The Legacy recap

Gideon spares his Black Sun-born son Kale by exiling him to Earth, but twenty years later the Dead Sisters drag the adult Kael back to Talona with his wife Ember and their friend Max. Separated from them, Kael learns he is a death wizard and is eventually imprisoned and tortured by witches and anti-magic invaders. He refuses to murder fellow prisoners, escapes with Kia, Galen, and an older wizard, and claims two dangerous soul-reaper blades before the group steals a ship. Ember joins Gideon's search and is revealed as the last Fae, awakening unstable powers that are changing magic. The prophet says Gideon erred in his treatment of Kael, with harmful consequences for what lies ahead, although the error itself remains unclear. At the close, Kael sails away while Kia fights an infected wound, an ancient survivor prepares to pursue him, and Gideon's party risks war by entering the Wildlands to recover the captured princess.

Archwizard Gideon foresees destruction connected to the approaching Black Sun. Law demands the death of any child born as a death wizard, but prophecy suggests that killing the child would only ensure a catastrophic return. When Gideon's wife gives birth during the eclipse, he recognizes their son Kale as the threatened child. He carries the infant through a dimensional bridge and leaves him with a family on a world without magic. The bridge collapses during Gideon's return, killing several of the mages who hold it open. Twenty years later, Kale lives in Sam's Bay with his wife Ember and their close friend Max, the county sheriff. A black vortex opens after dinner and pulls all three away. The Dead Sisters created the passage with blood sacrifice, hoping to retrieve the death wizard as their master. Gideon and his adopted daughter interfere. Kale's emerging magic is severed and he is diverted to an unknown location in Talona, while Ember and Max arrive unconscious at Gideon's tower. The witches know their intended master has returned, but they have lost him.

Kale awakens alone in the Forsaken Lands with his formerly disabled arm restored. Monsters attack, but a woman rescues and treats him. She reveals that she is a vampire and explains that his strange new senses and protective shield may mark him as a wizard. They plan to seek her clan for help finding Ember and Max. Elsewhere, assassin Elisa Blackmist feels a magical mark react to the death wizard's return. Her own guild condemns her after she avenges a murdered former member, and a hired assassin apparently kills her. The Dead Sisters also send teams to find Kale and attack Gideon. Gideon tells Ember and Max that Kale is his son, born under the Black Sun and exiled to Earth. Although the king allows a public search for Kale alive, both ruler and archwizard expect him to be killed if his power has corrupted him. Ember and Max join the expedition while rejecting that judgment. In the ruins, Kale tries an offensive spell. The black-and-purple lightning is powerful enough to terrify his vampire guide, who recognizes the signs of a death wizard and withdraws. The adult Kale is now known as Kael in Talona.

Kael enters the ruined tower of an earlier death wizard and is gravely wounded by its guardians. Guided by the death god's power, he heals himself, discovers a black flower spreading thorned vines across his chest, and inherits the tower, its grimoire, and its hidden contents. His vampire companion returns, but royal bounty hunters capture him. She frees him and kills the surviving hunter after the man claims Ember and Max died in the crossing. Kael continues toward her clan believing the claim. Ember and Max remain with Gideon's search party. They save a poisoned elven assassin and discover that she is Elisa Blackmist, alive despite her guild's attempt to kill her. Elisa pledges to help Ember find Kael. At Stillwater, ancient tablets describe Black Sun Children as weapons once hunted from birth. Gideon takes this as further reason to kill his son, nearly splitting the party when Max challenges him. Refugees then report that Kael and his vampire companion rescued captives and defended civilians without reward. The news confirms that the search party is only days behind him and gives Ember, Max, and Elisa evidence that he is still choosing to protect people.

A masked nonhuman captor seizes Kael and his vampire guide just ahead of Gideon's party, then uses a realm jump to take them to a dwarven prison. Hundreds of magic users are confined there with spiked collars while machines drain their powers into crystals. Kael meets the captive wizards Galen and Gabriel, who is his companion's grandfather, and Nikia, an enslaved healer whom the guards injure to force his cooperation. The Dead Sisters join the captors. Arabella demands that Kael murder his cellmates to earn freedom, but he refuses despite sustained torture. Nikia repeatedly saves his life. The coven's leader, the Cardessa, orders Arabella to combine physical torment with dreamcasting and gives her thirty days to break or convert him. Pain is slowly restoring Kael's suppressed underworld power, creating a possible escape. Gideon's party pursues another route. After finding only one required Wraithlord crystal and suffering serious injuries, Elisa secretly returns to the Broken Blade monastery. She confirms that opposition to the guild leadership is forming, retrieves her own crystal, and rejoins the others. At the coast they thwart pirate infiltrators and secure passage with Ciaran to the Dragonkin islands, hoping the Queen Superior can locate Kael.

