Characters

The Inspector

Known facts

nickname-from-hairBorn Glorf — an old family name — and was renicknamed Tress in childhood for the wild, escaping strands her morning braid never managed to subdue.STD:Tress:Ch 1
cup-collectorTrades baked pies — paid for with what she earns scrubbing windows — to visiting sailors in exchange for cups they bring back from across the twelve seas. The collection is her one indulgence and her one window onto the world.STD:Tress:Ch 2
household-supporterCarries the household after her father Lem's old mine injury leaves him barely able to walk, doing the shopping, cooking, and the watching of her little brother while her parents knit socks for sailors at meager margin.STD:Tress:Ch 4
decides-to-rescue-charlieAfter the duke refuses the ransom, the king declares Charlie dead, and the island carries on as if nothing has happened, Tress decides — two months into the silence — that since no one else cares she will have to leave the Rock and go rescue him herself.STD:Tress:Ch 5
banned-from-window-workAfter she dares climb to the mansion to plead with the duke to pay Charlie's ransom, the duke calls her a hazelnut-haired strumpet and forbids her from washing windows anywhere in town — collapsing her household onto her parents' sock-knitting at reduced piecework rates.STD:Tress:Ch 5
impersonates-inspectorTo get off Diggen's Point without alerting the duke, Tress does not stow away at all. She steals the spare uniform from the royal inspector's closet, alters it to fit, sabotages the dock register so the real inspector arrives late, and boards the Oot's Dream herself as the inspector — sending a decoy stowaway (Gret) into the kegs to be loudly "discovered" while she walks aboard in red and gold.STD:Tress:Ch 6
plans-ransom-routeTress's initial plan to free Charlie is the less suicidal half of the problem — not to cross the Midnight Sea to the Sorceress herself, but to ride into the Core Archipelago, get a copy of the ransom note from the king's palace, and find some way to pay or persuade the king into paying it.STD:Tress:Ch 7
thinks-while-she-scrubsHas spent enough of her life listening to off-duty sailors complain that she knows the trade of scrubbing a deck better than many of the people doing it — she scrubs across the planks rather than along, knows the boards will need pitch when she is done — and is at her best, mentally, when her hands are busy with that kind of work.STD:Tress:Ch 15
joins-crows-song-as-sprouterOn the Shimmerbay dock, with a gangplank down to freedom and Crow sitting in the dark with a pipe daring her to take it, Tress turns down the chance to walk away. Instead she asks the captain to make her the Crow's Song's new sprouter in Weev's place — and is taken on, on the condition that she forfeit her share of the first three plunders and never lie to Crow again.STD:Tress:Ch 20
stays-to-protect-the-crewFaced with a clear path to Shimmerbay and on to Charlie, Tress chooses instead to stay on the Crow's Song and try to break Crow's grip on the crew — they are a family, she decides, and she will not leave them to the captain. She intends to use her place aboard to reach the Midnight Sea when she can.STD:Tress:Ch 20
given-sprouters-cabinWakes the morning after taking the post to find Crow handing her the key to Weev's old cabin — bunk, mirror, drawers, a basin with a real bath, and walls of aluminum over silver-lined hull. The floor, alone of all the Crow's Song's decks, has no silver in it — because a sprouter has to work with live spores. None of the Dougs had fought for the room after Weev died for exactly that reason.STD:Tress:Ch 21
chooses-hoid-as-her-route-to-charlieResolves, on hearing from Ulaam that Hoid has been to the Sorceress and back, that her plan to save Charlie will run through the cabin boy — find a way to break his curse, get him to lead her to the Midnight Sea, and learn from him how to deal with the Sorceress once she gets there.STD:Tress:Ch 21
swaps-forward-cannonballsUses the cover of counting zephyr charges into a metal box to crack the false bottom of the forward cannon's gunnery barrel and swap Laggart's five hidden water-cannonballs for ordinary ones from the hold — her first concrete act of sabotage against Crow's plan to keep manufacturing deadrunners.STD:Tress:Ch 22
