Sierra’s Reviews > One Dark Window > Status Update

Ione lies when Hauth asks what’s wrong w Elspeths arm saying it happened when they were horseback riding. Ione & Hauth do not seem like they like each other at all.

The party is crashed when an infected child is reported to Hauth, he wants to make an example out of them for parents who don’t report their infected kids…In front of everyone he whips the dad in front of the mom…then takes their charms away, makes them walk into the mist- sentencing them to death. They bring the infected son to watch his parents go & then he’ll be brought to the dungeons where he’ll die too.
Elspeth begs Elm to stop Hauth, tells him that he could overpower Hauth with his scythe.
The brothers go scythe for scythe, controlling the partygoers & halting the parents walking into the mist while fighting. Hauth demands Elm to stand down, he’s distracted when Jesper & Ravyn finally come join the chaos, allowing Hauth to get the upper hand.
With Elm thrown off, he looses control of the parents & the partygoers- the parents walking into the mist & everyone else starts running to get away from the fight.
Ravyn starts commanding the Destriers but some stay on Hauth’s side, Elspeth gets crushed in the crowd of people scrambling…has to ask Nightmare for help…
The Nightmare helps Elspeth get the infected boy away from the Destriers- attacks them & runs into the mist w the boy. She gives him a charm & tells him to find his parents. (They’re never found, whole family lost to the mist)
A destrier on Hauth’s side, Linden, follows her into the mist, the nightmare takes way too much control this time , slashes Linden w its claws right in the throat. Elpeth starts freaking out cause she didn’t intend to do that much damage, runs away & right into Ravyn..he calms her down but sees that her eyes are yellow & hands covered in blood…

Ravyn wipes the blood off her hands, Linden is brought to the physicians & survives. Elpeth says she can’t tell Ravyn why her eyes turn yellow, he’s a little offended she doesn’t trust him.
He brings her back to the castle, him & Hauth get into it- Ravyn is pissed he would do something like that- Hauth thinks he’s in the right. Ravyn tells the Destriers to tell him immediately if anymore infected children are reported.

Emory runs away from Castle Stone(Kings castle), walks all the way to Castle Yew in the night.
When Elspeth, Ravyn & elm get there, Emory shares his theories on the history of Yews & Rowan’s- he believes Yews are descendants of the Shepard King. His theory: the Shepard King built the castle that’s in ruins now on the Yew property, the First Rowan King destroyed his castle, stole the crown & outlawed magic. That the Yews are the true rulers of the crown.
Emory is on the brink of death- losing his mind & his body slowly deteriorating.

Ravyn & elpeth finally hook up. The next day Ravyn, Elm & Jespyr take Emory back to Stone, his illness getting worse.
Elpeth has been having nightmares of children running from a fire, she pushes them through the window of the chamber in the ruins.
The nightmare makes her sleepwalk sometimes, this time he takes her to the chamber & digs near the base of the stone- Elspeth sees that it’s a gravestone- the Shepard Kings grave.

Abt a week later everyone goes to the Spindle Castle for the twins name day. Ione gets everyone to gather & cheers for the occasion- Elm notices her eyes are glazed over & she’s being controlled by Hauth’s scythe. He comes in, pulls out a Chalice card (turns liquid to truth serum)…everyone’s already drank their wine from the toast…

They play a game, everyone goes around in a circle asking questions, the Chalice forces them to be truthful. Hauth admits he’s trying to turn the Destriers against Ravyn & wants to challenge him for his role as Captain.
Ione admits she doesn’t love Hauth at all, just wants power. Hauth admits he cheats on her…
Hauth asks elpeth what happened to her arm, Ravyn breaks his promise & uses his scythe to get inside her head, tries helping her avoid the truth. Elpeth doesn’t let him help, she just wants him out of her head before he notices the Nightmare- who screams at Ravyn to get out- scaring the shit outta him.
Jespyr & Hauth start fighting, Ione taps the chalice card- releasing Elspeth from telling the truth. Ravyn is pissed & says this was an ambush, not a game.
Elpeth throws up a shit to of blood after the chalice is used on her, they have to give her an antidote.

When she wakes, she tells Elm & Ravyn abt Nightmare inside her, lets Ravyn use his nightmare card to get into her head, he talks w the Shepard kings soul. Shepard King says he’s always protected Elspeth but all magic comes at a price.

Erik comes to see Elspeth in her chambers, he gives her his Well Card- her mother gave it to him when they married & now that Elspeth is courting Ravyn, Erik wants her to have it. It’s very obvious Erik loved her mom very, very much & still feels the loss of her intensely.
Funny that he just handed it over to her while they were planning to steal it this whole time 😅

Ravyn is sent on patrol. Tyrn comes to Elspeth saying her aunt opal is up in her room & wants to see her..when they go up Hauth is waiting for her. He was able to get Tyrn to rat Elspeth out so he knows she’s infected, he’s onto Ravyn & wants Elspeth to help him ruin ravyns plan.
He brings Orthe in to test her blood, confirms she’s infected, then Hauth plans to snitch to the King, get Ravyn in trouble for hiding her infection. Elpeth calls on Nightmares help but he warns her that he’s too close to taking over complete control of her…she says to help anyway…
She hears the Destriers coming back from patrol, Nightmare tries helping her fight but she’s too weak by this point, Hauth overpowers her & cracks her head open. Meanwhile Ravyn just got back, he’s using his nightmare card to talk to her, asking where she is. She warns him that he can’t save her, that Hauth’s using her as bait to get to him, to just find the cards & save Emory…
She even encourages the nightmare to take over her body, saying she’s too tired to go on & they both knew it was inevitable. The nightmare cares for her, tells her to get up so many times, tries saving her but she’s too weak, drifts off into visions of what happened to the Shepard King…
When the Rowan king took the throne, they burned all the infected children…

When she wakes her eyes are yellow, Ravyn is still calling to her, Orthe & Hauth trying to wake her…She’s become one w the Shepard King now, allowing the him to rise again. They kill Orthe & crush Hauth’s face in. Now that the Shepard King has risen again he’ll bring death to all Rowan’s. Before elpeth fades into the darkness she makes him promise to help the Yews, to protect Ravyn & save Emory.