Hugh of Emblin/History

Info
**History**
Relationships
Quotes

## History

### Pre-Series

Hugh was born in Emblin, a country situated within the largest mana desert on the continent of Ithos. He was born to a father and mother who have yet to be named within the story and was brother to a younger sister. Hugh's family were merchants living in a region of Emblin called Cedarvale. Cedarvale is a small alpine village with a population nearing 400 persons. Due to their burgeoning lumber business, Hugh's father and mother were considered wealthy by the standards of the community. At age 10, Hugh's house went up in flames, burning down with the whole family inside. His father rescued him and then went back into the flames to save Hugh's mother and little sister. Hugh’s family, sans himself, then all perished in the fire, as the roof of their home gave way and collapsed.

Hugh was then taken in by his father's brother and his wife. His uncle's family led a much more modest lifestyle as sheepherders and had considerably more children, Hugh's cousins numbering eight children of indeterminate ages. Hugh was treated poorly by his relatives, his uncle and aunt prioritizing the care of the children over his well-being. This was explained by Hugh early during the narrative of Into the Labyrinth. Hugh specifically cites his aunt and uncles’ reluctance to spend money on him, his choice to always support their children’s arguments over his, as well as their choice to only supply him with second-hand clothes. Additionally, his fostering parents elected to ship him off to Skyhold the moment his magic made itself known and have made no attempt to contact him since his departure.

Later, during the events of The Siege of Skyhold, it is revealed that Hugh’s uncle and aunt utilized corporal punishment against him. Damaging the boy's back so thoroughly as to leave permanent scars.

### Into the Labyrinth

At the beginning of Into the Labyrinth, Hugh was hiding in the library from his bully and rival, Rhodes Charax, and is found and accosted by the boy and some other students. An unidentified librarian, dressed in robes Hugh notes as more ornate than the standard librarian robes, intervenes and chases the noble boy off. The librarian offered aid, in reporting the activities to Charax’s teachers, which Hugh declines, and the librarian recommends a better hiding place for Hugh, that being the stacks, the denser parts of the library. Hugh left the library shortly after and made his way to his cantrips lesson. Throughout the course of the cantrips lesson, it is made clear that Hugh has severe difficulties with magic, much to the amusement of his peers. This has made him an easy target for harassment from talented young mages such as Charax. Said harassment comes to a head as Hugh returns to his dormitory, finding his belongings, class materials, and bedding ransacked by, presumably, Charax and his cronies.

Hugh fled to the library and it is at this time he discovered his new room, a secret chamber within the stacks of the library. Hugh set his new space up and proceeded to return to class. An indeterminate number of weeks passed, and his anxiety about the upcoming Choosing Ceremony increased. This anxiety came to a head as the ceremony was conducted, Hugh’s heart had already fallen at the sight of Aedan Dragonslayer’s selection of Charax as his apprentice.

Hugh however was not chosen by a work crew, as he had assumed, and was chosen by Alustin Haber, Librarians Errant, the same librarian who saved Hugh weeks prior. Hugh was then, through Alustin, introduced to Talia of Clan Castis and Sabae Kaen Das, his fellow apprentices. The three of them learned of each other's magical struggles and affinities. Hugh specifically learned of his high-capacity mana and the reality that he is a warlock, a type of mage who lacks affinities but can gain them through a magical pact with a sufficiently powerful magic individual or item. Alustin introduced Hugh to spell form construction and set him on the path to adapting cantrips to handle his high mana output. Sabae introduced Hugh and Talia to Godrick, son of the archmage Artur Wallbreaker. The four of them decided to form a team for their final assessment for that school year, venturing into the Labyrinth.

The four of them progressed through their training at a steady pace and upon the advent of their assessment, they were judged sufficiently prepared enough to be the first to enter. Upon their venture into the Labyrinth beneath Skyhold, the team was confronted with a large gang of Imps and some other monsters, which they dispatched through coordinated combat. After retrieving their token, the team came face to face with Charax and his own delving team. During this confrontation, Hugh and his team narrowly avoided hitting the ground within a mana vent thanks to a well-timed levitation spell from Hugh. Charax and his team left Hugh’s team behind on the 5th floor. The four of them are then approached by Bakori, a demon who has stalked the bowels of the Skyhold Labyrinth for centuries. Bakori propositioned Hugh with a warlock contract, which he declined with the support of his team. After a number of close-call confrontations with moving statues and monsters, Hugh and the team end up in a small room, battered and beaten.

Hugh, after struggling with the prospect of calling for aid from Bakori, locates the pages he had taken from the index. Using said pages, Hugh formed a warlock contract through the Great Index. Hugh then utilized one of the new affinities he had gained to defeat an encroaching monster.

