Alan returns to Tymofarrar, after stopping in town to be healed by a local cleric, and informs him that the witch is dead. Tymofarrar wonders aloud why he should not simply slay Alan where he stands, now that he has served his purpose.

"Because you don't know what I have in my pocket," Alan said. With that, he drew forth the Phylactery of Ice and dashed it on the ground. Instantly, he assumed the form of a frost giant, and his sword grew to match. Tymofarrar roared with rage and fear, and breathed forth a cloud of ice that cracked the stone at Alan's feet; but his sky-blue skin did not feel the chill, and with a mighty blow he cleaved off the wyrm's head.

After raiding the dragon's hoard and retrieving his stolen artifact (an enchanted mask), Alan goes to Deekin's hideaway in the sacked village of Blumberg and tells it that he has slain the dragon. The kobold gives him the artifact it stole, a statue of a tower, which broke when the kobold dropped it on the ground, revealing that it contained a crystal that radiates powerful magic.

"Deekin thank you, mighty hero," the kobold said. There was a sadness in its voice, though.

"Why do you sound so sad?" Alan asked. "Your master is dead now; you are free."

"Deekin a little sad because without Boss... who tell Deekin what to do?"

Alan leaves Deekin to consider this question and returns to Drogan's home. Under Mischa's care the dwarf has almost entirely recovered from his poisoning, and he asks Alan if he has recovered the artifacts. Alan says he recovered all but the hand of Balpheron, and hands them over. Examining the tower statue, Drogan says that breaking the statue has revealed the true nature of the artifact, but he does not know exactly what it is. He does, however, know who would.

"You must go to Garrick Halasahr; he's studying ruins in the Anauroch Desert. He will know the answer."

"Why send me instead of going yourself?"

"Because our enemies are watching me. If I go, they will strike – but if I send you, they may not know your true purpose. After all, it is not unreasonable that I would send away a Fallen paladin." Drogan looked at Alan piercingly, then, and Alan could see that he knew everything.

Alan felt sick. "I- I didn't mean to do it," he said pathetically, as he had every time Drogan had turned that look on him.

"Don't apologize to me, boy. You still have a purpose to serve... and in it you may find redemption for your deeds."

With that, the chapter ends, as does the first section of the book. There's a brief interlude: Deekin manages to persuade a halfling caravan to take him on, despite his clanmates having killed three of their crew. When he meets their fortuneteller, she reads his palm and tells him that "one day, you will be truly free – but not until you know who you are."

The adventure resumes with Alan traveling with the caravan. He discovers Deekin is traveling with them, and feeling the need for some support, takes him on as a minion. The caravan's guide is kidnapped by scorpionfolk called "stingers"; Alan and Deekin trek through their caverns, defeating a manticore in the process, and bring back the guide. Then, the caravan runs out of water near an oasis controlled by the Bedine, but the oasis is dry due to an ancient Netherese lich's curse, and the pair are forced to investigate the lich's tomb. But the lich engages Alan in conversation; he says that there is no reason for them to quarrel, and that he will restore the oasis if Alan will kill the Bedine tribesfolk and free the lich to roam the land once more. Alan, feeling manipulated by the Bedine, agrees. He massacres the tribe in their temple to Lathander, and is rewarded with a corrupted Holy Avenger for his trouble. Deekin takes the time to note that he participated in the slaughter as well, and it may haunt him to the end of his days.

Finally, they reach the Aoist encampment where Garrick Halasahr has been staying while he studies a nearby Netherese ruin. Alan finds the scholar severely wounded; he says that while investigating an inert portal in the ruins, a cloaked figure appeared, summoned several dozen slaadi who slaughtered his team and nearly killed him as well, and told them to search for a Mythallar, a magical crystal very much like the one Alan is currently carrying. She then activated the portal and went through, claiming that "limitless power" was hers for the taking on the other side.

Garrick recommends that Alan flee this place with the crystal while the scholar contacts Drogan, but Alan disagrees; he's come this far, he's going to kill this cloaked figure himself and end the threat she poses forever. So Alan heads into the ruins, fighting his way through the slaadi, and comes to the portal room. Drogan teleports in. He explains that he's found out who the cloaked figure is: Heurodis, an apprentice of Balpheron. She seeks to recover the ancient power of Netheril, by using the portal to teleport to an untouched ruin and plunder its artifacts.

"I'm sorry to ask this of you, my boy," Drogan said, "but we must join forces to defeat this threat. Are you with me?"

Alan knew by now that helping people without getting anything in return was a losing bet. But Balpheron's hand spoke silently from within his pack.

:If Heurodis, my least talented disciple, could gain ultimate power from this place she has gone... what could you gain?:

So Alan helps Drogan to activate the portal, only for Drogan to cry out in pain. Heurodis laid a trap on the portal before she went through: when activated, it drains the life from the one who activated it. The dwarf dies slowly and painfully, and Alan and Deekin go through. They arrive at a location filled with lifelike statues.

"Old dwarf wizard... he sacrifice self for Alan and Deekin?" Deekin asked as they walked through the field of statues.

"He sacrificed himself for me," Alan said. "And you happened to be there, yes."

"Nobody ever do something like that for Deekin before," the kobold said. "You be very good to Deekin, but dwarf wizard... he dead now. It just... Deekin not sure how to write this in epic story of boss."

Alan considered.

"Write that he was a fool, and that he sacrificed himself for one who did not deserve it."

And this may have been true.

They reach a buried ruin, atop which is the cloaked figure of Heurodis. She takes off her hood, revealing the face of a medusa, and the pair turn to stone. She takes the Mythallar off their bodies, and retreats into the ruined city of Undrentide. The second act ends.

