Secrets of the Sword 2 recap

Val and Zav investigate a relic hunter's claim that Chopper was taken from its dwarven makers while juggling plans for their human-dragon wedding. The inquiry exposes an undead dragon's occupation of Mount Krennel and a plot to poison Zav's approaching clan. Stranded on the dwarven world, Val reluctantly works with the hunter, loses Chopper to her, and later learns that the lich compelled the theft because the blade could harm it. Val seals the poison vent as the hunter dies holding off skeletal warriors, while Zav and his clan kill the lich. The dwarves confirm the hunter's ancestry, permit Val to retain Chopper temporarily, and offer to teach her its history. Back on Earth, Nin redirects the door-knocker murder investigation from Dimitri toward Maggie Kohler, preventing his immediate arrest. Dimitri becomes Zav's best man, and wedding preparations continue.

Previously: Val Thorvald is a half-elven investigator who wields Chopper, an enchanted dwarven sword, and works with allies from both Earth and magical realms. Her closest field companion is Sindari, a telepathic magical tiger. Val is engaged to Zavryd'nokquetal, known as Zav, a dragon whose family and long lifespan complicate their future together. Their circle includes Colonel Willard, who sponsors Val's official work, Nin and Dimitri at the Sable Dragon business, and Val's teenage daughter Amber and former husband Thad. Val also has ties to an elven royal family through her father, the elven king, and an elf half-sister who assists her with magical matters. As the wedding approaches, Val and Zav still face different human and dragon expectations for the ceremony. Wider tensions involving Val's elven relatives and earlier conflicts also remain unsettled.

A hooded intruder breaches Willard's artifact vault, steals a dwarven book, and leaves a magical challenge demanding that Val return Chopper to its maker's descendant. The trap releases invisible attackers from a purple box, but Sindari helps Val survive and close it. Evidence suggests the intruder is monitoring Val and researching a dangerous realm associated with the dead. She questions Nin's assistant about Val and may use magic to cloud witnesses' memories. Val and Zav trace her to a historic building, where Zav recovers the purple box from the artifact room and identifies it as a dragon containment artifact that may have been stolen or supplied to the intruder, rather than proof of the suspected realm's involvement. Alongside the investigation, Val and Zav struggle to reconcile dragon festivities with a conventional Earth wedding. Amber draws Val into dress shopping, then admits that harassment at school led to her fight, leaving Val and Thad divided over how best to help her. The relic hunter's claim to Chopper remains unproven, and Zav prepares to accompany Val to the dwarven homeworld to investigate the blade's history.

Before Val leaves Earth, Detective Sutherland links a fatal fire at Maggie Kohler's home to one of Dimitri's enchanted door knockers. Dimitri denies making a lethal device, but the police treat him as a suspect. Val and Zav then reach the dwarven homeworld, where the surface settlements are empty and the mountain communities refuse to open their doors. Their search for records about Chopper is interrupted by winged skeletal creatures carrying death magic. Sindari is badly tainted while helping Val destroy one, and Zav takes his charm to a hostile rival-clan healer while sending Val home. Several attackers escape, suggesting that a powerful undead controller now knows about the visitors. Val's elf half-sister reports that the elven king has also lost contact with the dwarven ruler and sent scouts. Zoltan compares remains from the vault and the dwarven world and determines that both came from the same reputedly haunted world. The link strengthens Val's suspicion that the relic hunter and the undead crisis are connected, though control by a single enemy is not yet established.

Zav returns Sindari's charm after the rival-clan healer cures the tiger in exchange for future favors and rare food. Val, her elf half-sister, and other allies fortify Val's mother's cabin, using Chopper as bait to trap the relic hunter. The woods also show signs of an elf watching Val's mother, possibly because of the elven king's intended wedding visit. Meanwhile, hearsay that Charlie Wu abused Maggie Kohler gives the door-knocker death a possible motive unrelated to Dimitri. When the relic hunter attacks, she uses invisibility, darts, telekinesis, explosives, and the dragon containment box. Val and Sindari briefly overpower her, but the struggle reopens the artifact. Its portal pulls both Val and the hunter to the dwarven homeworld with Chopper. Stranded together, the hunter claims the sword is her inheritance and offers to lead Val to Mount Krennel, where records could prove the maker's identity. She also warns that an undead dragon controls the mountain. Val refuses to surrender Chopper without evidence, but she now needs the hunter as a guide while Zav and the others remain elsewhere.