Hugh awoke days later after having overextended himself with his new magic. Alustin retrieved him from the infirmary and explained the deceptions that he had perpetrated against his apprentice to expose Bakori’s influence over Hugh. Alustin then brought Hugh to meet his new contracted partner, who is not the Great Index but is instead the High Librarian and last living founder of Skyhold, the Sphinx Kanderon Crux.

### Jewel of the Endless Erg

Hugh starts the second book running from Kanderon as she launches crystals at him, watched by his friends and Alustin. Hugh and his friends make his way back into Skyhold worrying about the crowds who know about him falling into the depths of the Labyrinth. Hugh packs his few possessions for the trip Alustin has planned. The next day, Alustin takes the group of Hugh, Godrick, Sabae and Talia to the sandship the Moonless Owl, where they first meets Avah. The ship starts going and Alustin gives the group training exercises to do. Kanderon approaches the sandship and trains Hugh on the sand by launching crystals at him. Kanderon places an aether crystal on Hugh's wrists and Hugh manages to dodge a few crystals. The group continues to train each day and Hugh hides in his room during most of his free time to avoid Avah, who he has developed a crush on.

Hugh draws a ward on the deck of the Moonless Owl when they are attacked by pirates. The ward accelerates the ship and they outstrip the attackers. Hugh then makes a second ward designed to shield the ship from the sandstorm that is rapidly approaching. Hugh and the others on the Moonless Owl take turns powering the stormward. Avah begins to talk to Hugh for a while before Kanderon arrives and teaches him the proprioceptive link spell to help him move the aether crystal bracelets. Hugh finds it easier to dodge Kanderon's crystals with his crystal affinity sense manifesting proprioceptively. Kanderon lectures and teaches Hugh to grow crystals from the sand and he manages to form a single lumpy crystal after multiple hours. A little later, Hugh learns of the language purges performed by the Ithonian Empire from Alustin.

The ship makes it to the desert city of Theras Tel and walk through the city eventually coming across a fire caused by the cults. Alustin takes the group to Indris Stormbreaker, the dragon ruler of Theras Tel. The group spend the next few days exploring the city and buying things. Hugh gives Talia a portable ward for her birthday. The group are attacked and Hugh uses his crystal chunk to fight back. The group continues their training over the next days and a sandstorm eventually hits Theras Tel, with Indris shielding the city. During the celebration inside the windshield Hugh dances with, and kisses, Avah after they get drunk. The group are again attacked by cultists and are rescued by Bandon. Bandon takes them to a safehouse where they discuss what is happening with Indris' missing egg, the strange cult and Alustin's capture. Hugh and Avah travel to a book shop to buy a copy of Galvachren’s Bestiary to check for the insect creature that the cultists had on a necklace. The group manages to convince Eudaxus of the threat of the Issen-Derin insects. Alustin overpowers the guards and instructs Hugh and Sabae to shield Theras Tel from a sandstorm created by Indris' spurned mate Ataerg. Hugh and Sabae use the aqueducts to travel towards the Moonless Owl. Once on the Moonless Owl, Sabae teaches Hugh the windlode spellform to help him power the ward he is about to make.

Hugh begins to pattern link the sand of the desert into crystals to form the ward spellforms. Hugh starts running out of mana and begins to attune his aether crystal bracelets to the ward he is constructing. The labyrinth stone helps Hugh with the attuning of the aether crystal by showing him a vision of his friends and himself. Whilst this is happening, Hugh is pulling in a huge amount of mana, enough to match a great power. Hugh manages to complete the ward and attunes his aether crystal. The aether crystal merges with Hugh's spellbook and labyrinth stone forming a green crystal book with an orange stone in the centre of the cover. Attuning the crystal warped Hugh's eyes to be glowing green to match the crystal. Hugh and the group are at a rewards event held by Indris but Hugh is too nervous to ask for a boon from the dragon so Indris agrees to let Hugh ask later. Indris gifts Hugh the book 'Grain Shipments to the Imperial City of Ithos, the Year 378 After Its Founding' so that he can give Kanderon a book she doesn't already own.

### A Traitor in Skyhold

Hugh starts the third book being kissed by his girlfriend Avah on the docks, to his embarrassment. The group pass by Rhodes and then come across Hugh's aether crystal which seemingly moves when no one is watching it. Alustin takes the group to his hidden office in the library where they meet up with Artur Wallbreaker. Alustin tells them that there is a traitor on the Skyhold Council and that Kanderon suggested having the group know. Hugh begins to panic upon hearing that Bakori is involved with the traitor. Alustin explains that the young mages are being trained as Librarians Errant, as Artur says "spies, theives and treasure hunters". Hugh and his friends begin their studies for the new school year, starting with physical and combat training then cryptography. Hugh then has three other lessons without his friends: personal training with Kanderon, whenever she schedules it, spellform construction with Emmenson Drees and warding by Loarna of the Vault. Finally, Hugh has a lesson with his friends 'Intermediate Library Filing Skills.' Hugh is now commonly recognised in Skyhold and is bothered by the rumours and whispers about him being involved in stopping Ataerg's coup in Theras Tel.

