s only after he kisses her that Hawke realizes that she is not who he thought she was. He asks who she is (she gives no answer) but he assumes (correctly) that she knows who he is. He asks why she came, and she says it could be for the conversation - so they chat for a minute. Poppy asks why he became a guard of the Rise (which is very dangerous). The Rise is the huge wall that has protected Masadonia since the end of the War of the Two Kings. In fact, every city in Solis is protected by a Rise and even the smaller towns, villages, and communities have their own smaller versions of the wall no matter how small. Hawke tells her that his father was a farmer. He didn’t want to be a farmer and there aren’t many other options open. She admits that’s true. She asks if his father has passed (he has not) and reveals that both of her parents are gone. He gives her heartfelt condolences, and she knows that he’s lost someone important in his life even if it wasn’t his parents. She wonders to herself what more she plans to do tonight. She just had her first kiss and thoroughly enjoyed it. Could she go further if he’s willing? She’s always thought the gods wouldn’t judge her too harshly as the Maiden, even if she did things the Duke and Duchess say are forbidden, but what if she is incorrect. If she’s found wanting by the gods upon her Ascension, she will be exiled. It has happened once before. All records of that person were destroyed when they were deemed unworthy and unfit to live among people. But that knowledge doesn’t stop Poppy, who had already made her decision. And it seems that Hawke is intrigued, and more than willing. Hawke asks her to take her mask off and at first Poppy says no - worried that he will say mean things about her appearance like the duke, but when he asks a second time she thinks about it. But they’re interrupted before she can make a decision (or they get too far). It’s another guard calling for Hawke, telling him that an envoy they’ve been waiting for has just arrived and Hawke needs to meet them. He asks Poppy to stay where she is until he returns and she agrees, but as soon as Hawke leaves the room, she sneaks out too. She’s grateful that Hawke didn’t feel the scars of what the duke has done to her before he was called away, though he did find her expensive and rare dagger that Viktor gifted her. Poppy doesn’t see Viktor as she leaves the Red Pearl. The next day, Poppy speaks to Tawny - a girl about her own age that was given to the court when she was thirteen during the Rite and was subsequently given to Poppy as a companion. It’s not Tawny’s choice to be with Poppy, but they’ve become friends of a sort anyway and Poppy trusts Tawny more than almost anyone else. In fact, Tawny knows that Viktor trains Poppy in weapons fighting but has never tattled. And she also knows that Poppy snuck out the night before - she heard Poppy leave. Poppy tells Tawny where she went but not who she saw or what happened there with Hawke. Tawny wants to go with Poppy next time, but Poppy tells her she doesn’t think there should be a next time. They talk for a while and Tawny reveals that she heard the mist is gathering nearby. The mist is one of the things the Rise protects them from. They also discuss the upcoming Ascension. They will ascend at the same time and Tawny (for one) is excited. She will no longer be under someone else’s command but in charge of her own life, and as beautiful and long living as all Ascended are. But Poppy’s Ascension is not the same. She is to be given to the gods, and she has no idea what that means or what happens afterward. That night, Viktor comes to her room to tell Poppy they’ve been summoned. Within the mists outside of the Rise reside the Craven, who were cursed by the Atlantians and controlled only by the Dark One. It is why working outside of or to protect the Rise is so dangerous. The Craven were once people but now are more beast, if they scratch or bite you, you become Craven yourself. The change can take anywhere from a few hours to two days, but never more than three. And no one survives it - except for Poppy. She was scratched on her face and never turned, which is why she is considered Chosen. It is why she is the Maiden. And it is why the duke thinks her face is ruined. If a Craven turns inside the city, it can cause a massacre since the people do not expect the Craven to be inside of the Rise. If someone has not yet turned but is discovered while the process has started, they are drug out for a public execution. To prevent public execution is treason. But Viktor and Poppy are both part of a group that believes that even the Cursed deserve to die with dignity. Viktor takes Poppy to a house near the Rise that is marked with a handkerchief. The Cursed’s wife, Agnes, tells them that it has been two days since her husband returned from outside the Rise. He had been missing for months when he finally returned, and he started showing symptoms on the night he came back but she had hoped he had only fallen sick with a cold. He tried to kill himself, but the Curse will not allow it. Even though she can’t see Poppy’s face, as soon as Poppy speaks, Agnes knows who she is. People have been talking about her, spreading rumors of her gift. Agnes is relieved that she’s there, but the news of the rumor is not welcomed by either Poppy or Viktor. They have to make sure no one else was tainted with the Curse (the Cursed are prone to uncontrollable rages and a bite from them, even though they are not fully turned, can pass on the Curse) so Viktor checks with Agnes about herself and her child as Poppy sees to Marlowe, the Cursed man. He tells her that he only wanted to say goodbye, and that he wasn’t the only one who was hurt in the attack. His friend Ridley returned to the city with him to say goodbye to his father, but Ridley lives in the huntsmen dorms. This could be very, very bad. Minutes away from Marlowe turning completely, Poppy kills him by stabbing her bloodstone dagger through his brain. The Cursed and the Craven can only be killed