Last Flight: A Summary
This novel switches between 9:41-9:42 Dragon and 5:12-5:24 Exalted. I will note the time switches.
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9:41 DRAGON
With the Mage-Templar Conflict in full swing, the Grey Wardens of Weisshaupt make an offer to the Hossberg Circle: Any mage who volunteers to join the Order will be protected from the Templars using the Right of Conscription. Valya, a young elven mage, and four others take up the offer.
They are greeted by an elf warden named Caronel, who explains that they will not be undergoing the Joining right away; instead, they will be put to work in Weisshaupt's libraries. Caronel makes mention that the Chamberlain of the Grey requires their assistance researching blood magic – specifically, cases of wardens acting strangely, and Awakened darkspawn. Caronel takes the mages to the archives and tells them to start with records from the Fourth Blight.
In the library, Valya pours herself over old battle maps, and notices a hint of lyrium on the parchment. Valya uses her magic to reveal new words: “Lathbora viran”, translated as “the path to a place of lost love”. She remembers it from a poem she learned growing up, and uses this as a clue to find a hidden journal – Isseya’s journal. Valya begins to read it in secret.
5:12 EXALTED
Isseya and her brother Garahel, having joined the Grey Wardens a mere year before and still fresh in training, are thrust into battle prematurely when the Blight hits Antiva. So, they are among those sent to Antiva City to meet with the royals. King Elaudio and Queen Giuvana refuse to take the Grey Wardens advice to evacuate the city though, instead saying they will “think on it”.
While waiting for the King’s response, Isseya and Garahel are taken to be paired with a griffon. It’s explained that griffons choose their riders, and that bond is formed for as long as both are alive. Isseya bonds with a griffon named Revas (elven for “Freedom”). Garahel bestows a new name on his griffon: Crookytail.
When the darkspawn hit the city, the Antivan people decide to revolt against the King for his refusal to evacuate. The king and queen are killed, but the Wardens rescue and escape with Amadis Vael who was visiting from Starkhaven, and Calien d’Evaliste, a mysterious mage. In their escape, Isseya witnesses Calien use blood magic that proves very effective against the archdemon, even if they didn’t succeed in killing it.
9:41 DRAGON
It’s been two months since Valya and the others came to Weisshaupt. Valya is scared that without undergoing the Joining, the Wardens will kick them out. Caronel explains that they won’t be undergoing the Joining until there is an immediate need for it, since they may die in the process. Caronel also explains that he became a Grey Warden during the Fifth Blight; after humans attacked his alienage in Ferelden, he took to the Wardens for safety. So, he understands Valya’s situation and promises to defend her against any Templar threat.
Despite this assurance, when five Templars come to Weisshaupt seeking to join, Valya is terrified of ulterior motives.
5:12 EXALTED
In Wycome, the Warden-Commander orders the party of Isseya, Garahel, Amadis and Calien to accompany her back to Starkhaven, and then later they are to go to the Anderfels to rally support. Isseya questions why not Orlais or Tevinter, and the Warden-Commander reminds her that in Orlais and Tevinter, she and her brother won’t make much headway because they’re elves. But in the Anderfels, they will be more respected because of being Wardens.
Isseya joins her brother, Amadis, and Calien at a tavern. There, it’s revealed that Amadis is a princess of Starkhaven, as well as the captain of the influential mercenary company, the Ruby Drakes. Calien shares that he is an Antivan Crow. While they talk, Isseya comes up with a way to evacuate Wycome using magic makeshift aravels.
While Isseya takes the lead with the aravels, Garahel is sent flying letters across Thedas and told to charm his way into convincing various lords and ladies to helping the cause. Isseya laments that she hates the political game required of Wardens, but is glad that Garahel proves mostly successful.
The plan with the aravels mostly works, and Wycome’s citizens are largely evacuated to Starkhaven.
9:41 DRAGON
Valya asks the Chamberlain of the Grey what happened to the griffons. The Chamberlain simply says they died, without explaining how.
Valya is then invited by one of the templars, Reimas, to talk. Reimas says she is not there to harm Valya or the others, and is only interested in peace. Reimas also claims that she only ever wanted to protect mages, though Valya remains disapproving.
5:19 EXALTED
Hossberg in the Anderfels has been fighting the Blight off for the last seven years now, with mostly success. Isseya participates in air-drops of supplies using griffons, and an idea occurs to her: Calien, using blood magic, could get inside the head of a darkspawn scout and they could follow it back to where they are emerging from underground. That way, they could seal off the entrances and slow down the horde significantly. Calien agrees, and following the success of this plan, Isseya asks Calien to teach her.
Calien shares the story of how he learned blood magic himself: he took on a Crow contract to kill a woman, who was in fact an abomination. The demon bargained that in exchange for healing from the wounds inflicted on the attack, it would give Calien blood magic knowledge. Calien agreed, healed the demon only slightly, and then completed the contract. Isseya is not bothered by any of this, seeing blood magic as a practical tool against the Blight. So, Calien agrees to teach her everything he knows.
The next morning, Isseya leads the Grey Wardens to the entrance she and Calien found, and they are ultimately successful in sealing it. However, one of the griffons, Shrike, is mortally infected with the Blight in the assault. Isseya offers a way to make the Joining potentially work on the griffon, using blood magic. (The Joining does not work on the griffons otherwise; it drives them mad to the point that they tear themselves apart.) Shrike’s rider agrees to attempt this, and it saves the griffon’s life.
