The Witch Returns

Two years after the final ward closed, Maeril has learned how to keep living without Rishi.

She has not learned how to accept it.

Without telling Elisa or Lantern Hall, Maeril borrows Chime and returns to Candlekeep, where she and Rishi once earned passage through the library’s deepest doors. Each dawn brings one answer from forbidden lore. Most are useless. One reveals the condition no spell can evade: a soul must be willing to return—and free.

Rishi may be willing. He is not free.

His final sacrifice did not destroy the imprint of the Dead Three and Manshoon’s command. It bound that wound to his soul. A resurrection rite could restore his body, but call him back too soon and the prison returns with him.

So Maeril follows the problem from Candlekeep to Sigil and the threshold of divine martyrdom. To reach Rishi, she must gather the family he left behind, confront the machinery built to own a soul’s return, and rewrite resurrection around freedom instead of command.

To free the Monk, the Witch must open death’s door without making love another chain.