Hugh's spellbook starts becoming more 'alive', moving around more and sending Hugh feelings. Hugh figures out that he can draw on the book's crystal pages by channelling mana into his finger. Alustin gives Hugh a book on wards to help him detect scrying. In Emmenson Drees' lesson Hugh recieves a lecture on glyphs, spellforms, wards and enchantments. Kanderon inspects Hugh's aether crystal book and determines what sort of abilities it has. Hugh is bothered by the students in his ward class because of rumours of him fighting a dragon and Loarna, the teacher, is never present but sets tasks for the students to work together on. Hugh panics when Rhodes calls out to him and runs into his ward classroom. Hugh reworks the wards on his room. When Alustin returns from his mysterious trip and asks who the traitor is Hugh admits that he has no idea. A few days later, Hugh is training with crystal magic with Kanderon. Whilst eating with his friends and Avah, Rhodes comes over and Sabae drives him off by launching water at him.

Whilst training with Alustin, Hugh asks why he, Godrick and Avah can all manipulate sand with their affinties (crystal, stone and sand respectively) which leads to Alustin teaching the group about how people get various affinities. Hugh works on making new wardstones. The group visit the enchanting facilities to get Sabae's enchanted shield. Hugh goes to meet Abyla Ceutas to talk about her allowing the group to take the labyrinth test in a different labyrinth but he ends up calling her out on using her power for petty revenge and tells her that she has no ability to punish him because he has Kanderon's backing. Hugh makes Sabae a warded travel pack that cleans anything placed inside. Avah returns to Skyhold for a month long visit. Hugh makes Godrick a T-shaped faceplate for his armour as a birthday present. Hugh dances with Avah at the Midwinter ball and they eventually go to Hugh's room. Hugh and his friends train with Anders vel Siraf, Dean of Skyhold. Alustin tests Hugh's anti-scrying wards and Hugh's spellbook demonstrates the ability to block scrying by making the area around itself seem like a labyrinth. Kanderon begins to teach Hugh to use his stellar magic and shows him a few spellforms.

Hugh awaits for Sabae's grandmother, Ilinia Kaen Das to arrive at Skyhold. Ilinia grabs Hugh and talks about watching him shield Theras Tel from Ataerg's sandstorm. Hugh rebuilds the ward on the Moonless Owl which failed because the crew had been maintaining it since the summer and using it to cut down on travel time. Hugh and Avah spend more time together. Rhodes eventually confronts Hugh and begins to speak of his life and talks about how he feels bad for abandoning Hugh in the labyrinth the prior year but he refuses to apologise for messing with him the entire first year. Hugh unintentionally figures out that the traitor had to have messed with his funding records because he never payed to attend Skyhold which means the traitor has power over student records. The group prepare to enter the labyrinth for their examination and Hugh frets about Avah and how she will definitely break up with him now, learning about the demon Bakori in the labyrinth with a grudge against Hugh. The group goes through the labyrinth's first and second floors quite easily until they run into Bakori's imps which start to swarm them as Bakori travels to the council chamber. Hugh, Godrick and Sabae rush to the council chamber and fight Abyla and Bakori with the rest of the council. After Ilinia kills Bakori Alustin begins to explain that Bakori wanted to take a magical item, a chitin wand, from Skyhold's extra-planar Vault. The effect of the Exile Splinter breaks down for Hugh and the group during the conversation and they remember that Alustin has told them that he was looking for the lost city of Ithos but they kept forgetting. Avah dumps Hugh because she was afraid of all the violence Hugh will be caught up in and the problems that will be part of his life.

### The Lost City of Ithos

Hugh is sulking because Avah dumped him whilst Kanderon has sent the group to the ends of her territory. Kanderon gives him a communications diary so that he can send her messages before she sends him off to the sandship The Ox of Indris. Kanderin is sending the group of apprentice mages with Alustin to go looking for the city of Ithos that she had exiled from the world of Anastis with her weapon the Exile Splinter. Hugh is sulking in his room on the ship and Sabae drags him out whilst he resists using levitation cantrips. The ship takes the mages (Hugh, Sabae, Godrick, Talia, Alustin and Artur) to Lothal. Whilst in Lothal the apprentices are attacked by a Sacred Swordsman of Havath. The spotter, the mage who uses a targeting device for the swordsman to attack from a massive distance away, is killed by Talia using dreamfire and Hugh using a starbolt which react explosively. Hugh feels guilt from killing someone and vomits. The group encounter the Sacred Swordsman who attacked them, Sanniah of the Ceaseless Thunder and fail to harm her. After returning to the inn that the group are staying at they begin to talk about Alustin's sword which reveals Hugh not knowing about the destroyed city of Helicote. Artur asks Hugh for help with something and Hugh accepts.

