The Crystal Curse

The Crystal Curse is the seventh book in the The Metalwood Saga.

Continuing the expansive, multi-planetary narrative of Season Two, the novel follows Trey and Arra on a deadly expedition into the deserts of Valaralda while Orym discovers shocking truths hidden beneath the oceans of Earth. The book also features extensive flashbacks detailing the ancient Valaraldan Senate and the brutal revenge of the blinded elven slave Cariel on the planet Eryn.

Synopsis

The Tomb of Akhenaten

On Valaralda, Trey regains his position at the Anthropological Society from Talon. Accompanied by Arra, his superfan Lashel, and their tough guide Shorn, Trey leads an expedition to the desert city of Nekhrumet to secure excavation permits for the ancient Tomb of Akhenaten, hoping to find the "Key" to activate the planetary Defense Mechanism against the Fall. While in the city, the group survives a brutal assassination attempt by the fanatical Devout, aided at the last minute by the city's ruling mages, the Eglaria. Following the attack, they leave Nekhrumet and venture deep into the desert to enter the pyramid.

Inside the tomb, they are forced to endure a gauntlet of lethal, magical tests designed to weed out non-elves and weak mages. Trey proves his identity as a Prime Mage by simultaneously channeling dark birch (transmutation), light elm (leafrunning), light ash (stormwarding), and dark willow (gatesending) to solve a massive waterwheel puzzle.

During a test involving illusionary arrows, Trey reflexively uses magic to save his ex-wife Lorelei instead of Arra. Shortly after, while Trey and Arra are holding hands in a soulcircle to try and heal Shorn's severed hand, Arra's mind bleeds into Trey's. She discovers that Trey had slept with Lorelei multiple times back on Earth, causing a furious and bitter rift between them. Trey ultimately reaches the final treasure chamber, securing the Key (a glowing glass sphere called Edrafen) and a crystal soulmirror. The moment the Key is claimed, the tomb instantly collapses around them, burying Shorn and their supplies in a massive sinkhole as the survivors narrowly escape.

The Desert Storm

Fleeing the collapsing pyramid, Trey's group seeks refuge at Mirra's halfway house, where they unexpectedly reunite with Rylan, Dill, and Small. The Devout track them down and attack the house with firearms during a massive sandstorm.

Driven mad by Trey's betrayal, Arra's mind snaps. She unleashes a terrifying, uncontrolled stormwarding tempest, catching the Devout, her friends, and herself in a massive, spinning vortex of sand and wind. To stop her, Allain utilizes his mistweaving carving block to repeatedly splinter his soul, creating Allain2. Allain2 rapidly teleports through the storm to disarm Arra, slicing her primewood pouch and ending her magic before dissipating back into Allain. With the storm still raging wildly out of control, Trey fully embraces his Prime Mage power, using a fire-infused forcefield to suppress the devastating sandstorm and save the group.

Atlantis and Telperion

On Earth, Orym, the diver Elasha, and a team of scientists investigate a powerful darkprime signal emanating from deep beneath the Mediterranean Sea. They enter a submerged cavern guarded by ancient statues of Anubis. The cavern is rigged with deadly prime magic traps, including glowing runes and a descending spiked ceiling, which brutally kill their companions Luthar and Mistale.

Orym and Elasha manage to survive by solving a highly complex cipher involving twenty-eight paintings of Prime Trees. By translating Ancient Eglarian hieroglyphs into High Eldrim words and applying a first-letter substitution code, they unlock the chamber. During the ordeal, Elasha confesses she spent five hundred years in an elven prison for using illegal magic to raise a man from the dead. The solved puzzle transports them into Atlantis—a perfectly preserved, glowing, and completely empty underground elven city. Looming over the ancient city is a towering, impossibly bright cypress tree. Orym realizes with horror that the tree is the physical manifestation of Telperion, one of the Twins, hiding on Earth.

Flashbacks: The Senate and Skallgr

Twenty thousand years prior on Valaralda, Tarathiel (Trey) and Alleria (Arra) desperately attempt to pass the Sending Act to escape the impending Fall. Despite securing the necessary votes, the Speaker of the Senate, Leriaar (who Trey realizes in the present day is actually Lorelei), inexplicably votes against the measure, ensuring its failure.

Meanwhile, on the jungle planet of Eryn millennia ago, the blinded elven slave Cariel enacts a bloody revenge against the rylak of Skallgr. Using her soulbinding magic, she coordinates an army of twenty-four massive cavek, fifteen venomous sakul birds, and jungle cats to entirely decimate the village. In the chaos, the rylak Svalya ambushes Cariel, stabbing her in the chest and slitting her throat. Cariel dies, and her soul is sent to Ambarhal.

The Army of Souls

In the afterlife dimension of Ambarhal, Elanil journeys past the ghostly tree-prisons and crests a mountain. She looks down to see billions of human souls wandering the plains. The Twins gleefully reveal that the Sundering ritual on Earth was a trap; rather than simply killing humanity, the Twins altered the Primal magic to steal every human soul, trapping them in Ambarhal to build an army for their own dark purposes.

Key Characters

Trey (Tarathiel): Successfully navigates the Tomb of Akhenaten, proving himself a Prime Mage by wielding four magics simultaneously. His infidelity is discovered by Arra, shattering their relationship.
Arra (Alleria): Learns the truth about Trey and Lorelei through a soulcircle. Enraged, she nearly kills the entire group with a massive, uncontrolled sandstorm.
Orym: Leads a deep-sea expedition on Earth, surviving ancient traps to discover the lost city of Atlantis and the physical form of Telperion.
Elasha: A highly educated diver and former MrD (Doctor of Magic) candidate. She spent five centuries in prison for practicing forbidden resurrection magic, but proves vital in helping Orym decipher the Eglarian traps.
Allain: Masters the dangerous art of mistweaving soulsplinters, projecting duplicates of himself to rapidly teleport and disarm Arra.
Lorelei (Leriaar / Selenia): Revealed to have been the ancient Speaker of the Senate, Leriaar, who sabotaged the Sending Act. In the present, she wanders in an infantile, amnesiac state.
Cariel: In flashbacks, she utilizes her mastery over soulbinding to wipe out Skallgr with an army of cavek before being murdered by Svalya.
Elanil: Exploring the afterlife of Ambarhal, she uncovers the Twins' secret army of human souls.

Magic and Lore Introduced

Edrafen and the Soulmirror: Found deep within the Tomb of Akhenaten, Edrafen is a swirling glass sphere believed to be the Key to the Defense Mechanism. The crystal soulmirror reportedly reveals a person's true self.
The Ancient Eglarian Cipher: The traps protecting Atlantis utilize a complex cipher requiring translation between Ancient Eglarian hieroglyphs and High Eldrim, combined with a first-letter substitution code denoting specific primewoods.
Mistweaving Teleportation: Allain discovers that by rapidly splintering his soul using a carving, throwing the illusion forward, and reabsorbing his original body into the splinter, he can effectively teleport short distances at blinding speeds.
The Truth of the Sundering: The Twins confess to Elanil that they purposefully manipulated the Soulsundering ritual on Earth to capture the billions of dying human souls, keeping them trapped in Ambarhal to serve as an army.
Atlantis: Rather than a sunken island, Atlantis is revealed to be a massive, perfectly preserved underground elven city hidden deep beneath the Mediterranean Sea, built to house and guard Telperion.