sabotage-saves-first-prize-shipHer swapped water-cannonball holds up under Laggart's warning shot: the ordinary ball she has fed him bursts as designed, soaks the prey ship's flank with water, and lets the vines that erupt from the spores hold it fast — but the hull stays intact. Crow gets her prize ship instead of Laggart's usual "warning shot" through the planks. Laggart curses softly. Tress's sabotage has worked.STD:Tress:Ch 24
first-hull-patchOn her first day as ship's sprouter, with a hole at the prow nine feet above the floor of the hold and the seethe restarting under her, Tress grows a roseite plug into the breach by feel — figuring out the iron-and-silver tool trick herself, leaving her shield tool overgrown and stuck in place rather than risk pulling it free. The patch holds.STD:Tress:Ch 25
sabotaged-cannonballs-saved-merchant-crewTress's swap of Laggart's rigged cannonballs lets the prey ship's surrender flare actually save its crew. The hit they take goes off in a burst of vines across the aft, not a sinking — without that, Crow had every excuse she needed to run them all through and put the merchant crew at the bottom of the sea with the crew of the Oot's Dream.STD:Tress:Ch 26
realises-crow-keeping-her-on-board-is-suspiciousHuck reminds Tress that Crow eats bullets, hates everyone aboard, and has just had a casual change of heart about wanting her off the ship. That should worry her more, not less. Tress takes the point and starts looking at the captain's friendliness as another piece of the puzzle she does not yet understand.STD:Tress:Ch 28
tells-salay-about-cannonball-swap-and-crow-plotTress decides — given that Salay stood up alone to Crow over the merchant ship — that the helmswoman is the one crew member she will trust. She tells her about the rigged cannonballs in Laggart's false-bottomed barrels, the swap that has been spoiling his shots, and Crow's underlying purpose: to force the crew to commit acts that would brand them deadrunners and bind them to her past hope of mutiny.STD:Tress:Ch 29
first-attempt-at-midnight-sporesFaced with Huck's warning that the cabal meeting may not be safe to attend without more information, Tress picks three black grains out of Weev's aluminum box, sets them on the mattress with a silver knife and several waterskins to hand as Ulaam instructed, takes a breath, thinks of Charlie, and lets a drop fall from an eyedropper onto the spores. It is the first time she has germinated any spore on purpose with the intent of bonding to it.STD:Tress:Ch 29
forms-first-luhel-bondTress forms her first Luhel bond in her cabin: three midnight grains grow into a fist-sized blob of midnight aether, take a ratlike shape from Huck cowering in the corner of the bed, and come under her control once she drinks down a waterskin to satisfy the bond's thirst. She rides the not-rat through the ship in her mind, fights its own predatory wants for several minutes, and is finally cast back into her own body parched and withered when she loses the contest.STD:Tress:Ch 30
cannot-extinguish-cabals-hopeGiven the chance to prove she is not a King's Mask — by openly claiming the title, which a real Mask would be forbidden to do — Tress cannot make herself say it. She sees how badly Salay, Fort and Ann need to believe they have an agent of the King who will vouch for them, and refuses to stamp the hope out. Her workaround for the rest of the book is to change the subject every time the question is pressed, and to let the misunderstanding stand.STD:Tress:Ch 31
promises-salay-to-vouch-with-king-if-ablePressed at the doorway by Salay one last time, Tress makes a non-committal vow: if she ever has the chance to speak with the King on the Song crew's behalf, she will take it and tell him they tried to stop Crow. Salay hears the hedge for what it is — an unwillingness to admit being a King's Mask, which she reads as further confirmation that Tress is one — and pronounces the promise good enough.STD:Tress:Ch 31
discloses-charlie-rescue-mission-to-crowOn the bow of the Crow's Song at sunset, Tress tells Crow the truth she has otherwise kept to herself: that someone she loves was taken by the Sorceress and that she intends to travel to her island to bring him back. It is the one true thing she says in the conversation, and she says it strategically — as bait — because she has already worked out that mentioning the Midnight Sea will give her the lever she needs to talk Crow onto the Crimson.STD:Tress:Ch 32
