Overview

Six confronts the Ardent Oarsman on his water-bound platform despite her inability to swim, armed with Maude’s armor and her own hammer and chisel. The Oarsman weaponizes the basin with his oar, brutalizes Six, and admits to drinking a Diviner brought a week prior. Six dislodges her shroud in the struggle, stuns him with the sight of her eyes, and drives her chisel into his heart. As he dies, he declares the Diviners dead and collapses the platform, sending Six into the water.

Full Summary

As the duel begins, Benji, Maude, and Rory react with alarm to the revelation that Six cannot swim. Maude lashes out at the gargoyle, who flees in distress, but Benji insists on faith in Six and warns that losing the coin or inkwell in the basin would be irreversible. Rory centers his attention on Six, leaving the decision to proceed to her.

Six steels herself and returns Rory’s coin, choosing her familiar hammer and chisel as weapons. The gargoyle returns, contrite and devoted, bringing her hammer and chisel and vowing to carry her burdens as her squire. Maude arms Six further with her battle-axe but Six ultimately commits to her own tools. Rory privately offers a comforting story about a cynical knight who learns to believe, promising to dive in if she falls, and teasing a kiss after victory.

Six boards the chained boat, and the Ardent Oarsman hauls her across the basin to his platform. He proclaims that any aid from her companions will forfeit the challenge and her life, forcing Benji, Maude, the gargoyle, and an enraged Rory to hold back on the shore. The Oarsman taunts Six about her tools and the vanished Diviners, then dips the blade of his oar to unleash waves, wind, and hail, revealing the oar’s dual magic: teleportation when the handle touches water and violent hydromancy when the blade enters.

Amid crashing waves and a tilting platform, the Oarsman batters Six, knocking the wind from her and striking her head and hip. He seizes her, tears at her armor, bites her neck, and revels in the taste of Aisling’s spring water in her blood. While her companions wrestle with the urge to intervene, Six head-butts him free and demands to know about “the other one.” The Oarsman admits that every ten years a Diviner arrives, that he drinks the blood they carry, and that a Diviner came barely a week ago.

He smashes Six’s helmet, and the force tears away her shroud into the storm. Seeing her unshrouded eyes stuns the Oarsman into a brief stillness. Six lunges, closes the distance, and, after a violent clash, pins him and drives her chisel into his chest, striking his heart. Bleeding out, the Oarsman stares at her eyes in disbelief, says he did not think he could die, and confesses he took the recent Diviner into his castle and drank her.

When Six demands the truth of the Diviners, he repeats that they are dead. With a final gasp—“And so are you”—the Oarsman slams his oar into the platform, splintering it beneath Six. She loses her footing, clings to her hammer and chisel as the structure collapses, and falls into the basin’s water.

Who Appears

• Six (Bartholomew) — protagonist/Diviner; fights the Ardent Oarsman on his platform, loses her shroud, wounds him mortally with hammer and chisel, and falls into the water.
• Rory Myndacious — knight/mentor; offers a motivating story and vow to rescue Six if she falls, restrains himself from intervening due to the duel’s terms.
• Maude — ally; equips Six with her armor and battle-axe, argues about swimming risk, helps hold Rory back.
• Benji — ally; urges faith in Six, warns about losing relics in the basin, helps restrain the gargoyle.
• The gargoyle — companion; initially flees after being shouted at, returns with Six’s hammer and chisel, vows to carry her weapons, is restrained from intervening.
• Ardent Oarsman — antagonist/Omen; manipulates water with his oar, bites Six, admits to drinking Diviners (including one from a week ago), is killed by Six’s chisel, and destroys the platform as he dies.
• The recent Diviner — victim; mentioned as arriving a week prior, taken to the castle and killed by the Oarsman.