Talia, without knowing why herself, shoves Hugh off the edge of the pier but he stops his fall with a levitation cantrip. They board a Radhan ship, the Rising Cormorant. Hugh uses the communication diary to write messages with Kanderon who gives him advice about feelings. Hugh grows a quartz crystal in the shape of a hexagonal column and then he links the crystal to himself to make it float around his head. Alustin gives the group training to do and lectures them about affinities they don't have to inspire them on how to use their affinities in new ways and to teach them how to fight against those affinities. Hugh is working with Artur when Godrick gets him saying that Hugh's spellbook is vomiting paper, which was caused by eating the enchanted communications diary. Hugh kills one of the sea serpents that attacks. Hugh sits with Talia after her enchanted hairpins explode. Hugh spends time on deck when the ship travels through the Silent Straits. They make it to the first potential site for the city of Ithos where they encounter a sphinx and determine the location to not be the correct place. When they return to the ship Hugh communicates with Kanderon, discovering that his spellbook has assimilated the abilities of the communications diary it devoured.

The Radhan host a celebration on an unnamed, small island that they know about. Hugh wards the island with a number of functions including a multitude of features to prevent detection and wind resistance. Hugh then applies the windlode spellform into the ward which means during storms the entire harbour will be shielding from the storm. Sabae proposes the name for the island to be Stormward's Gift which the Radhan accept. Later, Hugh goes to read in his cabin but his spellbook intercepts Kanderon's messages to the stone lich Keayda. when Talia finds him in near complete darkness reading, it leads to a minor investigation in which Alustin figures out that Hugh's eyes are changing into sphinx eyes. At the Radhan's celebration Talia comes over to Hugh and admits that she has a crush on him. Whilst the boat is going through a storm Hugh uses his stellar magic to create a beacon. Hugh and Godrick work together on controlling ice, formed by the enchanted ring that Artur and Hugh had been working on. Hugh powers the enchantments on the Rising Cormorant using the windlode to draw in mana. The enchantments take the ship safely underwater by creating an invisible barrier around the ship. Hugh kisses Talia whilst he is powering the enchantments. Hugh's spellbook intercepts another message from Kanderon, this time Hugh sees a message about the greater Radhan fleet, Galvachren, the Wanderer and the Cold Minds. Hugh continues training his stellar and crystal magic. The ship makes it to the tree city Zophor, the demesne of the lich Zophor.

Hugh gives Talia a copy of Raultha’s Ossuary for her birthday. The group takes the boat the Despondent Toad to the next potential location of Ithos. On the way, the group asks Alustin about what the Cold Minds are. He explains what the Cold Minds are and that one of the potential problems is that the Cold Minds have come to Anastis by entering the pocket dimension containing the exiled city of Ithos. Hugh puts a ward on the deck to try and stop the Mage-Eater jumping onto the deck. They find that the lost city of Ithos is in the location they are traveling to and the Havathi are following behind also trying to get to the city. The group make it to the city, which keeps fading in and out of reality, and make it to the pocket world containing the city. Hugh sees something moving around inside the pocket world and they realize it is the Mage-Eater. The group makes their way to the Exile Splinter and then they sleep. Alustin uses some devices to find out that there is no presence of the Cold Minds in the pocket world, much to everyone's relief. Hugh builds terrifying wards around the Exile Splinter and throughout the city to prevent the Havathi easily reaching the weapon. Hugh and Godrick flee from Grovebringer, breaking the stone beneath them and falling into a lake.

Hugh and Godrick are attacked by a group of Havathi, including two Sacred Swordsmen. Hugh incinerates one of the battle mages with a starbolt and then collapses the roof the mages are stood on. Hugh mentions his developing ward sense to Godrick when the wire mage forms a ward around them. Hugh kills the wire mage with a starbolt and vomits. Hugh and Godrick then notice the Heir of Ithos but forget within a moment because of the Heir's magic. Hugh and Godrick rush towards Talia but are attacked by the Sacred Swordsman Qirsad Vain. Hugh forms wards under the ground to try and protect himself and Godrick from Qirsad who talks to them about Kanderon being a monster and how Havath will try to use Hugh as an involuntary weapon against Kanderon. Qirsad decides to kill Hugh because of the amount of Havathi that his wards have killed. Hugh's wards struggle to keep up when Qirsad launches ash bombs at him. The cloud breaks through the ward and injures Hugh significantly, burning him and damaging his lungs and rendering him unconscious. After Kanderon makes it to the city she sends some of the Librarians Errant to look for Hugh which takes them over an hour. Hugh's spellbook managed to stop Hugh falling to his death after Hugh gets separated from Godrick after the ash bombs but this broke bones in his hand and wrist because the book had to bite Hugh to stop him falling. Some of Hugh's ribs were broken and more were cracked and he developed a fever from lake water getting in his wounds. Later Hugh wakes with Kanderon having him sleep on her foreleg. He coughs constantly whilst talking to her and Kanderon reveals that she has obtained the Exile Splinter and that Talia has named Hugh's spellbook Mackerel. Kanderon tells Hugh about her past and how the Exile Splinter stole memories of much of her life before building it.