realises-she-has-become-someone-who-liesStanding on the bow with Crow, Tress notices how readily lies are now coming out of her — not just the lies to the captain, which she does not feel bad about, but the general density of them across her life on the Song. She arrives at a thought the narrator endorses: people do not divide cleanly into liars and non-liars; circumstance and upbringing produce the lies, and the lies produce the liars. The reflexive, situational lying becomes part of how she operates from this point forward.STD:Tress:Ch 32
resolves-to-defeat-crow-with-her-sporesAfter a stretch of grief in her cabin, comforted by Huck's recounting of the rogue port town's bell tower and drinking fountain, Tress sits up on the bed and decides she will not simply be delivered to the dragon. She needs a way to defend herself; she needs a way to defeat Crow before they reach Xisis's palace. Conveniently, her sprouter's cabin contains five varieties of the deadliest substance on the planet.STD:Tress:Ch 35
untapped-aptitude-for-sprouting-researchLeft alone with Weev's scattered papers and a deadline to save her own life, Tress discovers that she can lose hours to the study of spore mechanics without noticing the light fade. The narrator notes that her schooling ended at basic reading and arithmetic; the trait that makes her a quick study is the same common sense — practical, cautious, the kind of person who uses oven mitts on a pot that has already cooled — that makes most sprouters more durable than the average of their profession. She had simply never met a subject interesting enough, or dangerous enough, to draw it out.STD:Tress:Ch 36
trained-on-the-aft-cannonAfter the Song aborts its first attempt at the Crimson, Laggart takes Tress up onto the aft cannon platform — exposed past the deck silver precisely so zephyr charges live long enough to fire — and curtly walks her once through loading and firing the Song's rear gun. He drops a buoy on a line behind the ship as her target, instructs her to take five shots a day, refuses to teach her anything more until she can sink it in two, and stalks off. Tress fires her first shot the moment he is out of sight, both to learn the cannon and because she is already planning a spore weapon she can use against Crow.STD:Tress:Ch 37
conceives-impact-detonating-cannonballListening to Ann explain that the trick of cannon work is judging distance so the fuse pops the round just before impact, Tress proposes — out loud and then privately to herself — that one could simply build a cannonball that detonates on impact, and connects the proposal to the impact detonation charge reference in Weev's papers. The shape problem is harder: a round that is not actually round, a tipped projectile fired tip-forward like an arrow that pushes its own detonator back into itself on impact.STD:Tress:Ch 38
cooked-for-her-parents-on-rockFalling back into kitchen routines aboard the Song, Tress thinks back on how many times she cooked for her parents on the Rock using whatever they could afford or scavenge. The job is the same, only the scale is larger, and the kitchen craft itself is part of who she is — the practical, resourceful, oven-mitt-on-a-cool-pot competence that the Song's crew first sees when Fort cries on the first bite of her steamed nut bread.STD:Tress:Ch 39
trades-cooking-for-flare-gunIn exchange for taking over evening mess on the Song — cooking one good meal a day in Fort's name until the ship reaches its destination in the Crimson — Tress secures from Fort a flare gun with flares, no questions asked. Fort will tell the Dougs he is trying out new recipes and only has time to practise one per day; the morning and noon meals will remain his usual.STD:Tress:Ch 39
builds-immobilizing-flare-against-crowOn consultation with Ulaam — who reports that the spores in Crow's blood will defend her against anything that tries to break her skin — Tress designs her weapon as a non-lethal trap. She cannibalises a flare, reverses the silver-tipped detonator so it sits behind the cap (and so will be driven back into the roseite core on impact), pulls the sunlight spores out, and replaces them with sand and a few grains of verdant spores. On striking a hard surface the modified flare will burst with vines that pin Crow to whatever she is standing in front of without injuring her — at which point Salay can take the ship.STD:Tress:Ch 40
cups-no-longer-hold-the-old-charmStudying her shelf of cups while a verdant vine coils softly around her finger, Tress admits to herself that she is still fond of them only because they remind her of Charlie. The cups themselves no longer hold the charm they once did. She has seen too much of the world now — and not only of the places — for the old hobby to be enough on its own. Rescuing Charlie is her goal, not her purpose; she still does not know what her purpose is, but it is not, any longer, the cups.STD:Tress:Ch 40
