When Elegies Are Ashes
Na Saoirsí: a devastated city, an exhausted heart...
A secret guarded by woods and fog.
Loughshinny comes with a vision of peace, holding true to her promise.
Meanwhile, that manipulator of death has prepared a long enough story to tell.
As Red Dragon slays Red Dragon, blessings return to their gifter, and the departed return to fire.
Then what? What sort of future will the flames bring to Tara now?
- EA-ST-1: Walk Through the Cold Night (Interlude)In a dilapidated inn, a writer tells a fragmented tale: the greedy red dragon rouses the long-dead Exiled King, while her noble sister leads her companions back to the capital of Tara, Na Saoirsí.
- EA-1: Title Page (Before Operation)Na Saoirsí is caught up in the Samhain celebrations, but Loughshinny senses that something is amiss. A statue, a 'feast', and barely hidden hatred... What she encounters drives her to meet her sister. Both of them look down at the city engulfed in violet flames.
- EA-1: Title Page (After Operation)After a falling-out with her sister, Loughshinny fails in her attempt to dispel the violet flames. Brigid wants to leave the city and go elsewhere, but gets stuck outside its gates. Dublinn, who should be upholding order in the city, only exacerbates the crisis.
- EA-2: But Only Farewell (Before Operation)Famine breaks out in the city, and hatred for the Victorians is deliberately stoked. Culann tries to distribute stored grain to maintain order, and delegates the task of finding Theo to Nemos. Nemos searches everywhere for Theo to no avail, and eventually runs into Loughshinny.
- EA-2: But Only Farewell (After Operation)Loughshinny and Brigid search for Theo the apprentice, when they notice something suspicious about the city's grain shop owner. As night falls, Dublinn's victory celebration is about to begin… In the tavern, after another round of drinks, the greedy red dragon of the story makes its return.
- EA-3: Suspicion and Impulse (Before Operation)Driven to madness by avarice, the Dublinners are led into the Dark Woods by the greedy red dragon. From the grain shop owner, Loughshinny and Brigid learn the truth about Theo's disappearance and the whereabouts of the smuggled food carts.
- EA-3: Suspicion and Impulse (After Operation)The return of the food carts does little to stem the spread of mayhem. Culann learns the truth before Loughshinny and Nemos find him, and makes the decision to destroy the statue in the middle of the square.
- EA-4: That Old Dance (Before Operation)Culann drags the sculpture to the city square and tries to make the masses see reason, but dies surrounded by the crowd's madness. Then, purple flames burn, and Eblana descends... The first fragmented story ends here, while the curtains slowly unfurl on the second.
- EA-4: That Old Dance (After Operation)The statue burns in the square, and invitations to dance—both past and present—overlap as Eblana and Loughshinny face each other, separated by the departed hero in between. In the end, Loughshinny receives an agreement, and takes the deceased out of Na Saoirsí and towards the historical ruins.
- EA-5: Drowned in Fire (Before Operation)With the aid of the Exiled King, Loughshinny penetrates the barrier in the Dark Woods and reunites with her companions. In the ruins, the wakemen reject Loughshinny's unspoken words, but accept the request to hold a funeral for the departed.
- EA-5: Drowned in Fire (After Operation)Eblana welcomes an unexpected guest in the city. In the ruins outside, Loughshinny witnesses a traditional Taran funeral's fire-returning ceremony.
- EA-6: The Lost (Before Operation)After the funeral, the Exiled King once again appears before Loughshinny, inviting her to witness the secret within the palace ruins for herself. Loughshinny comes face to face with Tara's past, and the story of the Exiled King himself.
- EA-6: The Lost (After Operation)Casualties in the city are heavy. The flames of hatred burn furiously. Loughshinny returns to the city with Brigid. In the ruins, the wakemen and Moran talk about Tara's past. In the tavern, the unnamed woman continues the story.
- EA-ST-2: Death of a Romance (Interlude)The noble red dragon returns to the castle once more. To win many more futures than her own, she goes to confront the greedy red dragon, to kill her, and yet, to mourn her.
- EA-7: One Who Burns the Lamp (Before Operation)Eblana falls, but the purple fire in the city burns even fiercer. Loughshinny, Nemos, and Brigid each take their own action... Here ends the second story.
- EA-7: One Who Burns the Lamp (After Operation)To give the story an ending, the writer begins to tell the third story: Brigid makes a bet with the Exiled King, Loughshinny confronts the dark mist, and Nemos announces the death of the Red Dragon.
- EA-8: At the End of the Night (Before Operation)The curfew is broken by the rising desire to avenge the Red Dragon, until Brigid brings the wakemen back into the city. At the same time, Loughshinny continues to struggle against the dark mist. Amidst sorrow and song, the people begin to return the Red Dragon's flame.
- EA-8: At the End of the Night (After Operation)As the flames return amidst song, Loughshinny prevails over the dark mist as well as her hesitant heart and enters the purple fire, transforming the purple shade of death into an orange hue of rebirth. From the firelight the red dragon comes back to life, sending the darkness away.
- EA-ST-3: Back Cover (Interlude)Here ends the third story. The narration is now complete, and the storytellers revealed. A myth is born, and the nation of Tara rises. The one and only Red Dragon leads her people towards a new life, but her 'shadow' appears at Rhodes Island.