Children of Fallen Gods Recap

Children of Fallen Gods at a glance

Zeryth takes power

After the events of Daughter of No Worlds, Tisaanah, Max, Nura, Sammerin, and the Threllian refugees return toward Ara. Tisaanah is still bound by her Blood Pact with the Orders, which means she is now obligated to help them fight.

When they arrive, Ara has changed. They are attacked by soldiers and saved by the Syrizen, eyeless magical guards, who take them to Korvius, Max's homeland.

There they learn that Zeryth has launched a coup. Queen Sesri is dead, officially by accident, and a contract signed before her death gives the throne to the Arch Commandant of the Orders if she is incapacitated. Zeryth and Nura had helped make Sesri unpopular, but Zeryth betrayed Nura and seized power while she was away.

Tisaanah is trapped by Zeryth's curse

Zeryth has taken over Max's family estate and is fighting opposition from Atrick Aviness, Sesri's cousin. He tells Tisaanah that she will help him win the war.

The threat is not abstract. Zeryth reveals a tattoo on his wrist: a curse linking his life to Tisaanah's. If Zeryth dies, Tisaanah dies too.

Max is furious. He is also angry to learn that Moth, his apprentice, enlisted while they were gone. Zeryth insists that Max lead the army, and Max agrees only if Moth stays with him.

The war grinds everyone down

Months pass with Max leading Zeryth's campaigns and Tisaanah working from Korvius. Max struggles at first to connect with the soldiers, but eventually earns their respect as a leader.

Privately, Max keeps trying to find a way to break the curse binding Zeryth and Tisaanah. Publicly, he takes down Aviness's support piece by piece.

Tisaanah uses Reshaye's power to create terrifying illusions that force early surrenders. The magic is effective, but it leaves her violently sick afterward. Nura begins helping Tisaanah recover, which Reshaye hates.

A'Maril and the Zorokov threat

The cost of deep magic becomes clearer when Eslyn, one of the Syrizen, dies of A'Maril, a disease caused by humans wielding deep magic for too long.

Zeryth is also showing signs of dangerous magical corruption. His use of dark magic leaves him sick, paranoid, and increasingly unstable.

Meanwhile, the Threllian refugees are threatened by the Zorokov family, Threllian nobles connected to the violence Tisaanah caused when she killed Esmaris and Ahzeen. The Zorokovs threaten to kill enslaved people unless they receive Tisaanah's head.

To buy time, Tisaanah, Nura, and Sammerin use Eslyn's severed head and magically alter it to look like Tisaanah. They send it to the Zorokovs as a brutal false offering.

Max and Tisaanah reunite

After a major battlefield setback, Max returns to Korvius and finally gets time with Tisaanah again. Their reunion is shaped by relief, exhaustion, and the emotional strain of the war.

They also travel to Ilyzath, an ancient magical prison, to meet Vardir, the person who originally helped Max bond with Reshaye.

Vardir does not give them a clean answer about the curse, but he warns that someone is coming for them. Ilyzath itself also seems to want Max, insisting that he belongs there.

Tisaanah is kidnapped

Aviness's men ambush Tisaanah and take her captive. Max goes after her alone.

To rescue her, Max uses deep magic and reveals strange side effects, including his second eyelids. He destroys his way through the palace and reaches Tisaanah.

Nura ignores Max's order not to interfere and brings the army into the fight. Aviness, realizing he has lost, dies by suicide. His death effectively ends that stage of the war.

Reshaye saves Tisaanah

Back in the capital, Zeryth hosts a victory party. Then he summons Tisaanah, Max, and Nura for a private meeting.

Zeryth is unraveling. He tries to kill Max, and Tisaanah desperately calls on Reshaye to help break the curse.

Reshaye kills Zeryth. That should kill Tisaanah too, but Reshaye sacrifices itself to save her. Max uses his own magic to keep Tisaanah alive.

Reshaye's death is not just the loss of a weapon. By this point, the book has made clear that Reshaye is a wounded, sentient being with its own history and grief.

Aefe and the origin of Reshaye

The book also follows Aefe, a Fey from the House of Obsidian. Aefe is Essnera, which means she can steal magic from others by drinking their blood.

Aefe's storyline reveals the truth behind Reshaye. Humans kidnapped Aefe and experimented on her hundreds of years earlier, eventually turning her into the entity known as Reshaye.

Caduan, Aefe's former lover, is now King of the Fey. He wants revenge on humanity, and his path is now moving toward Tisaanah, Max, Ara, and the human world.

The pit battle and the Fey King's takeover

Max faces Nura in a magical pit battle for leadership of the Orders. During the fight, Max opens his second eyelids, allowing a deeper connection to the magic he has been trying to control.

The Fey King hijacks that connection and takes control of Max.

Tisaanah reaches into Max's mind and manages to sever the connection, but the effort nearly kills him. The victory does not leave Max free.

The ending

After the pit battle, Nura captures Max and locks him in Ilyzath, the prison that had already claimed he belonged there.

Aefe wakes in her Fey body, and Caduan tells her it is time for revenge. Nura becomes Queen of Ara and remains deeply involved with dark magic.

Tisaanah survives, but Max is imprisoned, Reshaye is gone, the Fey King is rising, and the war has expanded far beyond Zeryth's coup.

Where everyone ends up

What matters for Mother of Death and Dawn

• Max is imprisoned in Ilyzath.
• Reshaye is gone, but Aefe is awake again.
• Caduan, the Fey King, is moving against humanity.
• Nura is now Queen of Ara and is still dangerous.
• Tisaanah survived the curse, but the cost was enormous.
• Deep magic, A'Maril, and the history of human experiments on the Fey are now central to the trilogy.

Next in the series

Continue with Mother of Death and Dawn, book 3 in the War of Lost Hearts trilogy. For series context, use the War of Lost Hearts series hub or the Carissa Broadbent author hub.