Gideon's party reaches the Dragonkin islands and receives permission to seek the Queen Superior. The island's magic makes Gideon's daughter ill, and she must leave within a moon. The Whispers identify Ember as the last Fae and awaken her ability to search for Kale through dreams. She reaches him in captivity and confirms that he is alive but badly harmed. After the Queen Superior explains Ember's heritage, an ambush forces Ember's unstable power into action. She manifests white wings and unintentionally realm-jumps the entire party back to Gideon's home in Corinth, where she lies unconscious and severely weakened. In prison, Kael continues refusing the Dead Sisters' demands that he murder fellow captives. Arabella kills his vampire companion after he again refuses, and his grief hardens into a desire for revenge. Prolonged physical and mental abuse steadily rebuilds the underworld power suppressed by his collar. Kael breaks free, kills Arabella, and escapes with Nikia, Galen, and an older master wizard, but they cannot use the guarded route to the surface. The four descend into the lost dwarven complex beneath Tazamore Mountain instead. Kael restores the earth bond that Galen's collar had severed, leaving Galen's magic stronger than before but exhausting Kael almost to death. Kael shows the older wizard his controlled black lightning and admits that he is a death wizard. Having seen him save the other prisoners, the older wizard sets aside his initial fear and joins the effort to keep him alive.

Kael, Nikia, Galen, and an older captive wizard descend into the lost dwarven complex beneath Tazamore Mountain because the guarded surface route is unusable. Kael reveals his nature to the older wizard, who accepts him after seeing that he saved the prisoners. Nikia asks to be called Kia and explains the coercion that kept her bound to the Dead Sisters. Deep-dwelling creatures pursue the group into the catacombs, and one leaves Kael with grave chest and lung wounds before he collapses the passage behind them. At Cortina Monastery, Gideon's former ward becomes the first true prophet in centuries. The goddess's message says Gideon's actions concerning Kael have damaged the future, though the precise error is not revealed. The prophet later sees possible futures involving Kael cornered by Gideon's group and the destruction of three capitals. The king's daughter escapes confinement with her lady-in-waiting to hunt Kael herself. An obsolete map takes them into the Wildlands, where a local tribe captures them after they breach the treaty. Gideon's party is ordered to retrieve the heir. Meanwhile, the rulers of Dorma Sai learn that Ember is Fae and secretly prepare to seize her and contact Kael.

Kia, Galen, and the older wizard combine their healing to save Kael from his chest wounds. Their unexpectedly strong results suggest that Ember's return as a Fae is already changing magic. In a hidden dwarven forge, Kael finds two soul-reaper blades protected for a death wizard. The weapons repel Galen but accept Kael, and one later restores his strength after a kill. Their influence and limits remain unknown. Kael also removes the older wizard's collar and restores his earth bond at great cost to himself. The four escapees fight through deep-dwellers carrying anti-magic amulets and reach the coast. Kia suffers an abdominal wound that Galen closes, but infection leaves her dangerously feverish. At night they board an empty ship, steal it, and use magic to sail from the harbor. Kael is free, carrying the soul reapers, but remains physically depleted and psychologically scarred. Gideon's party reaches the Wildlands border and decides to cross despite the danger of war, still separated from Kael while pursuing the captured princess. Beneath Tazamore Mountain, an ancient feared survivor fights to the surface. Weakened and poisoned, she senses Kael's departing ship but cannot catch it. She plans to seek help from her clan, pursue Kael, and kill the Dead Sister responsible for her imprisonment.

Kael has escaped the Dead Sisters' mountain prison with Kia, Galen, and the older wizard. They reach the coast, steal a ship, and use magic to flee, but Kia is dangerously feverish from an infected wound. Kael carries the soul reapers, which can strengthen him after a kill, and remains weakened and troubled by the violence and underworld power his captivity awakened. The feared woman imprisoned beneath the mountain reaches the surface too late to stop the ship. She plans to seek her clan, pursue Kael, and take revenge on the witch who held her. Gideon, Ember, Max, Elisa, Gideon's daughter, and the Northman remain separated from Kael. Their immediate mission is now to retrieve the king's daughter and her lady-in-waiting from the Wildlands, even though crossing the border may ignite a war. Ember is alive but still recovering, and her uncontrolled Fae dream-walking and realm-jumping make her a target for other powers. The Cardessa and the wider Dead Sisters remain free, Dorma Sai is preparing to intervene, and the prophet's warning of endangered capitals and Gideon's unexplained mistake remains unresolved.