The Song of Avisiéth
Part 5
Chapters 25-31
The Chariot
The Chariot is perfect for these chapters because everything in this stretch of the story revolves around control and willpower. Saeris is no longer reacting to the world around her. She is choosing. She is commanding quicksilver, forging relics, accepting power, and stepping into a role she never imagined for herself. Fisher is fighting his own internal war, wrestling with the effects of the quicksilver in his body, guilt, and a bond that is slowly making its way into his heart, Even the quicksilver itself embodies The Chariot’s energy, demanding worthiness, testing resolve, and forcing characters to prove who they are. These chapters are all about momentum, direction, and the fierce clarity that comes when a character decides to move toward destiny rather than away from it. The Chariot captures that shift perfectly, making it the ideal card for this turning point in the story.
Chapters 26–31 mark the moment Quicksilver stops teasing its mysteries and starts revealing them. We are picking up speed now! I am having a hard time putting the book down. Saeris steps deeper into a destiny. Fisher’s walls crack, the quicksilver begins to speak, a legendary blade is forged, and the war is coming to an end…maybe. These chapters are a whirlwind of intimacy, lore, heartbreak, and rising power. This is where the story sharpens, where we start seeing the consequences of choices that were made earlier on, and the truth lurking in the shadows begin to take shape.
Ballard
There is clearly something more than quicksilver humming beneath Kingfisher’s skin, because all these sudden trips to Te Léna are starting to feel excessive to me. It’s almost like he’s trying to outrun something, or hide something, or both.
This evening, he has a surprise destination for Saeris. He takes her to a small village called Ballard during one of its biggest festivals, and of course Saeris has an uncanny way of ruining the moment. It’s obvious this place holds fond memories for him, something he wanted to share, and the only thing she could think that he wanted was to burn it to the ground. But once she lets herself relax and actually see Ballard for what it is, she realizes this is what a home should look like. Warmth, laughter, community, a place untouched by war or fear. And in the middle of all this, I find myself increasingly invested in Malcolm’s story. His history with Fisher is far more tangled than we’ve been told so far.
Fisher, meanwhile, is drowning in guilt. When Saeris playfully calls him the Lord of Cahlish, his proper title, he recoils. He left his people for 110 years, and now they’re “on the wrong side of the Darn, baying for the blood of their own fucking children.” He believes he failed them, and that guilt weighs heavily on him. The evening itself is perfect: food, drinks, and the company of Wendy, a dear friend of Fisher’s who clearly adores him. But the moment shatters when Saeris suddenly hears Annorath Mor as a cacophony of voices. The phrase she doesn’t even realize she said aloud. Fisher asks her why she said it, but when she presses him for its meaning, he refuses to tell her. The secrecy is maddening. How much are you willing to bet it has something to do with either a death or new life?
They leave the festival and travel to yet another undisclosed location, eventually arriving at what I imagine to be a small, cozy cottage tucked away from the world. And the moment Saeris steps inside, it becomes clear: this was Fisher’s mother’s home. A place filled with memories a piece of himself he has kept hidden from her — until now.
Ash and Cinders
Saeris is ripped from sleep by screaming, and it’s Fisher. He’s begging someone or something to stop, and his pain is excruciating. He doesn’t want her to help him, and he doesn’t want her to get help either. He keeps trying to force her to leave, even threatening to compel her. Somehow, through sheer stubbornness and heart, she gets him to promise never to compel her again.
He stays locked in that delirious, agonizing state for hours, and it’s brutal to witness. To help take his mind off of whatever the quicksilver is doing to him, he asks Saeris to tell him something about her life before Yvelia. She shares a lot about her past; her father dying when she was two, her mother four months pregnant with Hayden, and the desperate turn her mother took to survive. And I have to say it: this storyline pissed me off. A prostitute? Didn’t she work at the library? Someone please correct me in the comments if I am miss remembering this. What is clear is that her mother, Iris Fane, eventually became involved in the resistance, smuggling weapons and hiding rebels. These are the same people who trained Saeris to fight. Saeris’s destiny is becoming a little more clear to me. Why would strange men who should have been “hiding” taking the time to teach Saeris swordplay and everything else in between?
When Iris grew tired of the vitriol in the ward, she refused to take guardians as patrons, they retaliated. They harassed her on her way to work, searched her bag, found tiny knives, and slit her throat. It’s after Iris was murdered that Madra declared the ward stricken with plague and locked it down. Saeris opens herself completely in this moment, and it unlocks something intimate between them. They fall asleep in each other’s arms, soft, unexpected, and painfully sweet. Before drifting off, Fisher tells her his mother was killed too. Layne told Saeris their mother died in childbirth. Can both be true? Belikon was so thirsty for an heir. Layne said that the healers wasn’t surprised that she didn’t survive the birth. I wonder what Belikon threatened their mother with to make her agree to sacrifice her life in that way.