### The Siege of Skyhold

At the very start of the fifth book Hugh is failing to breathe and is desperately coughing. Hugh is walking with his friends in a valley in Skyreach Range which he finds very difficult because of his damaged lungs. Kanderon keeps watch of Hugh from the cave she is in. Godrick has to carry Hugh up to the cave and Hugh casts a levitation cantrip that makes his own weight nearly nothing so his friends toss him around. Hugh speaks with Alustin and Kanderon and the Librarians Errant say that they all need to return to Skyhold but Kanderon wishes for Hugh to be healed more before they move. Hugh is rapidly healing with the help of the healers that work for Kanderon. Hugh figures out that Loarna is present but in hiding and asks Alustin to set up a meeting between them. Alustin agrees if Hugh promises to help convince Kanderon to take them all back to Skyhold. Hugh talks to Kanderon about wanting to use planar magic for a ward to make it non-contiguous and Kanderon summons Loarna. Talia asks Hugh about making ward armour for herself by warding her bones. Hugh asks Kanderon to take them all back to Skyhold and she says that she will consider it. Hugh tells Kanderon about Mackerel intercepting her messages with Keayda and someone else, to which she promises it will not happen again. Hugh and his friends are offered enchanted items looted from the city of Ithos and the killed Havathi that were fought at the city. Hugh inspects the enchanted items and Godrick helps the group choose items. Hugh gets a pair of enchanted boots that can use bursts of force to amplify movements. He chose an enchanted belt that launches blasts of force and ice, and he uses the belt as a strap for Mackerel.

The group of apprentices, Librarians Errant and Artur all travel on Kanderon's back and destroy the waystations on the way back to Skyhold. Once they arrive at Skyhold, Hugh has to go to the medical wing to get examined. Hugh's bond to Kanderon has grown stronger with him able to sense her emotions more easily. Hugh is relieved but confused as to why he and his friends are receiving so little attention from the crowds. Hugh's body starts improving over the next weeks and he spends lots of time working on his and Talia's ward armours. Alustin gives the group permission to not do homework which gives Hugh far more time. Hugh works with the wardcrafters in Skyhold, breaking decaying and damaged wards throughout the school. Loarna lets Hugh inspect the three ward tunnels that surround Skyhold with her. Hugh is put in charge of a group of younger warlocks as part of the mentorship program Kanderon decided to reinstate. Hugh is assigned four warlocks: Thaddeus, Kanna, Venta and Peltia. Hugh sleeps with Talia and she discovers the scars from his abusive family. Alustin requests that Kanderon sends Hugh and his friends on a mission arguing that the group would definitely do something foolish if not directed. The group go on a smuggler's ship to the Dragonclaw Yardangs. At the Yardangs Hugh notices the camouflaged chameleons and meet with the great power that rules the area, the Herdsman. Hugh and his friends introduce themselves to the Herdsman and after the short meeting leave via levitation. Hugh reveals that he could see around five invisible people in the room which Captain Lesthenes and Sabae work out that they were from Havath. The group return to the ship and talk about the Havathi obsession with history and how they will support Sabae's goal of overthrowing the entire political system of great powers.

Later, Hugh and the group end up fighting some of the Herdsman's modified chameleons. Captain Lesthenes reveals himself to be Alustin in disguise whislt the alchemical explosives begin detonating. Hugh causes a small rockfall and creates a ward in the crystals in the ground to produce a barrier to protect the group from the chameleon tongues. Hugh uses his starfire beacon spells to provide light for the group and Alustin uses some paper to halt his movement to prevent him engaging with the Sacred Swordsman Valia. Mackerel saves Hugh and Talia from being pulled into the gravity implosion by pulling them towards the bridge. Hugh builds ward tunnels that activate around him to form invisible paths and walls. Hugh breaks the stone beneath him and Talia so that they fall from the bridge and don't get caught up the explosion Talia caused. Hugh struggles to breathe as he and Talia run through the ward tunnels he is actively making. Hugh and Talia make it to the colossal turtle shell that the Herdsman resides within. Talia detonates the bone inside causing a chain reaction detonation killing the Herdsman. Back at Skyhold, Hugh and Godrick talk about mana techniques and find out that Clan Castis are coming. All six of Talia's brothers surround Hugh and question him on his relationship with Talia, worrying that she is blackmailing him and when he says he is dating her out of free will they joke about him being crazy and hug him. Hugh and his friends watch Skyhold's massively powerful wards activate and watch as the archmages test them.

