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Fable: Edge of the World is a novel from bestselling author Christie Golden based on the Fable series of games. The novel acts as a prequel to Fable: The Journey, and was released on 21 August 2012.
Synopsis[]
It's been almost a decade since the events of Fable III, when the Hero vanquished the threat across the sea and claimed his throne. As King, he led Albion to an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity. But on the night of his wedding to his new Queen, ominous word arrives; the Darkness has returned.
Beyond a harrowing mountain pass, the exotic desert country Samarkand has been overrun by shadowy forces. Within the walls of its capital city, a mysterious usurper known only as the Empress has seized control. To protect his realm, the King must lead his most trusted allies into a strange land unknown to outsiders. As they forge ahead along Samarkand's ancient Great Road, populated by undead terrors and fantastic creatures once believed to be the stuff of legend, the King is drawn ever closer to his greatest challenge yet.
But soon, Albion is engulfed in a war of its own. As the Darkness spreads, town by town, a treacherous force has infiltrated the Queen's circle. Now the fate of all that is good rests with a faint flicker of hope, that somewhere, somehow, heroes still do exist.
Background[]
The novel is set between the events of Fable III and Fable: The Journey and is a direct prequel for the latter game, which closes the story left open at the end of the book.
Although the book's story starts 50 years after the final battle of Fable III - right before the beginning of Fable: The Journey - the narrative quickly retreats 40 years into the past, and narrates the efforts of the Hero of Brightwall and his allies against the Darkness that is rising once again, but this time, in the neighboring lands of Samarkand.
Plot[]
To ease understandment of the plot:
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50 years after the Crawler’s defeat, a young dweller, Gabriel, tells stories about the Heroes of old for the children of his tribe. Gabriel remarks how powerful they were and how the last great Hero, the King had vanished forty years earlier, leaving Albion vulnerable to the hands of people with not so good intentions. Fearing that Gabriel’s words would spread and eventually reach unfriendly ears, Katlan, the leader of the tribe, ended the storytelling as older dwellers had approach to listen too. Gabriel would stop telling such tales, but would never stop dreaming with them.
Forty years before, almost a decade after the Crawler’s defeat, a group of Samarkandians battle their way through the Sakur Pass, a dangerous freezing passage in the Blade Mountains on the eastern edge of the Mistpeak Mountains of Albion. Among them is Shan, a young man, and his sister, Lin, the last alive members of their family. They were all trying to run away from the shadow creatures that started to torment Samarkand years before, but had become way more aggressive in the present days.
After seeing his sister fall for her death, Shan became unconscious but is rescued by the rest of his group, but he only awakes to watch all of the other survivors get slaughtered by the darkness creatures that were after them in the passage. However, although the darkness tortured his mind, it allowed him to live and orders him to announce their return to Sabine, the King of the dwellers of Mistpeak.
In Bowerstone, the King is getting married to Laylah, an Auroran woman he met and fell in love years before thanks to his friend Kalin. Although the ceremony went smoothly with all his friends attending, before the wedding party could take place, the War Council is summoned by Sabine, with news brought by the newly arrived Shan that the Darkness had returned in Samarkand. All the King’s allies seem startled by such information but the King declare that for that night they would need to enjoy the party and let the traumatized and shaky Shan rest for the moment so they could discuss the matter properly later with him in better conditions.
After the party, the Albion ruler and his friends reunited with Shan in his room in the castle, and he told them about the wonders Samarkand used to have and how amazing life used to be there. However, everything changed after their Emperor, Zarak, a benevolent ruler, travelled to an unknown land and brought with himself a mysterious woman, whom he married. The ways of the emperor suddenly changed as he became a tyrant, and most of the country’s marvelous features faded to nothing. The emperor soon died and the rule passed onto his wife, who became known as the Empress.
Accordingly to Shan, many believed that the Empress was the responsible for tainting the emperor’s mind and ultimately leading to his death, and once she got the country to herself, many horrors that once only existed in Samarkand’s fables started to roam the edges of the country, such as shadow creatures and jakala-as ( Samarkandian variant of a balverine), who started to prey upon the villages and travelers.
