Overview

Sybil, Rory, the gargoyle, Benji, and Maude descend into the cliffs, navigating bioluminescent sprite-lit caverns and lethal traps to find the Heartsore Weaver. Split between tunnels, Sybil, Rory, and the gargoyle are swept into a pit where Rory loses his guiding coin, and Sybil is lured onward by moths to a hidden chamber. There Sybil discovers One’s body and confronts the Heartsore Weaver, who reveals the abbess Aisling’s deceptions and the truth about the Omens and gargoyles. At the Weaver’s request, Sybil kills her; before dying, the Weaver says her loom stone was returned to Aisling and identifies the first Diviner as “little Bartholomew.”

Full Summary

After dropping through a narrow hole into a vast, dark cavern, Sybil, Rory, and the gargoyle orient themselves by the glow of luminous silkworm sprites. Benji arrives via the inkwell’s magic and helps Maude down. The group proceeds with Rory leading and the gargoyle in the rear until they reach three tunnels marked by aged weavings that depict silkworms, cocoons, and moths. They split: Benji and Maude take the first tunnel, while Sybil, Rory, and the gargoyle follow the moth-marked third tunnel.

In the tight, dark passage, the gargoyle inadvertently tugs a thick thread embedded in the wall, triggering a flood that sweeps the trio into a hidden pit. They crash onto a bed of gold above concealed pikes; Rory’s breastplate is dented and his guiding coin is lost. The gargoyle secures a rope and helps pull Sybil and Rory out. Despite Sybil’s protests, Rory strips his armor to dive back into the deep black pool to search for his stone coin, leaving Sybil and the gargoyle at the lip of the pit.

While Rory searches underwater, Sybil and the gargoyle sense movement and hear the distinctive clacking footsteps. A pale moth flutters to Sybil’s face and retreats, leading her onward. Telling the gargoyle to wait for Rory, Sybil crawls through a constricting passage guided by dozens of moths and emerges into an oblong chamber open to the night sky. The chamber’s walls are hung with countless weavings and dotted with white cocoons; on a stone bench lies One, naked, shrouded-eyed, and cold, unmistakably dead.

A stone-bodied, goat-headed, winged Omen steps from the shadows: the Heartsore Weaver. She bids quiet for her sleeping moths and denies having a loom or loom stone, explaining that she once wove fine silk and tended the caverns. She indicates a favored gossamer weaving—diviner shrouds—and describes how, every ten years, gargoyles bring dead Diviners from Aisling, whom she lays to rest in her caves. Sybil, devastated by One’s fate, confronts the Weaver and demands the loom stone, vowing to reclaim power from false gods.

The Weaver tells her story. The tor’s spring birthed five magical objects—a coin, inkwell, oar, chime, and loom stone. Her loom stone could render her invisible and teleport within line of sight, or, when reversed, return her human memories. Years after aiding the abbess—once a shroud-wearing stonemason—by weaving silk robes for a “foundling” she called a Diviner, the Weaver used the loom stone to remember her human life and found her loved ones aged or gone. She renounced the role of Omen, whereupon the abbess took back the final robe, cut off the spring water, and left her to starve. Over nine years, the Weaver’s body painfully transformed into living stone. Coins from Aisling’s coffers piled in her pits as empty homage while she grappled with time, memory, and isolation.

Condemning the abbess’s cruelty and sanctified control—punishing doubt and feeding Omens with Diviners’ blood—the Weaver names the abbess as Aisling herself, calling her the sixth Omen who cloaks tyranny in holiness. She asks Sybil to give her the mercy Aisling denied: a final end. Sybil raises hammer and chisel and strikes the Weaver at the heart, shattering her stone body blow by blow as cocoons tremble and moths begin to hatch, their pale wings taking flight around One and the dying Omen.

With her body breaking, the Weaver thanks Sybil and reveals the loom stone was returned to Aisling on the tor when the Weaver became a gargoyle-like being. Rory and the gargoyle’s distant cries echo as Sybil, reeling, learns that the tor’s gargoyles are not sprites, and hears that the first gargoyle was once a “peculiar boy.” As the Weaver’s final breath fades, she recalls his name—Bartholomew—the abbess’s foundling and the first Diviner—just as newborn moths flood the chamber.

Who Appears

• Sybil — protagonist Diviner; leads part of the exploration, discovers One’s body, confronts and kills the Heartsore Weaver, learns key truths about Aisling and the loom stone.
• Rory — knight; guides the group, is swept into a pit and injured, loses his coin and dives to retrieve it while Sybil is led away by moths.
• The gargoyle — Sybil’s companion; triggers the flood by pulling a thread, rescues Sybil and Rory with a rope, waits for Rory, and later calls out for Sybil.
• Benji — king; accompanies the descent and explores a separate tunnel with Maude.
• Maude — ally; pairs with Benji to scout a different tunnel.
• One — Sybil’s fellow Diviner; found dead on a stone bench in the Weaver’s chamber.
• The Heartsore Weaver — Omen; stone-bodied weaver in the cliffs; reveals the origin and powers of the loom stone, Aisling’s identity and deceptions, and asks Sybil to kill her; dies after Sybil strikes her.
• Aisling — abbess; identified as the sixth Omen and architect of the tor’s lies, starvation of Omens, and the practice of delivering dead Diviners; holds the loom stone.
• Bartholomew — the abbess’s foundling and first Diviner; revealed by the Weaver to be the first gargoyle; name invoked as the Weaver dies.