Under Ashen Skies recap

Elaine, Iona, Auri, and Fenrir travel south, curing a plague and rescuing Pekari captives before settling in Sanguino as Eventide Eclipse. Elaine opens a free clinic and searches for the ancient vampire Night, only to be captured by the vampire who commands Sanguino's thread network. The capture reunites her with Knight, revealing that Knight, Night, and the puppeteer are one person. After modern Sentinel leaders confirm Elaine's past as Sentinel Dawn, she negotiates a return suited to her healing oath. Eventide Eclipse drives a powerful worm from a mountain and claims the site for a home. Elaine becomes War Sentinel Dawn, assigned to support the Sixth Legion, and chooses Ancient Loremaster of Legend. Iona remains independent of the Sentinels and accepts a kitsune child as a conditional squire after opposing the Three Dragons Triad. Artemis and Julius head for Sanguino, while Dormin's phoenix hunt, another possible person from Earth, secret dragon intelligence, and Elaine's unopened letter remain unresolved.

Previously: Elaine is an exceptionally powerful healer and an original Sentinel displaced far beyond the era in which she first served. She is also an immortal from Earth whose long life comes with dangerous complications. Iona, her partner, is a Valkyrie devoted to her moon goddesses and bonded to the frost-wyvern Fenrir. Auri is Elaine's bonded phoenix companion. Together, Elaine, Iona, Auri, and Fenrir have become a close travelling party. Elaine's past also includes her biomancy mentor Marcella, her former apprentice Amber, and her associates Artemis and Julius. One of the most important figures she hopes to locate is Night, an ancient vampire tied to her former life. As the new journey begins, the four companions are leaving the School of Sorcery and Spellcraft and heading south toward Exterreri and Sanguino.

So far this book: Elaine, Iona, Auri, and Fenrir divert from their southern journey when they see plague flags over a port. Elaine identifies mundane Black Death and learns that curing patients will not remove the infected rats and fleas. Local law imposes fees on every healer and every patient treated, so Elaine refuses full compliance and continues mass care while concealing her strength. Iona supports the effort and handles interference, while Auri burns vermin with precise fire. Auri dies to a lightning strike, returns through phoenix rebirth, and escalates her hunt into the sewers, where destroying a Rat King causes an explosion. Elaine develops healing butterflies that enter homes and treat patients through the night. Guards try to arrest her despite the emergency, forcing her to reveal enough speed and flight to escape. By morning, she has treated thousands and considers the outbreak contained. The authorities then attempt a lethal ambush at the party's tavern, killing bystanders. Iona protects Elaine, and the four companions reunite outside the city and flee by air toward Exterreri.

After escaping the plague city, the party crosses another country and reaches Exterreri, where a burning village has been attacked by Pekari golems. They extinguish the fire, heal survivors, and pursue the captives into a tunnel complex. Four adventurers already inside pretend to cooperate, but one deliberately triggers a trap as part of an ambush. Three adventurers die in the fight, and Elaine restrains the surviving crossbowman for local justice. Deeper underground, Elaine, Iona, and Auri defeat more Pekari and free prisoners from vats and surgical tables. Behind the captive chamber they uncover a much older refuge containing elven remains, preserved supplies, weapons, books, and a chapel dedicated to a dream goddess. Elaine fills her Bookworm storage with historical material, while Iona finds dream-steel blades. A cracked arcanite core offers the leading explanation for the occupants' deaths: when its enchantments failed, they may have been trapped below ground. Unable to carry the refuge's most valuable salvage, the party marks it for later recovery and resumes the journey. Meanwhile, Dormin has lost his guard post and begun hunting the phoenix he witnessed resurrect.

The travellers leave the marked refuge and adopt the group name Eventide Eclipse. Exterreri rangers led by Livia intercept them but allow them to continue after questioning their intentions. In Sanguino, an immense city sheltered beneath a maintained ash cloud, Elaine notices a network of nearly invisible threads spread across streets, buildings, and tunnels. A healer connected to Marcella helps her secure legal residence, and Elaine accepts Exterreri citizenship for herself and her household. The group still needs a home large enough for Fenrir and a reliable way to meet his considerable food costs. Elaine's former apprentice Amber arrives after a lucky coin guides her to their roadside inn. Now a successful travelling merchant, Amber agrees to broker Elaine's youth-restoring immortality skill and other saleable abilities. She also returns the proceeds of an earlier investment, giving the group substantial funds to secure at the First Bank. Their search for the old vampire remains unresolved, though a guard assigned to guide Auri agrees to ask questions. At the end of this stage, Elaine recognizes a newly adapted play as a story from Earth, suggesting that another person from her original world may be somewhere in or beyond Sanguino.