The third act begins with the statues being taken into the ruins by lizardfolk treasure-hunters, who reverse their petrifaction and release them into the ruins to destroy some golems who have been hindering the lizardfolk's treasure-hunting efforts. Instead, they kill the lizardfolk and go into the central building of the city, the Temple of Winds, which has a central spire warded by a wall of force put in place by Heurodis. They determine that in order to enter that central spire, they will need to collect three relics from the towers scattered around the city: the Wise Wind from the Great Library, the Dead Wind from the Crypt Tower, and the Dark Wind from the Arcanist's Tower. In order to retrieve the Wise Wind, they use an artifact that lets them travel into a book; the Dead Wind is a straightforward dungeon crawl; and to get the Dark Wind, they find a mirror that can be used to transport themselves into the Plane of Shadow, and fight a lich in the shadowy reflection of the Arcanist's Tower. (There's also an informative interlude with a talking rat, the erstwhile familiar of the head archmage of the city, who explains that the city once flew through the skies, but crashed when the archmage of a rival city, Karsus, attempted to become a god by merging with the Weave, the essence of magic, and accidentally removed all magic from the world for a few minutes. Judging by the tremors, Heurodis is attempting to make the city fly once more.) With the three Winds, they enter the central spire and fight their way to the top as the city unearths itself from the desert sands.

"Big fight with scary snake lady is real close, huh?" Deekin asked.

"It certainly seems that way."

"Deekin wonders if he gets chance to finish epic tale of Alan Tagan. Snake lady might turn Deekin to stone again."

"Don't turn coward now, kobold," Alan growled.

"Deekin not running away! Deekin have to see how epic tale ends, otherwise have to just make stuff up. It just make Deekin think. Maybe Deekin still be here to finish epic story... but maybe Boss not be."

"Hah! Are you thinking of trying something you'll regret?"

"No, Deekin *faithful* kobold companion. Can't re-write major character trait now. Just in case something happen to Boss, though... Deekin think this be good time to say something." He inhaled deeply. "Boss... Alan. Even if you not a good person... I like you. I think you important."

They defeat Heurodis. She rises from the dead, fueled by the power of the Mythallar and invulnerable to attack.

Alan took the mirror from his pocket and opened the portal. The door to the Plane of Shadow yawned open, and he shoved Deekin into it. As Deekin fell, he saw Alan wrench the Mythallar from the medusa's hand and shatter it on the floor. With that act, Alan, the medusa, and the city of Undrentide were obliterated.

This is the second time in this story that I have no explanation for something that my companion did. I do not know why Alan saved me. Perhaps it was a desire for salvation: to perform a Good act before his death, and thereby regain the grace of Tyr. Perhaps he thought of me as a friend, despite his harsh manner. Perhaps he was simply ensuring that his story would be told.

Well, I have told his story. I have told the story of a boy who was young, and wicked, and did great and terrible things. I have told the story of another boy, who was weak and foolish and would have followed his friend into the very Hells. I do not think there is a moral, but perhaps I am wrong. I am not the arbiter of this story: I am merely the storyteller. And I am not done telling stories, but I am done telling this one. 

Gosh.

Belmarniss flips through her notebook to find titles of other things she'd like to read and hasn't gotten around to.

The Reaper is willing to conjure as many books as she would like.

The geas begins, after a few hours, to drain her. It feels like being tired, at first. Symptoms accumulate gradually: her muscles weaken and stop responding properly to her commands, she breathes heavily after the slightest movement, her mind feels uncharacteristically sluggish, and she feels a strange dissociation from herself, as if she doesn't know who she is very well anymore.

She doesn't like this. She tries a little bit to write about it but it's hard in more ways than one and eventually she flops over and applies herself to turning pages.

Each turn of the page feels like a mountain to be climbed. At one point, the book flips closed after a botched attempt.

"I can read to you aloud, if it grows difficult," the Reaper says without affect.

"Mmhm."

The Reaper begins to read to her.

His voice is slow and deep. He has some trouble differentiating character voices, but his narration is soothing.

Eventually she falls asleep.

She sleeps for a long time. When she wakes up, she can feel that the geas is gone, as are its negative effects.

"Greetings, Belmarniss," the Reaper says. "I hope you slept well."

"I can honestly say this is the best improvement from falling asleep to waking up I have ever experienced, so yes, I slept great. Thank you so much."

"It was the least I could do. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"You said Eilistraee talked to you, do you talk to gods much?"

"Not often. The gods know of me, but rarely do any but Kelemvor have need of my specific services."

"What are your services besides having this place for folks with the arrowhead?"

"That and sorting petitioners into the appropriate afterlife are the two tasks I am permitted," the Reaper says. "I am permitted no other activities of consequence."

"According to what do you sort them?"

"Alignment and worship," he says. "If the case is complicated, as with one who has betrayed their god but atoned, I give them to Kelemvor for further deliberation."

"On my planet the sorting deity is also the arbiter of alignments, how's that work here?"

"Alignment is, as far as we have been able to determine, an emergent property of the universe. It is not dictated by any one god."

"Huh. I guess that's both more and less frustrating. How do you tell who people worshipped or whether they did it hard enough?"

"It is part of my function that such things are visible to me; the facts that you are Chaotic Good and that you pray to Eilistraee are as obvious to me as the color of your skin or your magical aura. I do not know what you pray to her about, or the contents of your mind in any more generality."

"Huh. Does alignment switch abruptly when it switches?"

"It does not shift abruptly. There are infinite shades of grey between white and black, but my sight is fine enough to know where good turns to neutral turns to evil, and I judge accordingly."