Queen Mariwen of the Anderfels approaches Isseya and not-so-subtly says that if the Wardens want the crown’s continued cooperation, then they will make Garahel have sex with her.
It’s discovered that the griffon, Shrike, now has incredible vigour and acute senses in battle, because of the Joining. Isseya is disturbed by this unexpected change, and vows not to use the spell she performed to make the Joining work on Shrike ever again. (Oh, my dear girl…)
9:41 DRAGON
Valya asks Reimas if she’s ever encountered a blood mage before, and if it’s really as evil as the Chantry teaches. This conversation prompts Valya to share with Reimas that she found Isseya’s diary. And Reimas admits that maybe it is possible to do good using blood magic.
5:20 EXALTED
Since things have calmed down in the Anderfels since closing the darkspawn entrances, Garahel suggests they shift their focus to the Free Marches. He also tells the group that he plans on refusing to sleep with Queen Mariwen, but Amadis convinces him she’s okay with it because it’s for the greater good. Amadis makes a request though: her own griffon, even though she is not a Warden.
Queen Mariwen throws a party, and Garahel spends the night with her, so she grants the Grey Wardens use of her soldiers. This enables Isseya and many other Wardens to go to Fortress Haine in the Vimmark Mountains, to be used as a safeguard against the Blight in the Free Marches. But the situation becomes dire very quickly, and Garahel delivers Isseya an unfortunate command from the First Warden: Put the griffons of Fortress Haine through the Joining.
Isseya cries the whole time through her modified ritual, but she puts all the griffons except Revas through the Joining. Then in the following battle, Isseya is forced to use further blood magic to possess the griffons in order to make them go along with the plan, because they can no longer be reasoned with. It causes a great strain, and Calien offers to help next time, but Isseya is still emotionally shattered.
9:42 DRAGON
Valya approaches Caronel for help getting to Red Bride’s Grave in the Wandering Hills. Caronel says the last time he was there, it was full of demon-possessed corpses, but Valya convinces him to take her and a group of recruits.
5:24 EXALTED
In the four years that have passed, Isseya has grown increasingly blighted and depressed, but Garahel has become a beacon of shining hope, and a prominent figure in the war against the darkspawn. Even things that Isseya herself accomplished she let go credited to her brother to help build this glory and inspire people. Isseya holds onto her griffon, Revas, who she still refused to taint despite almost all the others undergoing it at this point. Isseya has grown increasingly depressed and blighted, with the constant rituals taking a toll on her: “She looked like she’d been serving as a Warden for twenty years longer than her brother.” The other wardens are wary of her, seeing her as a monster, but a necessary one.
Garahel shares his plan to launch an assault into Antiva, where the Archdemon is. He fully admits that he does not expect many to survive the attempt, but draws an army of supporters for his plan anyways.
The next day, the Wardens and supporters fly into Antiva, where they take to aerial combat with the Archdemon. The tainted griffons fight with such ferocity that they are able to deeply wound it. With Isseya and Garahel being the last two wardens capable of reaching it, Isseya prepares to commit to the sacrifice of its defeat—but Garahel stops her. His last words are “Isseya, be kind to yourself,” before Isseya watches him and Crookytail swoop in on the dragon. Crookytail is killed, but Garahel lands on the Archdemon and is able to strike the final blow.
Garahel is given a hero’s funeral – the grandest to ever be given to an elf.
A month later, Isseya is called back to Weisshaupt. There, she is horrified to discover that the griffons are dying out from the taint; even those that were not put through the Joining have been corrupted through breeding and proximity.
Three months after this, the First Warden orders all griffons who show any signs of “irredeemable viciousness” to be put down, and Isseya predicts this will be their extinction. She is wracked with horrible grief, blaming herself. She tirelessly searches for answers to understand the disease she created, but comes up empty-handed. So, Isseya turns to Starkhaven and finds Amadis. There, she discovers that Amadis’s griffon is sick as well, and explains to Amadis that while she can’t save her griffon, she might be able to save the newly-laid eggs. Isseya then tells Amadis that she does not plan to be alive to see if it will even work, but asks that Amadis keep the eggs a secret – she does not believe the wardens or anyone else of her time deserve the griffons after what they did to them.
Isseya kills Amadis’s griffon and takes the eggs to a secret place in the Anderfels. There, she draws the taint from the eggs into herself, purifying them before freezing them in a magical stasis. She hides her diaries in Weisshaupt under a series of enchantments that none but an elf would be likely to unlock. Isseya wants the Grey Wardens of the future to be the ones to uncover the eggs, but wants it to be someone who would understand the value of freedom.
Isseya then takes Revas for one last flight, off to her Calling, as she no longer wants to live.
9:42 DRAGON
On the way to Red Bride’s Grave, Valya shares with the group her theory that they will find griffon eggs there. They fight their way through corpses, and eventually find the eggs, perfectly preserved. Upon uncovering them, the eggs begin to hatch, and Valya watches as one emerges who looks exactly like Crookytail was described. (Baby Assan!)
The group agrees to take the griffons home to Weisshaupt.