with either bloodstone or a stake of wood from the Blood Forest through the heart or the brain, or fire. Marlowe dies immediately, now to find Ridley. They don’t have far to look. She and Viktor go to Ridley’s dad’s house right away and he tells them that he knew what Ridley was and killed him the night before. He even shows them where he buried Ridley’s body. They walk back to the castle through the grove, which almost nobody else uses for fear that it’s haunted. Viktor is worried that stories about Poppy are getting out and he’s concerned that Poppy might want them to. That she wants to be seen as unworthy in the eyes of the gods. But what he doesn’t understand is that the gods would already know what she was doing, she just wants to be able to choose for herself what happens with her life. To be able to choose to show her face to Marlowe, to tell him who she is before he dies, to take some of Agnes’ pain away. To sneak away to the Red Pearl. It is her choice, even if she is punished for her choices afterward. Her other guard, Rylan, arrives to escort Poppy on her walk around the gardens, which she does every night. They are stopped on the way by Lord Mazeen, an Ascended who looks about twenty but is at least a couple of hundred years old and who likes to join the Duke during Poppy’s punishments. Mazeen insists on speaking to Poppy alone, even though as the Maiden she should not linger and shouldn’t be touched by anyone, he does both of those things against her will while threatening punishment from the duke. She’s tempted to stab him with her dagger and even grabs its hilt when a scream rends the air. They both leave the alcove Mazeen forced Poppy into to find a servant woman screaming. She points to a door where inside a woman lies dead, her skirts around her waist, her head twisted to an unnatural angle, and two deep bite wounds at her neck. In Poppy’s rooms with Tawny and Rylan, they discuss what happened as the castle is searched from top to bottom. When the search is complete, Viktor tells them that no other victims were found, neither were there any Craven. But a Craven doesn’t make sense anyway. There would be four bite marks instead of two, and the wound was right over the jugular. A Craven would have made a terrible mess, but there was no blood in the room at all. The duke has announced that it was a Descended that killed the woman, but that also doesn’t make sense. The Descended are only mortals, there would have been blood. Viktor believes, and Poppy agrees, that it was done by an Atlantian. In the early morning, Poppy leaves her room to read one of the books she’s studied in the past as the Maiden. It explains that the Ascended are essentially immortal, not aging from the time of their Blessing during their Ascent. Atlantians are also close to immortal, but their long lives are given to them by drinking the blood of mortals. They have two fangs that they use for that purpose and through those bites, the Craven are created. Poppy wonders why an would Atlantian bite the woman but then snap her neck? In addition, it is believed that the Atlantians used to create a bond with the Wolven, when the Wolven still roamed, but they aren’t sure what that bond entailed. When she leaves, Poppy does not go back to her room but to the room the woman was found in to look around. She finds a jasmine petal under the settee but nothing else out of place. That night, Poppy decides to take her nightly walk with Rylan in the Queen’s Gardens. They make it just in time to see the sun go down and the night blooming roses open up. Right then, a hidden archer shoots Rylan in the chest. Rylan tells Poppy to run. She catches Rylan’s body as he falls to the ground, dead before he finishes falling. A man comes out of the shadows and tells Poppy that if she follows directions, no one else will be hurt. Poppy isn’t having it and as soon as the man is close enough, she stabs him in the side with her dagger. She hits something vital, and the man makes a sound unlike any mortal sound Poppy has ever heard. And he’s not happy. He hits Poppy in the face so hard she nearly falls to the ground. Then he puts his hand over his wound and threatens Poppy with what sounds like a terrible time before a whistle sounds from outside of the garden walls and the man falls quiet. He turns to Poppy and says they aren’t finished yet before leaving. Poppy stumbles out of the garden and is found by a group of guards, Viktor among them. Later, Poppy is being tended to as the duchess asks about what happened. The duchess decides to have the jacaranda trees that hide a portion of the wall that is crumbling be taken out. She also tells Poppy that she will have to report what happened to the queen and the queen may summon Poppy back to the palace because of it. She reveals that the arrow that hit Rylan had the Dark One’s motto on it, a promise to his people that they would rise again, “From blood and ash”. But they don’t think it was a Descended who did it. They think it was an Atlantian, maybe even the Dark One himself who came for Poppy. Poppy finds the last option unlikely, since the man mentioned that someone else wanted her alive. He was definitely taking orders from a higher up. That night Tawny stays the night with Poppy since neither of them can sleep. She asks if Poppy thinks the Queen will summon her back to the capital, but Poppy is more concerned that the Queen will petition that her Ascension be moved up instead, so she can ascend before anything happens to her. The Queen still regrets that Poppy’s mother never ascended, the only person ever to choose not to ascend in order to marry someone not considered fit for the honor. The next day, Poppy attends Rylan’s funeral - even though it is not protocol and the duke will be displeased. Viktor is beckoned to light the pyre but is torn between his duty to protect Poppy and his desire to honor his friend, until Hawke comes up and volunteers to protect her. While they watch the pyre go up in flames, Hawke tells Poppy that she will never be hurt again. While