locates-sorceress-island-via-hoid-silenceAfter several attempts to question Hoid around his curse, Tress notices that he goes uncharacteristically quiet whenever she talks about sailing to find the Sorceress. She sends for a chart of the Midnight Sea and walks her finger across it, asking him to guide her to each place in turn — he supplies some interesting fact about each one in cheerful succession until she touches a particular point near the boundary of the Midnight and the Crimson, perhaps half a day's sail inward. He says nothing. It is the first concrete piece of information she has unearthed about the Sorceress since leaving the Rock.STD:Tress:Ch 41
tests-modified-flares-in-cargo-holdTress builds and tests four variants of her modified flare, each with a different mix of verdant aether in the flare and different amounts of zephyr in the charge, recording each combination in a notebook. She takes them down to the Song's empty cargo hold under cover of inspecting Ann's roseite hull patch, with Laggart's permission and the latch on the trap-door overhead pulled shut for privacy.STD:Tress:Ch 43
can-direct-vines-by-thoughtTress discovers that her Connection to verdant aether extends to the live vines themselves, not just to the bit-of-vine sample from a flare timer. When her first under-powered prototype fires into the floor at her feet and erupts, she is hoisted two feet off the ground in a snarl of vines — and finds that by thinking of the still-growing tips pulling back from her, she can make them obey. With a later prototype she keeps a fresh burst of vines from grabbing anything by willing them not to: instead of seizing the hold's walls and ribs they stretch toward her and then collapse harmlessly to the floor. Already-grown vines remain inert; the control is over the growing edge.STD:Tress:Ch 43
fully-loses-spore-fearStanding two feet off the deck wrapped in a trellis of her own verdant vines — humiliated rather than frightened, alive and unharmed, eventually laughing — Tress sheds the last of the spore fear she has carried since the Rock. She will still be careful, but spores are no longer the thing that paralyses her.STD:Tress:Ch 43
grows-proficient-shaping-verdant-vinesOver the three days after meeting Salay, Tress practises with verdant spores until she can have the vines grow in tight spirals, stretch tall and strong, or grow slowly while holding back much of their force. She still feels, behind each shaping, the same faint presence she identifies as either the moon itself or the always-growing maternal vines on it — an impression rather than a mind.STD:Tress:Ch 45
field-tests-modified-flare-on-ulaamDown in the hold, Tress field-tests her improved vine-flare on Ulaam, cocooning him in verdant vines from feet to neck. Across ten test shots she has not produced a single dud — proof her redesigned charge is more reliable than the version she copied from Weev's notebook — and a working answer to how she will handle Captain Crow when the time comes.STD:Tress:Ch 46
prepared-a-verdant-cannonball-in-secretAmong her other preparations Tress has quietly grown and waxed a roseite sphere the size of a child's head and packed it with an enormous charge of verdant spores — a single-use device meant to be lowered into a barrel of water and breached, after which she can shape the resulting aether tree from below by touch and thought.STD:Tress:Ch 47
lifts-crows-song-above-double-rainfallCaught sporelocked on the slopes of the Crimson with two rainlines converging on the Crow's Song at once, Tress has Fort lower her over the side on a rope and a barrel of water alongside her. She drops her secret verdant cannonball into the barrel and, hands pressed to the bursting vines, wills them up. The resulting verdant aether tree hoists the ship some forty feet into the air above the crimson spike-thicket as the rain hits, the spikes piercing the elastic trunk without snapping it. Every soul on board, captain included, is saved.STD:Tress:Ch 47
can-wrest-control-of-others-midnight-essenceTress discovers, on instinct, that another spore-eater's Midnight Essence can be seized away from its creator if she is physically nearer to it than they are. She rips control of Crow's eavesdropping construct out of Crow's hands, panics, severs the connection, and the construct puffs into dark smoke.STD:Tress:Ch 48