The King and his allies soon realized that Shan’s words clearly implied in the return of the same evil they fought in Albion almost a decade earlier, and with so, they decided to go aid Samarkand and get rid of the Darkness once and for all.
Their plan seemed quite simple but highly prompted to succeed; they would set sail and dock at the port town of Fairwinds in south Samarkand, then they would proceed through the desert via the Great Trade Road, the main route of the country until reaching the capital, Zahadar, where they intended to battle the Darkness at its citadel.
That night the King takes the new Queen, Laylah, to the catacombs and shows her the Sanctuary, teaching her that it is of his will that she became able of transiting between Albion and the magic realm of the Sanctuary if she ever needed to take shelter from any danger.
After many weeks of preparing all the supplies and men they would need to battle the Darkness, the King, along with Ben Finn, Kalin and many of their allies, such as the Blackholm citizens, departed in ships to the faraway lands of Samarkand. The King left his wife, Laylah as the ruler in his place and confided both Page (who had become the Queen’s best friend in Albion) and Captain Timmins, the highest ranked lieutenant left to protect Albion, to advise her in case of need.
Right after the departure of the army, Laylah started training her self-defense with Timmins, however, the harsh ways of the lieutenant greatly displeased the Queen, and Page was able to detect a rift growing between the two.
Two weeks after leaving Albion, the Royal Army arrived at the sea domains of Samarkand, but not without having to face endless storms in their ways, which helped to escalate the soldier’s mistrust of Shan, whom they believed was tricKing the King into their doom. Although their goal was to make landfall at the port city of Fairwinds, the Albion ships travelled a bit more to the west, and thus would wait until dawn to go ashore, as the Darkness could try to ambush them during the night.
However, that same night, while waiting the sun to rise, the Albion ships were ambushed by ships loaded with hollow men that Kalin recognized as being Auroran traders that were sent to Samarkand months before but were never heard of again.
Although the efforts of the King and his soldiers seemed to be enough to counter the attack at first, the battle quickly turned in favor of the hollow men, who were able to specifically sink the five ships loaded with the most important war machineries the army had brought to their mission. To avoid also being sunk, all the remaining ships were forced to dock on the naked Samarkandian shore.
At the same time in Albion, Laylah, who taught Rex to always track Page down and deliver any needed message, summoned her friend and confided her with her worries about the King’s mission. The Queen was also feeling each day more frustrated as her combat improvement was not being recognized by Timmins in any way and the latter would just not treat her with the proper respect that a Queen deserved, and much for Page’s concern, Timmins was unwillingly to change his manners.
Back on Samarkand, the King and his allies decided to avoid going into Fairwinds as they noted it would be completely overrun with hollow men just like the ones who attacked them, and thus they would need to take a detour directly into the desert, passing through difficult terrain, what meant they would have to leave many of the machinery that survived the hollow men assault behind. As the army reached the Great Trade Road, the main path through the desert which was the path they were expecting to take since the beginning, they’ve already lost horses for the environment and would soon run out of water.
Although they knew they would eventually come by the oasis town of Sweetwater Trees if they kept they rhythm in the next days, Shan convinced the King to take a small detour to the west so they could get sooner to an alternative oasis, called Sky Blue Lake.
However, right after arriving at the oasis, the royal army was forced back due to the fact that the waters were infested with sirens who had devoured all the nomads who ventured there in recent times. Although the King was able to silence their entrancing voices with his will powers, the sirens were able to drag at least twenty men to their doom, Ben Finn almost being one of them if it wasn’t for the King who dragged him to the margin.
The royal army then, after wasting a whole day under the sun walking to the oasis, returned to the main road, heading to the nearest alternative water source: the town of Sweetwater Trees. In such journey, which last half a week, the army lost more of their horses and oxes, as the resources they brought were almost running out and there was no water whatsoever. But as soon as they reached Sweetwater Trees, the tide seemed to turn in their favor as they were greeted by the people of the village.
The leader of the village, Pahket, invited the King and his army to rest for the night at the village and recharge their supplies at fair prices. As the King shared his intents of fighting the darkness brought upon Samarkand by the Empress, Pahket feared that the King wanted to rule the lands on his own, a thought that Kalin promptly helped dismiss. That evening the village held a feast to honor their visitors, and Ben was particularly enchanted with one of the women dancing.