training the next day with Viktor, she broaches the topic of who may replace Rylan. He tells her he wouldn’t be surprised if it were Hawke though he is new to the guards and new to the city. He is one of the best guards they’ve seen. But if Hawke becomes Poppy’s guard, he would hear her speak. And may recognize her voice. Later, she is in the Great Hall as Duke and Duchess Teerman are petitioned by the people of the city. A couple approach, holding their infant son. They explain that he is their third and should be dedicated to the gods and raised in the temple, but their first two sons died, and they were hoping to be excused from the rule since they can have no more children. The Teermans do not grant them the dispensation, and they are ordered to give their son over when he is only a month old. The couple is distraught, and their feelings overwhelm Poppy for a moment, breaking through the wall she has around herself. As she carefully reconstructs the wall, she also feels a blonde man in the audience. She can feel something from him. It feels hot like physical pain and it’s intense, but he doesn’t look as if he’s hurt. Poppy looks at the crowd, which has several angry faces looking at the duke and duchess. Faces that had to give their second sons and daughters to the Court after their Rite, like Tawny, and their third to the gods. And special cases had been excused before. Poppy’s brother was allowed to ascend, simply because he is the brother of the Maiden. Poppy hopes that when she ascends, chosen by the gods themselves, she may be able to help in situations like these. The next day, Poppy is waiting to be escorted to her lesson with Priestess Analia when Viktor tells her she’s been summoned before the duke and duchess instead. They’re going to announce who her next guard will be. It’s no surprise that Poppy enters the room to find Hawke waiting inside as well. He’s her new guard and as such, there will be times that he sees her face. They don’t want him to be surprised when that happens, so they ask Poppy to unveil herself now. She does and shows her full face to Hawke, scars and all, as Duke Teerman makes nasty remarks about how beautiful half of her face is. Hawke retorts that her entire face is beautiful and makes his oath to her, using her name instead of her title. That night, after Tawny demands to know why she’s acting so weird, Poppy reveals that she kissed Hawke that night at the Red Pearl and that he heard her talk. If he’s interested in rising through the ranks, there’s no better way for him to get on the duke’s good side than to tattle on Poppy. The next day, Poppy and Tawny have lunch in the atrium when they are joined by Loren and Davina, two ladies in wait. They should not be there with the Maiden, but they are too focused on looking at Hawke to care. While talking, Loren brings up the murder from the week before. She says that Britta heard that Prince Casteel is quite handsome, which is how he gets into places he should not be allowed in order to do his nefarious deeds. If he were near the castle, it would be… interesting. The callousness of Loren’s words causes Poppy to speak to her, chastising her, which she should not do. After, her gift lashes out and forms a bond with Loren for a moment. Poppy feels something strange, something she shouldn’t. Excitement and fear, Poppy usually only feels pain. She wonders if her gift is acting up for some reason. Soon after, the ladies leave, and Hawke informs Poppy that she’s been summoned before the duke. She freezes; sure that a punishment is coming but unsure of why. Hawke waits for Poppy outside of the duke’s office. When Poppy enters, she sees Lord Mazeen is with him. Again, the duke comments on her face and lets it slip that he knew her mother. This is the first that Poppy has heard of this. The duke berates Poppy for not understanding her place. She was chosen by the gods at birth, one of only two people ever, while the other Ascended are chosen during their Rite. That is the reason the Dark One tried to kill her, ending in the deaths of her parents. She should know better than to associate with ladies in wait. It’s one of several minor transgressions that he will punish her for. He assigns her four lashes, but when she can’t help being snarky, he goes up to seven. He uses a cane to give her the lashes and when he touches her shoulder to keep her still, she feels nothing within him. No emotions. It is what the Blessing of the Gods does to a person, separating the Ascended from the mortals. Poppy doesn’t make a sound as she receives her punishment, Mazeen relishing watching her nearly bare body. When Poppy leaves the office, it is Viktor who is waiting for her. Hawke did not like the reaction either Tawny or Poppy gave when they heard about the summons and sought out Viktor for answers, who took over the guard. He escorts Poppy to her room, expressing concern and asking if she should give up visiting the Cursed with him, but she will not stop protecting her people. For two days she hides, healing, but luckily the cane did not break her skin so the healing process is easier than it could have been. On the second night, she watches the fires burning on the Rise. They’re calm, which is good, but she sees them start to dance as if in the wind. Then she hears the horns warning the city that the Craven are coming. She rushes to get ready, intent on going to the wall and protecting the people with her bow. Tawny tries to dissuade her but is unsuccessful. Instead, Tawny agrees to tell anyone who asks that Poppy has locked herself inside the bathroom in fear. Poppy runs through the old servant’s passage that has a door connected to her room, just barely making it outside before the castle is locked down. She finds a spot on the wall and prepares herself, finding Viktor below preparing to fight as well. She wonders if Hawke is guarding her room or is preparing to fight below. Then she sees the Craven as they attack. Just as they did when she was five years old, the night her parents died. She fires at the