salay-finally-believes-tress-is-no-kings-maskHeld under Crow's grip on the deck after the duel, Tress meets Salay's pleading eyes and turns away. Salay understands at last — *you were never one, were you?* — and Tress whispers that no, she had tried to tell her.STD:Tress:Ch 49
turns-crows-trade-around-on-the-spotStanding before Xisis in the dragon's chamber, with Crow making her practised opening — *I have come to initiate your ancient pact of promise, to offer you this slave* — Tress hears the narrator's words again and gambles everything. She repeats the exact formula word-for-word, then gestures at Crow instead of herself.STD:Tress:Ch 50
declares-resolve-to-reach-sorceress-no-matter-the-costFaced with the choice between serving Xisis for the rest of her life and continuing to Charlie, Tress declares to the dragon that she will never relent in her attempts to escape — that she will collapse the cave, walk through the spores, spend fifty years if she must, and force him to kill her to stop her — because she will reach the Midnight Sea, find the Sorceress, and save the man she loves. The declaration, more than any of her earlier arguments, is what convinces Xisis to release her.STD:Tress:Ch 51
becomes-captain-of-crows-songAfter returning from the dragon's lair alone, Tress takes command of the Crow's Song. She tries to give the captaincy to Salay, who refuses on the grounds that a first mate's job is to make certain the captain is making good decisions — and that ceding command is itself a bad one. Tress's first orders as captain are to sail for the Midnight Sea that night and to claim Crow's old cabin for herself.STD:Tress:Ch 52
reveals-huck-and-her-true-mission-to-the-officersSailing toward the Midnight, Tress formally introduces Huck to Salay, Ann, and Fort as a sapient talking rat who has been her ally since Diggen's Point. She then explains the dangers of the Midnight Sea, who she really is, why she left home, and that her true mission is to confront the Sorceress and free the man she loves. The officers accept all of it without further question.STD:Tress:Ch 53
can-outbid-midnight-spore-creatures-by-offering-more-waterTress demonstrates that a midnight-spore creature, once bonded to one host through water taken under duress, can be made to abandon that host and accept her instead if she offers it more water freely than it could take from the unwilling subject. Once it accepts her bid, she has complete control of the creature and can dismiss it, evaporating it to nothing. She proves the technique by stealing a tankard-shaped creature's bond off Fort in the captain's cabin.STD:Tress:Ch 54
kept-laggart-aboard-the-ship-after-mutinyAfter taking command of the Crow's Song, Tress elects to let Laggart remain aboard rather than turn him out, on the reasoning that without Crow to impress he is unlikely to make trouble. He spends the days that follow pacing the deck in confusion and resentment.STD:Tress:Ch 54
cages-huck-after-his-betrayalAfter Huck admits to engineering the food-store sabotage through Hoid, Tress locks him in one of the messenger-bird cages Crow had kept aboard, on the grounds that she can no longer trust him not to do something more drastic to stop her reaching the Sorceress. It breaks her heart to do it; he refuses to face her from inside the cage.STD:Tress:Ch 55
resolves-to-go-alone-into-midnightAfter taking out her cup collection and singling out two — the butterfly cup from Charlie and her pewter tankard — Tress tells Salay to launch the boat: she will row out into the Midnight Sea alone to test whether she can seize control of the spore monsters before risking the rest of the crew on the approach. She has reframed her aim around getting Hoid in position to act against the Sorceress rather than trying to defeat her herself.STD:Tress:Ch 56
fails-to-seize-midnight-creatureTress's gamble on the Midnight Sea — that she could reach out and seize control of a midnight creature the way she had earlier of her own small one — fails. The creature rears away from her touch, rebuffs the offer of water, and reverses on her to feed. The plan was credible in principle, the narrator notes, but she has only been sprouting a couple of weeks and the Sorceress has built her creations to detect foreign control.STD:Tress:Ch 57