Elaine postpones the possible Earth connection and concentrates on finding Night, establishing a healing practice, and securing land. She opens a free clinic in a poor district while Iona investigates wilderness homesteads. A local gang demands protection money, and the party delays confronting the powerful worm occupying its preferred mountain while improving equipment and teamwork. Following a lead beneath the ranger headquarters, Elaine enters a concealed tunnel and discovers that Sanguino's thread network is an active defense system. Its vampire controller overwhelms her, drains her mana, and interrogates her in an underwater base. Evidence including Elaine's badge and past correspondence persuades the captor to seek direct verification instead of killing her. The vampire then reveals that she is Knight's wife and takes Elaine to him. Knight recognizes Elaine as Sentinel Dawn and welcomes her back from the Fae. He is also the vampire called Night and the puppeteer mentioned in Elaine's inquiries. Memory-locking has limited his immediate access to parts of his long life, but he remembers enough to confirm their history. Knight tells Elaine that her parents died of old age. The Sentinel thread-controller warns Elaine not to make her avoidance of apple dishes obvious, since doing so could expose the weakness tied to her immortality.

Knight agrees to repay an old favor by helping Eventide Eclipse become established. Elaine is then presented to Sentinel command, where her identity as the original Sentinel Dawn and author of the Medical Manuscripts is formally confirmed. The modern organization initially announces her return without securing her consent, then withdraws the declaration and gives her time to judge how the Sentinels have changed. Its leaders propose that Elaine serve as a War Sentinel, using her healing to preserve large forces, and also as a lore master responsible for dangerous knowledge. Iona is wary of the Shadow Sentinels and negotiates safeguards, including access to records of their operations. Elaine will accept only if the role remains compatible with her medical oath and her partnership with Iona. At the same time, Auri's experience begins advancing Elaine's weaker classes through their companion bond. Eventide Eclipse prepares to claim a mountain outside Sanguino. Their target is a level-620 worm able to move through rock, regenerate, and attack with Radiance. The group's ranged attacks fail against its armor, but coordinated close combat, Elaine's healing, and Auri's persistent fire force it underground. Fenrir claims the mountain, though the worm remains alive.

Eventide Eclipse confirms that the worm has retreated and chooses the mountain as its home. Fenrir classes up as Lord of the Frozen Skies, while Elaine delays her own class choice until the Sentinel lore path is settled. Knight speeds the land registration and introduces an architect who plans a villa, orchard, training area, road, water system, and space for Fenrir. After reviewing redacted Shadow records, Iona accepts their stated rationale but does not commit to Sentinel work. Elaine formally returns to active duty, retrains in current procedures, and receives secret lore instruction alongside War Sentinel Flood, including access to a map of known dragon lairs. At a public ceremony she becomes War Sentinel Dawn, assigned to support the Sixth Legion during maneuvers. She then chooses Ancient Loremaster of Legend and receives six years of back pay, along with an unopened letter from Sentinel Tyrannus. In the closing developments, Artemis and Julius receive Elaine's letter and leave for Sanguino. Dormin reaches a prisoner who may know something about a phoenix. After attacking a Three Dragons Triad casino, Iona accepts a twelve-year-old kitsune as a prospective squire, provided the child gives up her Mugger class.

Eventide Eclipse ends the book established in Sanguino, Exterreri. Elaine and Iona remain together, with Auri and Fenrir beside them, and the group has claimed a mountain after forcing its resident worm to retreat. Their permanent villa, road, water supply, and other construction are still being arranged. Knight is alive, reconciled with Elaine, and using his influence to assist their settlement. Elaine has publicly returned as War Sentinel Dawn, with responsibility for supporting the Sixth Legion during maneuvers, and has taken Ancient Loremaster of Legend as her third class. Her immortality's apple-based weakness remains a closely guarded secret. Iona has not joined Sentinel work or accepted the spymaster's optional assignments. Instead, after attacking a Three Dragons Triad casino, she accepts a young kitsune as a prospective squire on the condition that the child abandon her Mugger class. Artemis and Julius set out for Sanguino after receiving Elaine's letter. Dormin continues pursuing a phoenix, the possible Earth-origin storyteller remains unidentified, the dragon-lair map remains secret, the clinic's gang problem is unsettled, and a letter from Sentinel Tyrannus remains unopened.