That night however, the King was awakened by a startled Ben Finn, who had learned from Shalia, the woman he was admiring dancing who happened to be Pahket’s daughter, that the village was planning on murdering all the men from the army while they were asleep. Turned out that during the Empress reign the Sand Furies that inhabited the desert became more violent and demanded that the villagers tricked and murdered anyone that happened to arrive at Sweetwater Trees, but Shalia couldn’t bear it anymore as she had also developed feelings for Ben.
Before the King could develop a plan the attack started, but even with the village’s men and the sand furies joining forces against the army they were still outnumbered and the fight quickly turned in favor of the Albion forces. Seeing that they would soon lose and most probably be killed, the men of the village ran away into the desert, leaving their women and children behind. The King then announced that the Army was to set foot away from the village immediately, leaving such people unharmed but at the mercy of their own burdens of treachery.
While the army ventured through the night, even though Shan greatly advised not because of the Darkness, they soon found out that Shalia was following them, claiming to have renegaded her life with the villagers and wishing to help the King and most specifically, Ben. Shalia told them that the Sand Furies had blocked the narrow path ahead in the Great Trade Road, which would soon ran between two cliffs where the Furies would be waiting to ambush them. Shalia convinced the King, although the army’s mistrust of the woman, to take a detour into a cave, which would lead them towards the north, but enough to trespass the blockage. Such choice however, would force them to cross the cursed city of Asur-keh-la.
Asur-keh-la was a city that was engulfed in a single night by a sandstorm, which killed everyone in it and trapped their angry spirits there. Seeing that there was no other viable choice, the King ordered the army to venture through the cave, and stayed behind for a while to slow any Sand Fury that dared to follow them, before ultimately blow the entrance of the cave, completely sealing the passage and leaving the enemies out.
Back at Bowerstone, already in the middle of winter, Layla was feeling more flustered than ever, Timmins wouldn’t recognize any of her efforts at all and Page just wouldn’t side with her totally, always preferring to approach at impartial pace. With no updates on the King and the army at Samarkand, Laylah was feeling more alone than ever before and decided to take a walk on the castle grounds where she was greeted by a mysterious man.
The man impressed the Queen with his charm and politeness and the Queen felt finally comprehended by him, who expressed his concerns on her behalf. This man turned out to be Reaver, who had been particularly skilled to evade the public and royal eye in the last years and whom Laylah was warned not to trust. Reaver was clever enough not to press the Queen directly but was able to manipulate her into believing he was more skilled than Page and Timmins as a royal advisor and the Queen decided to consider his offer of becoming one.
At Samarkand, the Albion forces were finishing their journey through the dark but rather peaceful cave and soon they emerged out of it. The desert extended itself in front of them, nothing but sand was visible on the spot where Asur-keh-la once stood. Although the thin sand difficulted their progress, the army was somewhat able to venture through the cursed lands during the day, but as soon as the sun went down the sand started to shift beneath their feet and hundreds of hollow men emerged from the underground.
The King and the army tried to fight at first but soon they realized there was no other option than to flee, as the ground was turning into quicksand. The King himself almost got swallowed by the sand but was rescued by Kalin who threw a rope knotted on a horse to him. As the army made its great escape, the King realized it was up to him to put the hollow men to rest, and as soon as his soldiers were at a safe distance he used all his willpower in a force push blast downwards into the desert sand, destroying the ruins of the buried city and the hollow men that were still underground.
At Bowerstone, Page was rushed to the castle after being fetched by Rex who was sent by Laylah. There she met Timmins and they both went to meet Laylah and were made know, to their utterly horror, that the Queen had decided to turn Reaver, who was there, one of the royal advisors with them. Page, who was completely devasted by the news tried to talk her friend out of it but an angered Laylah told her it was already time for them to respect her decisions. When an argument erupted between the three royal advisors, the Queen demanded them to keep their personal problems to themselves and ordered both Timmins and the tearful Page to leave the room.