sees-through-the-false-charlieAt the foot of the steps of the tower, listening to the rescued Charlie chat brightly about returning to pies and window-washing and gardening on the Rock, Tress realises she has changed too much to want any of that any more — and that the man in front of her hasn't changed at all. She knows Charlie: that smile is one step too far. She runs back up the stairs and tells the Sorceress this is not Charlie — and accuses her of having turned him into a rat.STD:Tress:Ch 59
chooses-charlie-the-ratOnce the curse is in the open, Tress picks Charlie up and tells him she wants this — to be with him, in whatever shape he is — invoking what he had told her before they parted: always what she wants. She does not flinch at his rat-form.STD:Tress:Ch 60
asks-for-helpFaced with the crew arriving uninvited to rescue her, finally asks for help instead of trying to send people away — the avalanche of change she has been carrying since the Rock finally tipping over.STD:Tress:Ch 61
drove-sorceress-from-lumarSingle-handedly drove the Sorceress off the planet from inside her own tower while still pinned to the wall by her bonds — refusing to leave on demand and instead listing the woman's crimes and ordering her, at gunpoint from the Crow's Song's officers, never to return.STD:Tress:Ch 63
captain-of-two-cupsCaptain of the Two Cups five months after the tower, in long jacket and plumed hat, by royal writ entitled to exclusive trade through the Crimson and Midnight Seas for single-handedly stopping the Sorceress. Reunited with her parents on the docks of the Rock; ushered them aboard with her brother and sailed again with Charlie.STD:Tress:Epilogue

Previously known as: the-inspector

Backreferences

summarySTD:Tress:Ch 1
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 2
factCharlie · duke-son-hiding
factCharlie · description
factSnagu · description
factLead · description
factIriali Cup · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 3
factLotari · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 4
factHoid · cabin-boy-on-diggens-point-run
factCharlie · promised-cups-from-each-port
factLem · description
factUlba · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 5
factTress · decides-to-rescue-charlie
factCharlie · sent-to-sorceress
factHolmes · description
factFlik · description
factBrunswick · description
factThanasmia · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 6
factTress · impersonates-inspector
factLem · currency-of-favours
factBrick's Tavern · description
factGret · description
factOot's Dream · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 7
factTress · plans-ransom-route
factCaptain of the Oot's Dream · description
factCore Archipelago · description
factSilver · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 8
factCharlie · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 9
factSprouter · description
factDorp · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 10
factCharlie · description
factCannonmaster · description
factPewter Cup · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 11
factThe Crow's Song · description
factCaptain Crow · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 12
factHoid · cabin-boy-on-crows-song
factThe Crow's Song · declared-piracy
factLaggart · description
factThe Whistlebow · description
factWatch · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 13
factAnn · description
factFelony Murder Rule · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 14
factHoid · description
factSalay · description
factThe Sapphire Sea · description
factZephyr Spores · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 15
factCannonmaster · cannons-use-zephyr-spores
factWeev · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 16
factDeadrunner · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 17
factUlaam · collects-body-parts
factUlaam · salve-heals-instantly
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 18
factCharlie · trusts-tress-because-she-didnt-try-to-kill-him
factCaptain Crow · forcing-crew-into-deadrunner-status
factLaggart · confirms-hidden-cannonball-cache
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 19
factSalay · searching-for-father-in-debt
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 20
factTress · joins-crows-song-as-sprouter
factTress · stays-to-protect-the-crew
factCaptain Crow · crew-is-genuinely-afraid-of-her
factCaptain Crow · lets-tress-walk-the-gangplank
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 21
factThe Sprouter's Cabin · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 22