Craven, defending the Rise (and not for the first time). She shoots Craven after Craven, her aim impeccable, even saving Viktor from being attacked. Then the Craven break over the wall and start attacking the archers. One does not get close to her, so she stays in her position and continues to pick them off until only a few Craven are left. Only then does she finally turn to leave and sneak back to her room, but she is stopped by Hawke, who (guessing from his clawed armor) was fighting outside the Rise like Viktor - and who noticed the archer and came to investigate. He’s delighted to find out that it’s a woman. Poppy tries to get around him put he stops her, his curiosity is piqued. She turns on him and knocks his feet out from under him before running for the castle, but he quickly catches up to her. So, she puts her dagger to his throat and that’s a mistake, because it’s a dagger he recognizes from the Red Pearl. He knows he’s met her before, and she doesn’t see the point in being silent anymore. They argue a bit before he reveals that he knows EXACTLY who she is. He has known that the Maiden and the girl at the Red Pearl were the same person since she first showed her face to him. But he would never reveal it, because he guards her and needs her to trust him. Soon, another soldier calls up to him and he tells Poppy to get back to her room. She has just enough time to tell Tawny that the Craven breached the Rise before being defeated but that they lost a lot of guards before Hawke arrives to finish their talk. After having to convince Tawny to leave, Hawke and Poppy argue a bit before Poppy gives up and sits in front of the fire. She tells him why she fights, tells him what happened the night her parents died. That no one in that village could fight except the guards and when they were killed, the others had no chance. But Hawke has heard more rumors about Poppy. That she helps the Cursed die with dignity. He won’t tell this secret of hers either, since he does the same thing. The Duke and Duchess Teerman make a public appearance after the attack on the Rise, speaking to the citizens of the city. But it is not the comforting message of rebuilding that you’d expect. In fact, they tell the people that the Craven will come again. The gods are mad at them, the gods told the Teermans so, it’s why so many Craven were present during the attack. They know that some have turned away from the gods, away from the Ascended, to follow the Dark One. But if any good, god-fearing citizen learns of a neighbor who is not as good, not as god-fearing, they would be richly rewarded to turn them in. Poppy listens to this and feels something from the crowd. Again, it is not what she’s supposed to feel. She’s only ever been able to feel pain, but this is panic. Terror. Like when she felt Loren’s emotions. Fear and excitement. She notices a man in the crowd that she’d also noticed during the family’s petition to keep their son. The same man. She notices other people in the crowd that she thinks are acting strange. She points the man out to Viktor and Hawke just as he steps forward - screaming that the duke and duchess are liars, demanding to know what happens to the third and fourth children in a family. He throws something at the duke, the severed hand of a Craven, before he is taken by the guards screaming that from blood and ash, they will rise again. The mantra of the Dark One, Prince Casteel. Viktor leaves to speak to the commander so Hawke walks Poppy back to her room. He points out that he’s not surprised that people feel that way about the children… after the children are given to the priests, they are never seen by their families again. Allowing them occasional visits would do a lot to allay fears. Afterward, Poppy tells Viktor about what she felt during the address to the people of the city. He is one of only a handful of people who know about her gift, including the duke and duchess and Priestess Analia. He recommends she speak to the duchess. Poppy assures Duchess Teerman that she has not been using her gift (she’s not supposed to until her Ascension) and that she rarely loses control but explains that she’s felt a couple emotions other than pain recently. The duchess asks Poppy to read her emotions, but Poppy feels nothing, and the duchess seems relieved. She explains that she believes Poppy’s gift is maturing but warns Poppy not to let the duke know. It would remind him of the first Maiden. The only other Maiden to be Chosen by the gods themselves. Poppy doesn’t know anything about that Maiden and the duchess explains that the gods have forbidden them to talk about her, but she will tell Poppy the story now and ask for forgiveness later in the hopes that it will keep Poppy on the right road. The first Maiden had been found worthy of the gods, or rather, she was not found UNworthy. But she was later killed by the Dark One. During her lesson with Priestess Analia, they study the history of the kingdom and the War of the Two Kings. In the legend, the King of the Gods gave his blood to Jalara and his army, creating the first of the Ascended in order to defeat the Atlantians. Analia is disgusted with how the Atlantians drink the blood of mortals to be strong while Poppy doesn’t think it sounds that much different from drinking the blood of the Gods to Ascend, as the Ascended do. This enrages the priestess, who tries to slap Poppy but is stopped by Hawke, who warns her not to touch Poppy or he will have to treat her as a threat to the Maiden. Poppy is grateful for what Hawke did but knows they will likely both be punished for it. Analia will tell the duke. When they leave, Hawke asks her what the duke will do, It’s not like he would sanction someone hitting the Maiden, but Poppy scoffs. Between that and something the priestess said, Hawke starts to get an idea of what the duke does during Poppy’s punishments. Hawke and Poppy discuss their siblings on their way back to Poppy’s room. Poppy’s brother Ian, who should have become a lord in wait but was allowed to ascend instead, because he is