The Silent Binds is the eighth book in the The Metalwood Saga.
Serving as a massive turning point in the series, the novel brings the scattered storylines together in the Valaraldan desert for a devastating confrontation with the madwoman Cariel (Magona). The book completely upends the established lore of the universe, revealing the true alien nature of the Twins, the dark reality behind the ancient Defense Mechanism, and the horrifying extents of soulmagic.
Synopsis
The Truth of Ambarhal
Trapped in the afterlife dimension of Ambarhal, a despairing Elanil encounters the Twins, Nelenor and Velion, in the form of two massive, pulsing Trees. The Twins reveal that they are gathering an army of sundered rylak souls from the planet Eryn to escape their imprisonment and enact their revenge against the "Imprisoner".
Meanwhile, on the edge of the Valaraldan desert, the underkid Rylan listens to the end of the old woman Mirra's story. Mirra shockingly drops her illusions, revealing herself to be not only the Remnant god Magona and the ancient Senator Selenia, but the blinded elven mage Cariel. Cariel brutally slits Rylan's throat, sending his soul directly to Ambarhal.
In the purple-skied realm of Ambarhal, Rylan reunites with Elanil. Using the knowledge he gained from Cariel's story, Rylan forcefully breaches the soul of a Tree connected to Valaralda. He drags Elanil's soul with him, successfully resurrecting them both in the physical world. Because of their passage through Ambarhal, both Rylan and Elanil are reborn as immensely powerful Prime Mages.
The Palace of Memory
In Ilyrion, Trey and Lashel argue over the translation of ancient texts. Lashel reveals that Trey's original translations were flawed: the "Defense Mechanism" is actually a shield prison designed to trap the Twins, and the artifact Edrafen is the Key to release them, not destroy Guruthos. The ancients banished the two planet-sized prisons (Earth and Eryn) far away to keep the Twins contained.
Trey's mind is suddenly overtaken by a sinister "soulbind," a dark magical connection forged by Cariel. Controlled by his new master, Trey travels to the desert, delivering the Key directly to Cariel.
Cariel activates the massive underground machine known as Memory, raising it out of the sand to form a towering, palatial city in the desert. Cariel forces the soulbound Rylan to channel power through fourteen Books of Amplification to open massive gates, summoning the planet Eryn into the Persephone solar system. Through these gates, Cariel unleashes armies of Remnant humans and massive rylak beasts, along with monstrous dinosaur-like cavek.
The Fall of Cariel
Arra realizes the horrifying truth: Cariel is her biological mother (and Lorelei's sister). Cariel survives by placing a "soulbleed" on all of her thousands of offspring, a dark magic that leeches their physical energy to sustain her immense power. In a brutal display of strength, Cariel crucifies Arra to a makeshift bookshelf and begins draining her life force.
Trey momentarily disrupts the soulbleed by tapping into latent mindmaster magic, allowing him to rescue Arra. While recovering, Arra channels her lifelong pain and rage into a weapon, mentally severing the soulstrand that connects her to Cariel and freeing herself from the soulbleed.
To defeat Cariel, the heroes realize they must use the crystal soulmirror, but it only works if the target can actually see it. Trey forms a soulcircle with Arra, Elanil, Lorelei, Imra, Erodar, and Allain. Drawing on the power of fourteen Books of Amplification, Trey miraculously uses soulsoothing magic to heal Cariel's missing eyes. Trey thrusts the soulmirror in front of Cariel, showing her true, horrific reflection and instantly shattering her soulmagic. Despite losing her powers, Cariel still attempts to kill Arra, forcing Arra to finally slit her mother's throat.
The Release of the Twins
Driven by the whispering intelligence within the Key, Trey ignores Lashel's warnings and shatters Edrafen with his mind. Simultaneously on Earth, Orym touches the golden tree Telperion, while Quynn touches the dark tree Laurelin on Eryn. The trapped souls within the Trees are released, and the Twins are finally freed.
The Twins materialize in the Valaraldan desert as two fifty-foot-tall, muscular Anubis figures with canine heads. Velion casually destroys a Prime Tree with a swipe of a mace, boasting that "Prime magic" was nothing more than an invention the Twins created to manipulate the elves.
As the world begins to crumble under the Twins' unleashed power, the dying Cariel uses gatesending to touch Orym's mind. She restores Orym's ancient memories, leading him to the horrifying realization of his true identity: he is Akhenaten (Aten), the ancient scientist who originally trapped the Twins eons ago.
Key Characters
- Arra (Alleria): Learns the devastating truth that the villainous Cariel is her mother. She breaks her mother's soulbleed and ultimately kills her to save the world.
- Trey (Tarathiel): Struggles with the realization that his life's work was flawed. He is temporarily soulbound by Cariel, but uses a massive soulcircle to heal her blindness. Misguided by the Key, he inadvertently releases the Twins.
- Cariel (Mirra / Selenia / Magona): The primary antagonist. Revealed to be Arra's mother and Lorelei's sister. A master of soulmagic who orchestrates the return of Eryn to free the Twins and steal their power.
- Rylan: Murdered by Cariel, he traverses Ambarhal to save Elanil, returning to the physical world as a Prime Mage.
- Elanil: Trapped in Ambarhal after her death in a previous book, she is rescued by Rylan and reborn as a Prime Mage.
- Allain: Masters a unique mistweaving technique called "splinterleaping," allowing him to create rapid, functional clones to essentially teleport and fight.
- Erodar the Prime: A charismatic stage magician who uses mental "architecture" rather than carving blocks to create massive mistweaving illusions.
- Orym (Akhenaten / Aten): An ancient scientist exploring the submerged city of Atlantis on Earth. As Cariel dies, she restores his memories, revealing he is the legendary Aten who imprisoned the Twins.
- Quynn: Trapped on the jungle planet of Eryn, he inadvertently assists in releasing the dark Twin from the tree Laurelin.
Magic and Lore Introduced
- The True Nature of the Twins: The Twins are not gods, but alien refugees from a distant planet called Starmist Prime. They wielded an ancient, hyper-advanced technological weapon called Xyclami (Guruthos), using its power to artificially invent "Prime magic" and control the elves. Their true physical forms resemble towering Egyptian Anubis statues.
- The Fourteen Gifts of the Soul: The foundational "soulmagic" that underlies all Prime magic. It includes devastating abilities such as soulbinding, soulmisting, soulshadowing (resurrecting the dead as mindless slaves), and soulbleeding (leeching physical energy from offspring).
- The Defense Mechanism: Revealed by Lashel to actually be a prison (Thangail Band) designed by Aten to contain the Twins. The planets Earth and Eryn were used as the physical prisons and moved far away from Valaralda.
- Splinterleaping: A highly advanced mistweaving technique invented by Allain. By rapidly creating and dismissing mistwoven clones (splinters) of himself, he can effectively fly, teleport, and be in multiple places at once.
- Mental Architecture: Erodar proves that mistweavers do not strictly need carving blocks; a mage with a deep understanding of architecture can construct massive, complex illusions entirely within their mind.
- Caladmain: With the return of the planet Eryn, a massive line of lightprime magic (caladmain) is detected, counteracting the darkprime (dúathmain) signal from Earth.