Hugh, his friends, Alustin, the Clan Castis brothers, Artur and a few others are all eating outside when a flight of dragons from Havath approach including Krakat Ambrin. They watch as Kanderon impales the dragons with her wings by moving her wings through space and spears them with quartz from the sand. Hugh visits the Grand Library and asks the Index to allow him into Kanderon's lair. He goes to the lair and sees Kanderon staring into the Exile Splinter, she snarls at him not recognising him for a moment before asking how he managed to reach her. After Hugh says the Index let him in she complains about it and asks Hugh what he wants. Kanderon talks with Hugh for a bit. Later, Hugh is with his friends as Sabae develops new magical armours and helps name them. Hugh and his friends receive magical extra-planar storage tattoos from Kanderon with Hugh getting a green one because it comes from Mackerel's pages which means his storage space will grow slightly faster. Hugh looks over the younger warlock's list of potential patrons and explains some magic theory to them when Mackerel returns to Hugh, having stolen Alustin's shoe. Hugh and the warlocks ask Alustin about spirits. Hugh watches as Talia gets her skeleton tattooed for her ward armour which she tests the next day. Hugh is completing his ward based armour with Kanderon, checking over the wards grown in each crystal node and then linking them to Hugh. The armour generally work with Hugh being able to form wards between nodes with just willpower and conscious thought. Kanderon names this 'the Stormward's Crown'. Hugh gives Sabae books from philosophers who hated great powers for her birthday. Hugh takes Sabae to speak with Kanderon about great powers. Kanderon tasks Hugh with using his planar affinity sense to detect some kinds on illusions. Kanderon takes Hugh and Sabae through a pocket dimension tunnel to the council chamber because she senses a Havath envoy approaching. Hugh and Sabae wait with Anders and he explains who Amalda Veil, the Havathi mage, is. When Kanderon rejects Havaths demands she allows Veil to flee and then Hugh watches as Havath start launching spells at Skyhold's wards.

Havath continues bombarding Skyhold's wards constantly. Hugh gives his sling and some wardstones to Thaddeus to help reassure him. As the Havathi bombardment never lets up Hugh spends time creating and repairing sound wards to nullify the noise. Hugh and Talia watch as Havath creates a tornado and sends it towards Skyhold. Hugh gives Godrick a better warded faceplate for his armour as a birthday gift. Hugh goes to speak with Kanderon, habing examined Skyhold's wards with Loarna and then finding Mackerel vomiting from eating a copy of Galvachren’s Bestiary. On Midwinter, Hugh and his friends are given a minor guard post and were given a paper armband by Alustin so he can watch them. Thaddeus and the other warlocks come to Hugh and his friends when they should be sat in a shelter. Hugh sends Mackerel with the warlocks to ensure that they get to safety. The group run down the corridor as the siege spells swarm Skyhold in huge amounts. Amalda Veil tracks and appears before Hugh and his friends to tell them to leave because she doesn't want to fight with children. The group refuse Veil's offer and fight her instead. A Havathi dragon approaches and Hugh and Sabae fight the dragon and mages riding it. They then return to battling with Amalda. Hugh kills Amalda with a cutting jet of starfire because she tried to kill his friends. Hugh hears Kanderon's retreat alarm. Hugh's stellar affinity sense detects Heliothrax using sunfire and moves deeper into Skyhold with his friends. Hugh then feels pain from his warlock contract with Mackerel and uses his force boots to move towards him at great speed, receiving great pain from his lungs. Hugh fires wardstones at the Havathi inside Skyhold that he and his friends come across. The group find Mackerel and the young warlocks tied up and imprisoned by a mage making floating wards from string. Hugh and Godrick kill the Havathi mage by dropping the ceiling on him.

Hugh and his friends watch as Artur suicide attacks Heliothrax. Alustin uses his ink magic to twist the spellform on Hugh's paper armband into a spellform that attacks Kanderon through the warlock pact she has with Hugh. This causes immense looping pain between Hugh, Kanderon and Mackerel. Sabae grabs Hugh and rushes to the council chamber to see Kanderon. Kanderon reveals that Alustin stole the Tongue Eater and plans to release the stored languages which will drive everyone on Ithos insane. Hugh watches as Kanderon seals herself away in a crystal dome and he tries to rip it open with his crystal magic but his mana doesn't enter the spellform. Sabae pulls Hugh away to help avoid being investigated when it comes out that Kanderon has been struck down.