a sibling to the Maiden. Hawke had one brother, and it becomes clear that this is part of where his overwhelming pain stems from. Poppy takes some of that pain away from him with her gift and he is astounded at the relief, although he doesn’t understand why it happened. He assures her that his brother isn’t dead, and Poppy wonders what could have happened for him to hurt so much if his brother still lives. Poppy is bored out of her mind. The Rite is almost here, and Tawny is needed to help with the preparations, so Poppy is alone in her room. After two days, she decides to sneak out to the library in the city to retrieve a diary kept there for historical purposes – a diary that details each of the diary writer’s conquests in illicit and spicy detail. She ducks into an alcove to get a sneak peek at the diary and becomes so engrossed that she doesn’t hear when people approach until they are very close - and then she recognizes the duke’s voice. There’s nowhere to go but out the window, so Poppy stands on a ledge outside the door and overhears the duke as he gets a progress report about the Descendent who threw the hand at the address. The man was not really a Descendent, just a sympathizer who lost his middle brother to death and his youngest to the priests, and who does not believe the Dark One is in the city. He got the Craven hand from a Craven who turned within the city which he helped to kill. It’s clear from this that the duke knows about the “Death with Dignity” group that Poppy is a part of. Duke Teerman asks what the man thinks happens to the children, but the man did not know. Then the duke asks who helped the man get the Craven hand and the guard tells him the man would not give up any names. The duke decides to visit the prisoner himself and alludes that the man will be dead by the time they’re done. After they leave, Poppy hears someone else in the room. Hawke found her after she gave him the slip. He tells her to come in from the ledge and demands to know exactly how she got out of her room. After some cajoling, she tells him that there’s an old passageway that connects to her room. A few of the oldest servants know about it, as well as Viktor, but no one else. It locks from the inside, and she would be prepared if anyone (i.e. the Dark One) tried to use it to get to her. She tells Hawke about overhearing the duke and being concerned that he will kill the man in the dungeons. She doesn’t like the thought of that. Hawke escorts her back to the castle, but not until after teasing her about the book she was retrieving. Poppy asks him how he found her, and Hawke tells her he’s very good at tracking. The next night is the Rite, when second children are made lords/ladies in wait and third children are dedicated to the temples. Everyone who attends wears red and masks, and this is the first time that Poppy is allowed to attend. It’s the only time (outside of her forbidden forays into the city) that she does not have to wear white. When she slips on her gown, she feels bare to the world, but Tawny tells her she looks beautiful. Viktor takes the two of them down to the Rite, saying that Hawke will meet them there. As soon as they arrive, Lord Mazeen approaches and tells Poppy that Priestess Analia tattled on her - that she will be punished. He stands so close she can smell his cologne, and it triggers a memory. That the day the lady was murdered and he stood close to her, he didn’t smell like his cologne. He smelled like jasmine. Just like the jasmine petal that Poppy found in the crime scene. Soon after Mazeen leaves, Poppy is stopped by Agnes (the woman whose husband Poppy killed when he was Cursed). Agnes wanted to warn Poppy that some in the city say the Dark One is looking for her. Viktor thinks Agnes has more information, but Agnes slinks off, refusing to say more. When Poppy focuses on the Rite again, the duke still has not arrived and is very late. Hawke also comes late, saying he had to help with a security sweep, and it took forever. After the Rite is done and the children are dedicated, the attendants dance and socialize. Viktor leaves to speak to the Commander, Tawny goes off to dance, and Poppy should go back to her room since she’s still not supposed to socialize but Hawke convinces her to try a walk in the gardens again. It’s the first time she’s been there since Rylan died. Poppy opens her power to Hawke and feels something she thinks is uncertainty and maybe attraction. Hawke tells her that she needs to take the gardens back. Make new memories in it that eventually will overpower the last, admittedly very bad, memory. He explains that he and his brother (and their best friend) had a special cavern that no one else visited back home. It was a haven for them when the outside world was too hard. It was the last place he saw his brother but one day, he plans to return and reclaim that cavern. Poppy doesn’t think she can go to the night blooming roses, so Hawke takes her to his favorite place - the weeping willow. They sit under the branches where it’s pitch black although Hawke still is able to see okay. Apparently, he has great eyesight as well as superior fighting and tracking skills. While there, they start to do very un-Maidenly things, and Hawke admits that she intrigues him. Hawke starts to prepare to take her back to her room, but she stops him and asks him to kiss her instead. He obliges and they get a little carried away - but don’t do anything but kiss. When they finally get up so she can get to her room, they run into Viktor, who can easily guess what was happening under the willow’s branches. He and Hawke get into an argument that is close to being physical until Poppy convinces them to separate. In a moment, Hawke disappears, and Poppy lets everything spill out to Viktor. She has nothing. She is allowed to do nothing and still gets “lessons” from the duke. Who would want the honor of being the Maiden when it feels like this? It’s no wonder she wants to be found unworthy. She asks to go to her room but as they enter the castle from the