The Second Betrayal

(These summaries have been taken from the author's website with permission]

# The Second Betrayal - Summary

Sift survives his injuries and along with Ruwen and Hamma arrives at the Worker’s Lodge. Ruwen learns how to control his Void Band better and loads his inventory with all the necessities for the new Ascendant camping trip. The City Council, including Hamma’s mother, believes the time spent together seeing Deepwell’s nearest dungeon and terium mine will help ease the growing tension between the Classes.

Big D, as head of the Worker’s Lodge, organizes and leads the excursion. During the visit to the terium mine, Ruwen figures out that the Spirit he Cultivated in the Black Pyramid, and which still sits hidden inside him, is identical to the terium that is being vaporized and hardened in the mine.

While the rest of the camp sleeps, Ruwen, Sift, and Hamma, take a Rune Gate to the Black Pyramid to gain some levels. All three of them trigger quests to become Custodians for the Black Pyramid. Ruwen starts an Ink Lord quest line to restore the libraries, and Hamma becomes a Chapel Priestess. Sift becomes the Black Pyramid’s Sisen and activates the Rings, where creatures from the dungeon can spar.

Hamma, as a Chapel Priestess, gains access to a powerful Prayer Book containing ten spells, and Ruwen bonds with a tiny bookwyrm named Rami. Rami loves knowledge, has millions of books stored in her memory, and can speak with Ruwen telepathically.

Ruwen explores his Cultivation abilities using a mysterious book he found in the library. Using the breathing techniques and forms from the book, he is able to Fortify his body using the Spirit he’d gathered, greatly strengthening it.

When they all return to camp, Sift sees Lylan. Lylan, a Shade that works for Kysandra, had dated Sift when she lived in the Black Pyramid. Lylan died in the Black Pyramid before she could return to Uru’s lands and have her memories synched, so when she revived, she had no memories of Sift. Sift follows Lylan to see what she is doing near the Ascendant’s camp and doesn’t return.

That night Ruwen leaves the camp and settles near the dungeon to use some knowledge gained from his Cultivation Book. He is unable to control the gathering form and learns the terrible difference between Harvesting and Cultivation. Instead of Cultivating the surrounding energy like light and heat, he Harvests the living entities in the dungeon, destroying them all, and almost killing the dungeon keeper.

Ruwen returns to camp and finds Sift has returned as well. Sift is desperate to find Lylan, and Ruwen reveals a ring Blapy had given him containing Lylan’s memories from the Black Pyramid. Using the ring, they locate Lylan and find her speaking with the Naktos assassin that had nearly killed Ruwen and Hamma in the bar on Ruwen’s Ascension Day.

Sift, upset at the Betrayal, throws the ring with Lylan’s memories into the brush. The Naktos assassin attacks them all and Ruwen saves everyone by trapping the assassin in his Void Band, killing him. Sift, after making sure the unconscious Lylan remained alive, leaves, and Ruwen and Hamma follow their despondent friend.

That night, Ruwen, Sift, and Hamma investigate the dungeon that Ruwen destroyed. He finds the dungeon keeper, a two-inch living crystal, and promises to fix the damage he’s done. To do this, Ruwen becomes the dungeon master to help the dungeon keeper recover, and names the crystal Fractal.

Lylan arrives pushing two ambushers she discovered in front of her. Sift doesn’t trust her, but she reveals she found the ring and regained her memories. Before they can leave the dungeon, Tremaine arrives and paralyzes them all.

The Naktos Mage that had tried to kill Ruwen on his Ascension Day arrives and gives Tremine a book for finding and trapping Ruwen and his friends. Tremine places a small piece of portal chalk, used to create Rune Gates, in Ruwen’s pocket and then leaves.

The Naktos Mage performs a powerful spell and moves Ruwen and his friends into the Spirit Realm, where they will remain trapped forever.