factThe Twelve Seas · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 23
factHoid · curse-blocks-speech-about-itself
factHoid · points-tress-to-six-stars
factCharlie · from-a-place-of-talking-rats
factMidnight Spores · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 24
factTress · sabotage-saves-first-prize-ship
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 25
factTress · first-hull-patch
factAnn · would-have-failed-the-patch
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 26
factTress · sabotaged-cannonballs-saved-merchant-crew
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 27
factHoid · gave-weev-the-midnight-spores
factCharlie · identified-as-a-familiar
factUlaam · collects-and-grafts-body-parts
factUlaam · description
factMidnight Spores · bond-with-host-trading-water
factAether · description
factMidnight Aether · description
factConnection · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 28
factTress · realises-crow-keeping-her-on-board-is-suspicious
factCharlie · family-of-talking-rats-on-distant-island
factCharlie · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 29
factTress · tells-salay-about-cannonball-swap-and-crow-plot
factTress · first-attempt-at-midnight-spores
factSalay · convinced-tress-is-a-kings-mask
factSalay · organises-secret-meeting-against-crow
factRegalthon · description
factZephyr Sea · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 30
factTress · forms-first-luhel-bond
factCharlie · saved-tress-from-dehydration
factCaptain Crow · plan-to-reach-xisis-via-crimson-sea
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 31
factTress · cannot-extinguish-cabals-hope
factTress · promises-salay-to-vouch-with-king-if-able
factLaggart · cannonballs-rigged-to-sink
factSalay · cabal-plan-divert-crows-song-from-shipping-lanes
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 32
factTress · discloses-charlie-rescue-mission-to-crow
factTress · realises-she-has-become-someone-who-lies
factCaptain Crow · agrees-to-divert-to-crimson-sea
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 33
factCaptain Crow · intends-to-trade-tress-to-xisis
factMidnight Aether · collapses-to-black-smoke-leaving-no-trace
factXisisrefliel · trades-boons-for-spore-fearless-servants
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 34
factMidnight Sea · every-ship-is-attacked-by-monsters
factCrimson Sea · rain-falls-unpredictably-and-kills-clever-and-fool
factCaptain Crow · knew-tress-swapped-the-cannonballs
factRain · ribbons-and-predictable-routes-on-most-seas
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 35
factTress · resolves-to-defeat-crow-with-her-spores
factEmerald Sea · rogue-islands-exist-at-the-seas-edge
factCharlie · cannot-return-home
factFort · meets-deaf-community-ashore
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 36
factTress · untapped-aptitude-for-sprouting-research
factWater Cannonball · internal-mechanism-three-aethers
factFort · cooks-shipboard-meals
factImpact Detonation Charge · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 37
factTress · trained-on-the-aft-cannon
factCrimson Sea · rain-is-walls-of-spines
factLaggart · does-not-know-of-tress-sale-to-dragon
factCrimson Moon · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 38
factTress · conceives-impact-detonating-cannonball
factAnn · chicken-farmer-from-portside-town
factAnn · fires-cannon-with-tress
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 39
factTress · cooked-for-her-parents-on-rock
factTress · trades-cooking-for-flare-gun
factFort · hunter-by-profession-bargaining-is-his-hunt
factKulunut · description
factSunlight Spores · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 40
factTress · builds-immobilizing-flare-against-crow
factTress · cups-no-longer-hold-the-old-charm
factVerdant Aether · vines-seek-tress
factMoonday · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 41
factHoid · curse-only-discussable-with-someone-who-knows
factTress · locates-sorceress-island-via-hoid-silence
factThe Sorceress · island-near-crimson-midnight-border
factThe Twelve Seas · shaped-as-pentagons
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 42
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 43
factTress · tests-modified-flares-in-cargo-hold
factTress · can-direct-vines-by-thought
factTress · fully-loses-spore-fear
factPakson · kind-doug-who-helped-tress-aboard
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 44
factCaptain Crow · bound-for-xisis-to-cure-spore-eater-disease