gardens, they hear screams from the ballroom where Tawny still dances. Poppy rushes to the room to find that the heavy drapery behind the dais has fallen - to reveal the body of Duke Teerman. Dead, impaled by his own cane, with the sign of the Dark One smeared in the duke’s blood on the wall. Only an Atlantian would have the strength to put a cane with a rounded end through an Ascended like that. Very quickly, the windows of the ballroom are blown in. People fall as they’re injured or killed. Through the now open windows, archers pick off people who are still standing. Viktor tries to herd Poppy (and Tawny) through the door to safety, but the doors are now blocked by people wearing masks made to look like wolves in mockery of the Rite. Wolven. Apparently, they still exist. Those who are still alive in the grand ballroom scream, knowing they are blocked in but a group of royal guards including Viktor lead Poppy, Tawny, the duchess, and Lord Mazeen to safety. The watch as a group of Ascended enter the ballroom and the screaming suddenly stops. Duchess Teerman commands them to barricade themselves in the room, confident that the Wolven and Descenters won’t be able to get to them there, but she is proved entirely wrong when they take a battering ram to the door. Between the Royal Guards - many of whom die - and Poppy, they defeat all the Descenters who storm into the room. Viktor is about to take Poppy elsewhere when an injured Descenter rises in the hallway and stabs Viktor in the chest. Hawke comes from behind with a new group of guards and kills the Descenter, but Viktor does not make it. Before he dies, he asks Poppy to forgive him for not protecting her as he should have. As she grieves for the only father that she has had for years, Mazeen makes a nasty comment about her being too familiar with her guards. She takes Viktor’s sword and cuts off Mazeen’s hands and then his head, continuing to attack his body until Hawke carries her away. She fights back but she soon loses consciousness. Poppy spends several days in a drugged sleep after Hawke incapacitated her using a pressure point. After Hawke removes the sleeping powder from her room, she’s forced to be awake at least part of the day. Poppy learns that more than one hundred people died in the attack. The Descenters had set fire to many of the most opulent homes in the city, drawing guards away from the castle and the Rise (Hawke being one of them). This allowed them to gain easy entry to the city and to the castle. Even though the Ascended had eventually fought in the ballroom, they came too late and many who were in there still died. Poppy does nothing but think that if she had gone to her room instead of the gardens, Viktor could still be alive (but in the back of her head she knows that’s unlikely). Finally, Hawke makes a breakthrough with Poppy and convinces her that he knows how she feels and allows her to grieve openly. He also apologizes and reveals he has the same regrets as she does. If he hadn’t gone to put the fires out, he may have been able to save Viktor, who he respected very much regardless of their last fight. But Hawke also delivers a message - the duchess needs to speak to Poppy. Poppy, Hawke, and Tawny meet with the duchess, who tells them that Poppy has been called back to the capital. When Poppy asks if she’s to be punished for what happened with Mazeen, the duchess responds that she’s sure Poppy had her reasons for doing what she did. She all but confesses that she knew at least some of what the duke and the lord did to Poppy and entreats Poppy not to waste any regrets on them, the duchess certainly won’t be. Hawke and Poppy argue vehemently about bringing Tawny to the capital with them. Unfortunately for Poppy, Hawke gets to decide. He explains that they are going to be traveling as fast as possible with a small contingent of guards. Having Tawny with them would not be safe for her, since the guards would be expected to protect Poppy. To add insult to injury, Tawny says she doesn’t want to go. She wishes she felt differently, but the thought of being outside the Rise is too terrifying for her right now. So, they will go without Tawny. They end up taking six other men with them, a mixture of guards and huntsmen (who regularly travel outside the Rise), including two that Poppy played cards with at the Red Pearl and Kieran, who interrupted her and Hawke that night and who has a slight accent that matches Hawke’s. Poppy can’t ride a horse, so she will sit the same horse as Hawke. Before they leave, Hawke gives Poppy her dagger back. She thought she lost it the night of the attack and was bereft, it was a gift from Viktor and one of her favorites, but Hawke had found it and cleaned it, then saved it to give it to her when he thought it was safe. They travel across the land where people no longer live - although they once did. They pass through areas where barrats hunt (two-hundred-pound rodents) and enter the Blood Forest. An unnatural place where the leaves of the trees don’t fall and the floor is littered with the bones of animals and humans and Craven. Where the Craven roam. Their group will rest there for the night. Hawke lays with her and things escalate between the two of them. In the morning, as they prepare to continue on, Kieran warns Hawke to remember what he’s doing - more than once. They start bright and early the next morning, hoping that they will be able to get out of the Blood Woods before nightfall, and things start off well. Poppy starts to notice groups of rocks on either side of the path, they were laid there on purpose in specific designs, and they make her anxious. She turns to tell Hawke when a barrat springs out of the woods and pulls one of the huntsmen off his horse. It is killed quickly but they usually hunt in packs, so the group is eager to move on. They aren’t quick enough - but when the pack of barrats emerges, they are running from something and pay no attention to the humans. There’s only one thing that they could be running from, Craven. The mist has already started