Marked
Not Saeris waking up to Fisher’s morning wood! LOL. They are about to get busy! This time is different, very intimate. Are they reading each other’s minds? During their coupling, Fisher bites her, drinks her blood, (she asked for it. Begged really) and it’s everything Lorreth said it would be. I am dying to know what consequences this will bring, because nothing in this world happens without a cost.
At breakfast, Saeris notices her hands are covered in tattoos. When she asks what the symbols mean, Fisher is his usual evasive self at first. The mark on her left hand means “blessed one.” The symbols on her fingers represent alchemical elements: light, dark, silver, steel, earth, air, fire, and water. The mark on her right hand is the one he refuses to define. He cloaks the tattoos and tells her she has one month to decide whether she accepts them. If she chooses not to, they will disappear forever. I am convinced these are mating tattoos. The fact that he cannot make the Kingfisher tattoo vanish only strengthens my theory. And honestly, at this point in the book, you would have a hard time convincing me we won’t be talking about babies by the end.
Just Ask
We return to the forge with Saeris, who is at the end of her patience. She spends the morning throwing glass against the mountain in frustration, trying to work through yet another day of failed experiments. Carrion arrives with a surprisingly brilliant idea. Instead of forcing the quicksilver into a relic, why not simply ask it? It listens to her when she tells it to stop. It obeys when she commands it to shift from liquid to solid. His logic is sound, and it changes everything. Saeris and Carrion head to the war room, where Saeris begins an actual conversation with the quicksilver. It agrees to be reforged into a mighty blade unlike any other, but only in exchange for a song it can keep forever. It refuses to bless the sword with magic, claiming the honor is undeserved and that “we decided long ago.” Saeris pushes back, trying to persuade it, and eventually the quicksilver offers a compromise. It will taste the blood of the one who will carry the blade and decide for itself whether that person is honorable enough to receive its magic.
Ballad of The Arjun Gate
Saeris forges a sword so breathtaking it leaves the fae stunned. She engraves the words “By righteous hands, deliverance for the unrighteous dead,” and of course it is Lorreth who ends up bleeding on the blade. The moment his blood touches the metal, the quicksilver speaks again. “It is time. Give us our song.” I immediately wondered how Danya will react when she realizes her God sword now belongs to Lorreth. Under the shimmering Aurora — a sky lit like the aurora borealis — Lorreth begins to sing the Ballad of Ajun Gate, the story of how Fisher slew the dragon Omnamshacry. A song that he wrote, but never sang. It is no surprise that the quicksilver chooses him and deems him honorable. This is going to infuriate Danya, and honestly I am ready for it. Something tells me the quicksilver never would have granted her its magic anyway. And this revelation probably explains why Nimerelle still has power. The quicksilver chose Kingfisher too.
Lorreth names the sword Avisiéth, which I absolutely cannot pronounce, but the moment is so powerful I don’t even care. Right now, this is my favorite part of the entire book. The quicksilver blesses Avisiéth with magic, a blinding white light. The fae call it Angel’s Breath, and it is magnificent.
One thing to note here. No one except Saeris and the quicksilver remembers the Ballad of The Arjun Gate.
Swear It
Back at camp, Saeris lies wrapped in Fisher’s arms while he sleeps, and she tries to convince the quicksilver to leave him. It refuses. In that moment she finally understands that Fisher must have agreed to their binding fully aware of what it would cost him. Without the quicksilver, Fisher will die, and the weight of that truth settles heavily over the scene. Before she and Fisher can process it, chaos erupts. Renfis arrives with grim news: the vampires have returned. My entire soul lifted at the thought of seeing Lorreth’s new blade in action. Saeris refuses to be left behind this time and silently challenges Fisher to use compulsion.
She swears to do as he asks if the battle becomes to hairy. Fisher hands Saeris Solace, his father’s sword, and I absolutely squealed, and cried a little bit. I know how much this sword means to Fisher, which in turn shows what Saeris means to him.
This is the moment that dethrones every previous favorite. Tears. Actual tears. Fisher tells her, “Be unrelenting and unmerciful in the face of the wicked dead.” Ren places a steadying hand on her shoulder and adds, “And if you should find yourself sundered from flesh, order a drink for us at the first tavern you come across in the afterlife. We’ll settle the tab when we get there.”
OMG, I am all welled up with feelings just writing this.