factSalay · believes-tress-is-a-protected-royal-agent
factRoyal press-ganging · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 45
factTress · grows-proficient-shaping-verdant-vines
factLunagree · piles-spores-into-shallow-mountain
factCharlie · taken-as-ransom-for-the-king
factCharlie · found-rat-informant-on-sorceress-island
factMidnight Monsters · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 46
factHoid · tells-tress-she-has-everything-she-needs
factTress · field-tests-modified-flare-on-ulaam
factUlaam · explains-how-to-take-crow-without-triggering-her-vines
factUlaam · digests-himself-free-of-restraints
factUlaam · declines-to-join-mutiny
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 47
factTress · prepared-a-verdant-cannonball-in-secret
factTress · lifts-crows-song-above-double-rainfall
factFort · saves-tress-from-spikes-during-aether-lift
factVerdant Cannonball · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 48
factTress · can-wrest-control-of-others-midnight-essence
factCaptain Crow · spies-on-crew-with-midnight-essence
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 49
factTress · salay-finally-believes-tress-is-no-kings-mask
factCaptain Crow · crushes-mutiny-by-humiliation-rather-than-execution
factLaggart · shoots-salay-in-the-thigh-to-prove-a-point
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 50
factTress · turns-crows-trade-around-on-the-spot
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 51
factTress · declares-resolve-to-reach-sorceress-no-matter-the-cost
factSpore Eater · dragon-cure-only-lasts-a-year-or-two-away-from-the-dragon
factXisisrefliel · takes-crow-as-servant-in-place-of-tress
factXisisrefliel · fears-precisely-one-being-on-the-planet
factXisisrefliel · policy-of-non-interference-with-surface-world
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 52
factTress · becomes-captain-of-crows-song
factFort · receives-replacement-writing-board-from-xisis
factAnn · diagnosed-with-micropsia-by-xisis
factSalay's father · arrived-in-filistrate-city-six-months-ago
factMicropsia · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 53
factTress · reveals-huck-and-her-true-mission-to-the-officers
factCharlie · appoints-himself-tress-valet
factCharlie · volunteers-to-infiltrate-sorceress-tower-through-raven-window
factFort · proposes-vine-cannonball-against-metal-guardians
factFort's Board · replacement-board-scrolls-text-and-supports-different-fonts
factThe Sorceress's tower · exterior-coated-in-silver
factMidnight Moon · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 54
factTress · can-outbid-midnight-spore-creatures-by-offering-more-water
factTress · kept-laggart-aboard-the-ship-after-mutiny
factLaggart · broken-by-tress-genuine-kindness-flees-cabin
factMidnight Monsters · are-midnight-spore-creatures-bonded-to-the-sorceress
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 55
factTress · cages-huck-after-his-betrayal
factCharlie · instructs-hoid-to-sabotage-food-stores
factThe Dougs · volunteer-to-eat-verdant-and-continue-voyage
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 56
factHoid · likely-cursed-on-purpose
factTress · resolves-to-go-alone-into-midnight
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 57
factTress · fails-to-seize-midnight-creature
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 58
factCharlie · admits-he-belongs-to-the-sorceress
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 59
factTress · sees-through-the-false-charlie
factThe Sorceress · has-been-spying-via-forts-board
factThe Sorceress · keeps-a-vat-of-acid-for-ulaam-s-kind
factLumar · description
factSeslo · description
factThe false Charlie · description
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 60
factTress · chooses-charlie-the-rat
factCharlie · cursed-into-rat-form-by-sorceress
factCharlie · refuses-to-trade-tress
factThe Sorceress · terms-of-charlies-curse
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 61
factHoid · cure-is-returning-to-sorceress
factCharlie · gardener-not-rat
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 62
factMetal Guardians · flummoxed-by-vines
summarySTD:Tress:Ch 63
factHoid · broke-curse-on-tower-doorstep
factHoid · can-draw-aons
factHoid · description
factCharlie · opened-tower-door
factThe Sorceress · driven-from-lumar
factThe Sorceress · description
summarySTD:Tress:Epilogue
factHoid · reworked-charlies-curse
factCharlie · restored-to-human-form
factTwo Cups · description