to roll in. They dismount and prepare to fight but the huntsman that was attacked by the barrat dies when a Craven attacks from nowhere. They all fight, and another huntsman is killed. At first, all Poppy has is her dagger, but soon she starts using the fallen huntsman’s sword. Poppy trips when one of her feet gets caught in the roots, but a guard that she had played cards with at the Red Pearl, Airrick, tackles the Craven that comes after her. Soon after, they’ve dispatched all the Craven, and Poppy sees that no one else has been hurt except for Airrick - who has been clawed and will not survive. She takes his pain away from him as they talk in his last moment, both Hawke and another guard, Phillips, sees her. Phillips realizes that she has the touch. They take a break outside of Three Rivers and get some sleep, then ride through to New Haven. They are greeted by someone named Elijah (who is definitely familiar with Kieran and Hawke) and Poppy is shown to her room by a woman named Magda. She’s told that the lord in charge of New Haven, Lord Halverston, has gone outside of the walls with the guards, making it sound as if it is commonplace. Not something the Teermans would ever have done. Poppy is fed and bathed but does not sleep until Hawke comes to her room. She wants to tell him about her gift. She explains how it works, that the only other person to have the ability was the first Maiden. Apparently, they were both born in “a shroud”. She tells him how her gift has been growing stronger, how she can usually control it but not always, how she was commanded by the queen not to tell anyone else, how other than the Teermans and the queen, only Viktor knew about it. Of how she uses it to ease the pain around her: the Cursed and their families, she would help Viktor with his headaches sometimes, Tawny, and how she has taken Hawke’s pain away for a short while. That she has felt his constant sadness although she tries not to read him. He thanks her for trusting him with this information and decides to leave her room before anything else happens between them, telling Poppy that she is the worthiest person he knows but that he is not. But before he can leave, Poppy asks him to stay with her that night. He tries to talk her out of it and makes sure she understands what she’s asking, but she doesn’t back down. They spend a sweet night together and by the end of it, Poppy is The Maiden but not A maiden. She’s sure she made the right decision, that regardless of what the gods think, she is worthy of happiness and love and compassion and all of the things she wants to be able to have. At the end, Hawke makes Poppy promise that no matter what happens she will remember this moment and that what they had was real. She wakes up in the morning to a light knock on her door, and Hawke answers it wearing just his pants. He tells her she can sleep for a while, but he has to deal with something and leaves the room. Poppy thinks about her future and realizes that she won’t ascend. She will refuse it like her mother did, even if it means exile. Soon, Phillips comes to her room and he’s freaking out. He and some of the other guards looked around last night, there are no Ascended in the whole keep. Two of the guards they brought with them went missing in the night. None of the guards had ever met Kieran until this trip, and they barely knew Hawke. Something is wrong and Phillips is going to get Poppy out. But Poppy trusts Hawke explicitly and thinks that maybe Phillips is a Descenter trying to take her. She wants to get to a more populated place before she tries to escape him, so she decides to go with Phillips, pretending to believe him. On the way, Kieran stops them. Phillips attacks and cuts Kieran’s stomach and thigh with his sword, which causes Kieran to transform from a man into a huge wolf beast. He’s a Wolven! Kieran chases Poppy and Phillips as they run, Phillips leads her to the stables and Poppy doesn’t really want to go there but definitely doesn’t want to stay with the wolf with the glowing blue eyes. Kieran howls and his howl is answered. Poppy and Philips make it to the stables where the last two guards, Luddie and Bryant, are waiting with the horses. They get the door closed just in time and begin to make a plan, but another man steps out from the shadows of the stables. It’s the man that killed Rylan, now missing a hand and showing his glowing eyes. He promised Poppy that the next time he saw her, he would kill her, and he’s here to make good on his promise. But the door blows open and in comes Hawke with a crossbow. He doesn’t kill the man missing a hand, but the three guards with Poppy. Then Hawke turns to the man with the missing hand and tells him he better not touch Poppy, calling him Jericho. Hawke has all of his emotions blocked from Poppy. He says that they need Poppy, and they need her alive. Poppy demands to know what’s happening but deep down, she already knows. Hawke is a Descenter, working with the Dark One and these Wolven. He insists that there is a lot that Poppy doesn’t know but admits that they were behind Rylan’s death, behind the death of the guard before Rylan, all so that Hawke could get close to her. She tries to escape and ends up fighting Hawke, she nails him in the mouth with a fist. When he opens his mouth, she sees two-pointed teeth. The reason he never really smiled - he’s an Atlantian. They detain Poppy and throw her into a prison cell although one of the Wolven, Delano, brings her some food soon after. Hawke comes in and can tell that she’s injured, a wound on her abdomen that could become infected. He forces her to allow him to treat it while telling her what he says is the true history of Solis and Atlantia. The Ascended have always said that the Atlantians created the Craven, that the gods gifted them with immortality to help defeat the Atlantians. But Hawke says that is not true. King Malec of the Atlantians was married to Queen Eloana. But he fell in love with a mortal named Isbeth. When Isbeth was mortally wounded (sources vary on who