Val and the relic hunter hide from skeletal fliers near Mount Krennel. A young green dragon on an unauthorized mission draws the creatures away, and Val asks him to warn Zav before he retreats through a portal. The hunter explains that her family pursued artifacts lost when her people were destroyed and that recovering Chopper was her dying mother's request. When Val will not enter the lich's stronghold without help, the hunter drugs her and steals the sword. Val wakes, summons Sindari, and follows the trail toward the mountain. Zav and the young dragon arrive during the pursuit and fight through the undead long enough to reach her. Val sees Chopper's light near the mountain and sends Sindari after the hunter while she remains with Zav. The dragon lich then appears at Mount Krennel and brings its overwhelming death magic directly into the conflict. Chopper and the hunter remain near the stronghold as Val and her allies face the lich's arrival.

Val and Zav escape the lich's first attack, but Sindari, the relic hunter, and Chopper remain behind. After treating his death-tainted wounds, Zav wants to send Val home; she insists on helping recover their missing allies and the sword. They also discuss inviting another dragon clan to the wedding in hopes of encouraging Zav's family to attend. Val and Zav return under camouflage and enter Mount Krennel through a concealed tunnel, with Val carrying a recovered dwarven sword in Chopper's place. Sindari rejoins them inside. The undead dragon reveals itself as a former Silverclaw and claims to have killed the Stormforge dragon who once ruled the dwarven world. Through the captive relic hunter's mind, Zav learns that the lich has found an ancient aerosol poison designed to kill dragons, along with a device capable of spreading it outside the mountain. The dead animals nearby were test victims, and the lich intends to release the poison when Zav's Stormforge clan arrives. The group heads toward the guarded artifact before the approaching dragons can enter the trap.

Sindari draws the skeletal guards away and suffers numerous death-tainted wounds while Val frees the relic hunter from a bone cage. The hunter reveals that the lich compelled her to steal Chopper after learning that the sword could injure it. She initially flees, but later returns, retrieves Chopper from a weapons rack, and holds a tomb doorway against the pursuing undead. Her defense gives Val time to identify the poison apparatus inside a protected stove. Rather than break the container and risk releasing its contents indoors, Val melts and seals the vent that carries the aerosol toward the dragons outside. The hunter is overrun, but Zav and his clan kill the lich, causing its entire skeletal force to collapse. Val finds the hunter dead and recovers Chopper. Sindari returns alive despite his wounds, and Zav destroys the stove and poison device. A dwarven envoy confirms that the blade was made by the hunter's ancestor. The dwarves allow Val to keep using it against oppressive dragons on the condition that it eventually returns to their people. They will inter the hunter, reopen their repository, and teach Val about the sword and its command words.

Val and Zav return to Earth after the destruction of the dragon lich, its army, and the poison weapon at Mount Krennel. Val's mother is safe, protected by her werewolf neighbor, and their growing personal connection remains evident. At the Sable Dragon coffee shop, police arrive to arrest Dimitri over Charlie Wu's death and the enchanted door knocker at Maggie Kohler's home. Nin has conducted her own inquiries and identifies Kohler, rather than Dimitri, as the likely killer. Zav compels the officers to remove their tracking bracelet, investigate Kohler, and release Dimitri. This ends the immediate threat of arrest but leaves the death inquiry unresolved. Grateful for Zav's intervention, Dimitri agrees to serve as his best man. Willard assumes responsibility for organizing the wedding parties, while the invitation list expands to include additional dragons. Val and Zav proceed with their marriage plans. Val retains Chopper under the dwarves' conditions and can now learn its deeper history, while the unexplained elven interest in her mother remains an open concern.

Val stops the dragon lich's poison from reaching the arriving Stormforge dragons while the relic hunter holds back the undead and dies in the effort. Zav and his clan kill the lich, its skeletal army collapses, and Zav destroys the remaining poison device. Sindari survives his injuries. A dwarven envoy verifies that Chopper was forged by the hunter's ancestor and allows Val to wield it against oppressive dragons, provided it eventually returns to the dwarven people. The envoy will supply records and teach her about the blade. On Earth, Val's mother is safe with help from her werewolf neighbor. Police try to arrest Dimitri, but Nin's investigation points them toward Maggie Kohler, and Zav forces them to release Dimitri and pursue that lead. The murder inquiry remains open. Dimitri accepts the role of Zav's best man, Willard continues arranging the celebrations, and Val and Zav move ahead with a wedding that now includes more dragon guests. Elven scrutiny of Val's mother also remains unexplained.