I can see Ren and Fisher saying this to each other before every battle, a ritual forged in blood and brotherhood. The emotional weight of this exchange is enormous, and it lands with perfect force.
The Darn
As soon as this chapter begins, I can’t shake the feeling that Saeris is fae in some way. The signs keep stacking up, and every new revelation nudges the theory closer to certainty. The group barely has time to celebrate their win before the moment shatters. A woman’s voice cuts through the air, screaming for Kingfisher. It’s Everlayne, and she’s surrounded by vampires. I cursed out loud. The timing, the danger, the sheer panic of it all hits like a punch, and the chapter ends with the kind of cliffhanger that makes you want to throw the book across the room.
Theories from the Quicksilver
The midpoint of Quicksilver is finally giving us enough puzzle pieces to start seeing the shape of the larger truth, and I have thoughts. Big ones. The kind that make you want to flip back through earlier chapters to see what you missed. I really can’t wait for a reread. These chapters are packed with clues about Saeris, Fisher, the quicksilver, and the ancient magic connecting Yvelia and Zilvaren, and the more I sit with them, the more certain I am that everything is connected.
1. Saeris Is Not Human, at least not entirely.
The signs are everywhere. Her instinctive magic. Her connection to the quicksilver. The fact that she is an Alchemist. Madras tight grip on the third ward. The story keeps nudging us toward the idea that Saeris is fae or at least fae-adjacent. Something in her lineage is waking up.
2. The Quicksilver Has a Long Memory
The quicksilver speaks with the authority of something ancient. It remembers past decisions. It judges worthiness. It refuses to bless a blade until it tastes the blood of the one who will carry it. This is not a passive magical substance. It is a sentient force with its own agenda. The fact that it chose Lorreth, that it still empowers Nimerelle, and that it refuses to leave Fisher tells me it is playing a long game.
3. Fisher’s Binding Is Not Just the quicksilver being a villain, It Is Sacrifice
Fisher agreed to a bond that will kill him if the quicksilver leaves. That is not a casual choice. His guilt, and his refusal to explain certain truths all point to a past that is far darker than he lets on.
4. The Tattoos Are Not Just Marks, They Are Promises
The ink on Saeris’s hands is not decorative. It is symbolic, alchemical, and deeply personal. The left-hand mark naming her “blessed one” feels like a title. The right-hand mark, the one Fisher refuses to define, is the real key. He gives her a month to accept or reject it, and he cannot make the Kingfisher tattoo disappear. These are not just markings. They are commitments. They are bonds. They are choices that will shape her future. I am convinced they are mating tattoos.
5. The Song of Ajun Gate Is More Than Lore
The quicksilver demanded a song, and it chose the Ballad of Ajun Gate. This is not random. The story of Fisher slaying Omnamshacry is tied to the quicksilver’s judgment of honor. It also ties Fisher, Lorreth, Saeris, and the ancient magic together in a way that feels intentional. The quicksilver is using the past to shape the future. The song is a key, a memory, and a test all at once.
6. Everlayne’s Arrival Is Not Coincidence
She appears at the exact moment the group is celebrating a victory. She is surrounded by vampires. She is screaming for Kingfisher. This is not random. Everlayne knows something. Or she is carrying something. Or she is being used as bait. Whatever the reason, her arrival signals the start of the next major shift in the story.
The tension at this point in Quicksilver feels electric, the kind that coils low in the gut because every chapter hints that something larger and more dangerous is closing in. The conflicts reach new heights, from Saeris experiencing Fisher’s suffering, to the forging of Avisiéth to the return of the vampires, each revelation sharpening the stakes. Saeris is stepping into her power with confidence she didn’t have before and accepting Solace from Kingfisher is a game changer! Several scenes live rent free in my head, especially the forging of Avisiéth, Fisher giving Saeris his father’s sword, and the quiet intimacy of their shared vulnerability. The worldbuilding deepens with every chapter, revealing new layers of magic, ancient decisions made by the quicksilver, and hints that Saeris may not be who she thinks she is. If I were to pull a tarot card for this stretch of the story, it would be The Chariot, a symbol of willpower, forward momentum, and the moment a character stops running from destiny and starts steering it. With Everlayne’s scream cutting through the victory and vampires closing in, I’m bracing for a confrontation that will test every bond, every blade, and every truth the story has been building toward.
The story is racing toward its final act, and the momentum is impossible to ignore. We only have two more days of reading before this journey ends, and every chapter feels like it is tightening the thread around Saeris, Fisher, and the fate of Zilvaren and Yvelia. If you’re ready to see how these revelations unfold, join me in the next section as we step into the final stretch. The end is coming, and I have a feeling it will demand everything from these characters — and from us as readers.