did the wounding) Malec committed a forbidden act and Ascended her. He drained her blood completely and then fed his blood to her, making her a vampry or what she calls an Ascended. While Atlantians are practically mortal until their early twenties when the Culling happens and they get their fangs and other attributes, they can go out in the daylight, unlike the Ascended. The Ascended have allowed the people to believe that the gods do not go out in the day, so the Ascended follow their example to honor them, but in truth their flesh would melt away and they would die if they went into the sun. Hawke tells Poppy that Atlantians do not feed on mortals, only other Atlantians. But the vampry can become blood thirsty and often drain the mortals they feed upon, creating the Craven. They have the third children dedicated to the priests, but those children are never seen again because the vamprys feed off them and the children die. It is why no one is allowed in the temples other than the priests, priestesses, and Ascended. But a vampry cannot create another vampry. To create more Ascended, they have Atlantians that they hold hostage and use them for the Ascending, since the mortals have to be drained and then drink the Atlantian blood. Hawke knows they do this because he was one of those hostages for years until Prince Malik rescued him, but Malik is held hostage now instead. The plan is to trade Poppy for the prince. Giving her back to the awful people he just told her about. Delano, her resident Wolven jailer, and an Atlantian named Naill come downstairs to take her to a more comfortable room on Hawke’s orders. Just as Poppy’s chains are removed, they are interrupted by Jericho and this time he brought friends, including Mr. Tulis, the man who petitioned the Teermans to be able to keep his third son. Naill, Delano, and Poppy fight for Poppy’s life but soon Naill is knocked unconscious, and Delano is badly injured. Poppy fights but is no match, she’s quickly overtaken by Jericho and Mr. Tulis. She is dying from a stomach wound and can hear Jericho taunting her about all the ways he is going to make her pay, but suddenly he stops talking. She doesn’t understand what’s happening in her state but soon, Kieran is standing over her yelling for Hawke. Hawke arrives and tells Poppy that he will not allow her to die, regardless of the fact that she is, in fact, dying. He uses his teeth to pierce his skin and asks her to drink his blood, but she doesn’t want to. She doesn’t want to become Craven. He has already told her the truth, that she won’t become Craven if she drinks from him. But by doing what he asks, she will have to accept that what Hawke is saying is true. She drinks (partly because he compels her to) and once she starts, she doesn’t want to stop. And true to his word, she does not become Craven. Once the aftereffects of the blood have worn off and Hawke is speaking to her in her room, Poppy realizes one other thing. Kieran tried to stop Hawke because doing what he did is forbidden. It is what Malec did to Isbeth. Kieran also called Hawke Casteel as Poppy drank his blood. Hawke is Prince Casteel, the Dark One, brother to Prince Malik. She becomes enraged again, but this time Hawke is unprepared for what she has, and she manages to stab him in the chest. Then Poppy runs but is wholly unprepared for the grief she feels about killing Hawke. She makes it outside of the city, but she’s quickly caught - by Hawke. He lets her know that Atlantians can be killed with a dagger through the head, but not the heart. Then he feeds on her (she doesn’t consent to it at first, but she definitely likes it). He feeds just a little, not enough to do anything, but he discovers something about her in her blood, saying that he should have known. He should have known since he first met her, since she first took his pain away, why the Ascended wanted her as their Maiden so badly. He explains that he did lie to her, but that everything between them was real - he has felt drawn to her since their first meeting. And now, he’s going to take her back to her room. And later, he’s going to take her to Atlantia. Which she thought had been decimated but is actually found over the Skotos mountains, protected by a mist. Poppy gets to clean up in a bath and really gets to thinking while she’s in there. What Hawke, no, Casteel said about the Ascended is true. They are vamprys. But she can’t believe that her brother Ian is like the others, she refuses to think that of him. She can’t go back to the Ascended now that she knows the truth, but she can’t go to Atlantia either, where everyone will hate her as she is a symbol of the Ascended. She can’t trust Casteel. Sure, he likes her, but he has caused the death of so many that she loved, and plenty that she did not! And she tried to kill him - which he’s still angry about but claims to understand why. And worst of all, she thinks she might be in love with him. Poppy falls asleep, first in the bath where Kieran wakes her, thinking she might be dead, then later on her bed. She wakes up to find Casteel next to her. He tells her she needs to come to dinner, to show the rest of his people that she is not to be trifled with. She says no (out of stubbornness mostly) but eventually relents. What she sees when they go down to dinner shocks her. All the people who attacked her are dead and pinned to the wall except for Jericho, who is pinned to the wall but not yet dead. She confesses to Casteel and anyone else who can overhear, including Kieran, Niall, and Delano, that she does not feel bad that they’re dead but believe they deserved (and still deserve) dignity. Casteel reveals what he figured out when he bit Poppy that she is at least part Atlantian. It makes her powers, and her survival of the Craven attack, make more sense. One of her parents was Atlantian. Normally, they would have a fully mortal child but occasionally, someone like Poppy is born. And now they all need to get to Atlantia, because he and Poppy can’t be married unless they’re standing on Atlantia soil.