### Tongue Eater

Hugh starts the sixth book with Sabae pulling him along as he ignores everything and focuses on his damaged contract with Kanderon. They enter the Grand Library and find it murderous. Hugh insists that Kanderon is not dead and asks the Index to allow them access to Kanderon's lair. Hugh explains to Sabae that he thinks the Index is a mental prosthesis for Kanderon which is why the Index is in pain. Hugh finds his magic to be failing to work and it taking multiple attempts to activate the controls for the dais. Hugh uses his magic to help retrieve books from Kanderon's lair. Sabae gets Talia and Godrick and they all meet in Hugh's warded room. Later, Hugh asks Ilinia of she can help Kanderon but Ilinia jsut insists that Kanderon is dead. When talking with his friends, Hugh declares that Kanderon is alive and rushes away. Hugh goes into the Grand Library and sees a group of mages trying to break into Kanderon's lair. He tries to kill them with a starbolt but his magic fails. Hugh constructs a sling for her wardstones and creates some wards on paper. Hugh creates a headband with an attention ward that makes him seem like he is meant to be present to whoever sees him. Hugh then goes to communicate with the Index and asks for a path to find books on warlock contracts. The Index creates a paper golem that leads Hugh to the books he needs. Hugh finds that the library is twisting with massive cancer-like growths of bookshelves. Hugh descends into Kanderon's lair. Hugh spends four days in Kanderon's lair, eating and drinking from supplies in his storage tattoo. Hugh reads the books he collected and the books from Kanderon's lair that were about warlocks. Hugh then determines what was damaged in his contract with Kanderon. He sees that the Moonless Owl is at Skyhold and he speaks to Avah, Deila and Captain Solon. Avah drags Hugh to go speak to his friends.

Hugh then explains his reasoning for how Kanderon is still alive. Hugh reads out the proclamation Alustin has made and publicly spread about when he is attacking. Hugh uses the favour Indris owes him to ask her to look after the young warlocks he was assigned to mentor. He gives Kanna the aether crystal armour that he took from Amalda Veil. Hugh then declares himself Kanderon's heir which Indris Stormbreaker, the dragon queen, Luthe of Clan Castis and Ilinia Kaen Das accept. Hugh then uses Ramyl's favour to Kanderon to have Ramyl fight with Alustin and Havath. Later, Hugh wards his hidden room so that only a sad, lonely mage who needs a safe space will be able to find it and enter and eventually, when they no longer need it, another young mage will find it. Hugh leads his friends through the ventilation system which leads into the labyrinth and bypasses the wards using the secret knowledge that Loarna had taught him. Hugh says that they may need to go as deep as ten floors down the labyrinth but Mackerel's scrying may mean they only need to go down by six or seven floors. Mackerel finds a shortcut from the second to fifth floor. The group come across a possum in the labyrinth. The group come across a kraken on the second floor and Hugh helps Godrick come up with the wards to project walls and a floor for the group to walk on. The group are attacked whilst on the fifth floor by demons. The demons retreat after Talia starts killing them. The group manage to avoid the traps with Mackerel's scrying abilities which makes the floor far easier than it should be. Mackerel intercepts a message between Keayda and the Havathi Duarch Icola. On the seventh floor, Mackerel helps the group find a room full of aether crystal and Hugh takes a piece the size of a human head. Whilst talking about the labyrinth, Hugh reveals that he thinks Mackerel is a tiny, highly specialised labyrinth. The group then take a tunnel that leads to a labyrinth in another world. They begin to ascend the alien labyrinth and set up a little shielded zone to protect them whilst they recover from aether sickness. After they recover, they easily ascend fully and begin to walk through the horrible death world Apoptis.

As the sun begins to flare, the group constructs a small shelter to hide in. Sabae heals a small patch of sunburn that Hugh got on his neck. The group continues onwards after the flare ends, constructing more shelters as more flares occur. After some more traveling, the group come across some Kyrene, giant crystal spiders with dozens of legs in every direction. The group spend several hours with the Kyrene who protect them from a solar flare by surrounding the group. The group come across another two possums and then descend down a labyrinth. Mackerel makes traversing the labyrinth easy. The group take a path into a connected labyrinth in another world: Kemetrias. The group seal themselves off and recover from aether sickness. After they recover Hugh beings to draw a horrendously complex spellform and then Godrick carves the chalk lines into the stone floor. Hugh places the aether crystal he harvested before in the centre of the spellform and then each of the group begin to channel mana into their quadrants of the spellform. The warlock pact spellform ignites with colour as the aether crystal is being attuned to all 12 mana types flooding into it. Hugh then appears within a white void and sees the aether crystal shifting below him. He then sees several strange forms and realises that he also looks to be one. Hugh and his friends are seeing each other's aetherbodies. The vision of each other's aetherbodies is replaced by their own regular bodies and Hugh can then feel his friend's emotions before the aether crystal lattice reaches them inflicting a large amount of pain. Hugh eventually wakes and sees a strange woman with words in an unknown language across her skin. The woman calls Hugh's defences good but says he should never rely on just one world's magic. The smoke from the woman's pipe reaches Hugh and falls unconscious with her promising to protect the newly bonded group. As the bond occurs, Skyhold experiences a mysterious tremor and multiple entities with knowledge of the multiverse turn to observe Skyhold and the Index feels its pain vanish for a moment.

Hugh wakes up last and tells his friends about the mysterious woman. Hugh's magic begins to work again and his warlock contract with Kanderon has been freed from the high energy state that Alustin inflicted. Hugh works out that the aether crystal the group attuned turned into rings, one for each of them, that store mana for each of their mana types and refill from the aether. Hugh tests his new stone affinity and it works after he modifies the spellform to accept more mana. Hugh eagerly fights the monsters the group comes across. The group ascend the Kemetrian labyrinth and emerge to find a group of armed Kemetrian soldiers in rune coated paper armour. The group fails to interact with the soldiers due to lacking the ability to speak the same language. One of the locals introduces themselves as Apchek and he fills in the paperwork needed. Apchek tells the group the name of the city: Hebrast. Hugh keeps mentally prodding his bond with Kanderon. Apchek gives the group a letter they can't understand. Several pickpockets attempt to steal from Hugh and Mackerel bites and breaks fingers fingers from the potential thief. Hugh observes the rune workshops with people carving and drawing runes. The group go to an inn and show the innkeeper Apchek's letter and manage to rent out some rooms. The group work on developing their new affinity senses by throwing objects at each other that align with their affinities like bone chunks and steel marbles. The group decide that they should learn siege magic because of how many affinities they have, losing one for siege magic wouldn't be a problem. The group wanders through the city and leaves. They come across a massive grass sea. A huge plain of grass with each blade being thirty feet tall. The group finds a minor official and manages to explain using pantomime and drawings in Mackerel's pages that they wish to take one of the floating ships to the nearby mountains. The group get a suite on the ship-chain which departs from port a few hours later. The group spend time practicing with their new affinities. Hugh begins to talk about how they should train on the world of Limnus so that they can gain alien magic.

The ship-chain that the group are traveling on is attacked by pirates. Hugh launches wardstones at one of the pirate ships. Hugh launches a starbolt at one of the enemies in paper armour and is shocked that his target wasn't incinerated and was simply thrown back with little patches of fire. Hugh blocks the crossbow bolts using wards formed from his Crown. Hugh grows quartz spikes from sand stored in his storage tattoo and launches them at the attackers. After the battle ends Hugh finds Mackerel having killed a large number of enemies. The group sees a new rune form in the sky and are summoned by a woman who tries to speak to them in multiple different languages and then reads the letter from Apchek. After a peaceful travel, the group are visited by an old woman who had been with the woman who had summoned them. The old woman speaks to them in Ithonian and berates them, believing them to be members of the same multiverse spanning organisation she is. She makes references to the Scaled Khanate and the hordes and a Cull and mentions that the Bezan Clan has been steered by the Expansionists. The woman introduces herself as Yorta of the Fourth Spring Conjunction and when Talia asks why she would have any power over them, Yorta realises that they are not members of any multiversal group. The group trade questions with Yorta. Before leaving Yorta mentions that the stronger great powers are enough to threaten the lesser Named. The ship-chain arrives at Mount Mulberry. They encounter another possum. They ascend to a fortress and one of the bureaucrats fills in all the necessary forms. The group then hike up to the mistform labyrinth and enter the mists. As the group wanders through the strange labyrinth they end up on the world of Limnus.

The group stare at the purple iodine clouds below and the yellow brimstone gases making up the clouds in the sky. The group quickly begin to experience aether sickness. The group cross the natural bridges connecting the skyspear trees and after walking for a while they see another person and exchange incomprehensible greetings. The stranger leads the group to a village which the stranger manages to tell them is called Chelder. Hugh then sees a group of people without heavy veils and is shocked by how different they all look. After eating with the Limnan people, the group go and set up a losthome inside a nearby mountain. Hugh sets up wards to prevent the gasses leaking into the base. The group train their new affinities and develop Limnan magic. Hugh trains his steel affinity as siege magic by launching steel spikes with all of his mana. Hugh confides in Godrick that he is worried that he is similar to Alustin because he killed Amalda Veil and Godrick reasures him that what he did was right and he isn't a bad person. After a few weeks on Limnus Hugh starts coughing in his sleep and some of the Limnan people from the nearby village come a fit the group with veils and place fabrics to block the gases entering the losthome. The Limnans move the group into their village and Hugh's cough recovers a bit. Hugh then sees a massive creature which he determines to be a Limnan native who has pushed their magic to the extremes and Hugh dubs the creature a Limnan titan. The group help the Limnans set up a celebration. Hugh later notices that his lungs have drastically improved and that his new mana reservoirs are growing quickly. The Limnans throw a leaving party for the group. A layer storm starts near the village, the atmospheric layers began to collapse into each other, creating a horrifying, toxic, burning, freezing storm full of strange chemical reactions. The group race to the labyrinth they need to get to and make it just before the layer storm expands. The group descend the wooden labyrinth and end up in a mistform labyrinth back on Anastis. The group have arrived near Highvale and Hugh checks his bond with Kanderon. His new dream affinity sense works through the bond and he can tell that Kanderon is dreaming. The group are then struck with aether sickness as the book ends.