Days passed and the Albion army made great progress, reaching the Great Trade Road again. However, they soon would need to refill their water stock and for that Shan suggested them to make a detour east and reach the Cave Of A Thousand Guardians, a sacred Samarkandian place where a sanctuary was built around an underground spring. Shalia, in the other hand, suggested them to keep on tracks on the Great Trade Road as they would soon reach the “kannats”, a series of wells that were built to extract water from the desert underground. But for Shan’s disappointment, the King decided to take Shalia’s idea as it seemed to be more effective.
Soon enough the army reached the kannats, where they could finally recharge their water supplies. While the soldiers feasted with the new fresh water, Kalin noted that there was a suspicious amount of what seemed to be dog bones around the place, noting that usually the bones should be that of creatures the dogs had killed, not the other way round.
As soon as the sun hit the horizon, a high-pitched cry echoed through the mountains and suddenly all the men that had drank the kannat’s water started to gruesomely turn into Jakalas – the Samarkandian desert type of balverines. The King watched in horror as he and the still human soldiers were forced to kill their mutated friends, an event that reminded Ben Finn of his adventure in Blackholm years before. After the massacre was over, at least three hundred men of the army had died, either by becoming a balverine of being killed by one in the fight. Noticing that the Darkness had corrupted the underground waters of the kannats, which were protected from the light, the King was forced to take Shan’s advice and take the detour to the Cave Of A Thousand Guardians to get pure water.
The Albion forces travelled through the night, wanting to distance themselves from the sight of what happened at the kannats. When they finally reached the Cave of a Thousand Guardians, Shan noticed that in the last years someone, or something, had stolen the golden doors that once guarded the entrance for the cave, and in the place, a giant boulder blocked its entrance.
The King used his will to destroy the boulder while being careful not to damage the carvings on the stone entrance of the cave, and once inside, they were all overwhelmed by the thousands of statues of ancient Samarkandian Heroes. Shan explained that the first hall of the Cave was called Walk of the Heroes, and depicted the most famous deed of each of them. They went deep into the cave, towards the chamber that contained the water spring, and for Shan’s and the other’s horror they realized all the 20 feet tall statues of the guardians in that chamber had been decapitated and instead of water the spring pool was full of Darkness goo, which quickly spread its tendrils in the chamber, possessing the statues and turning them into Sentinels.
This time however, the King and his army were more than glad to finally fight an enemy they were willing to destroy, and in minutes all the Sentinels were defeated. However, just as the last Sentinel fell, an obelisk rose from beneath the pool, just like it has felt the Darkness corrupting the cave was finally gone.
The obelisk was carved in many strange glyphs, but the King was somehow able to read them, detailing that should a Hero ever have need, they could release what was inside and it would serve that Hero in the form that would serve them best. The King joKingly thought of how useful a dragon would be, and for his surprise, the obelisk obeyed and crumbled into sand, and the sand magically took the form of a dragon.
The sand dragon, upon being asked, revealed his name was Percival and that he was to serve the Hero of Brightwall in his quest to defeat the Darkness. Percival also revealed that Garth, the Hero of Will that aided the King’s father in his quests was still alive and that he could take the King to him.
In Bowerstone, the Queen and her council were to determine how better to defend Albion as there was no updates on the mission in Samarkand for months already, but ever since Reaver was admitted as an advisor the council had been under complete chaos as Page and Timmins would never tolerate any of Reaver’s ideas. Laylah, feeling that the meeting would lead nowhere, dismissed the three and locked herself in her bedroom to rest.
Hours later, in the middle of the night, Laylah was awakened by Barrows, the head butler of the castle who had been servicing the King in the last years, with news that she had an urgent guest. Laylah then met an unkempt and startled Reaver who announced he had proof that Page and Timmins were planning to betray and overthrown her.
Reaver handed Layla a pile of letters that he claimed to have intercepted and Laylah went down in tears as she recognized Page’s handwriting and Timmins hard manners with words in the letters, which clearly stated their discomfort with the Queen’s inaptitude and their wish to end her reign. The desolated Laylah realized she had no one other than Reaver to trust, and decided to deal with the matter in the proper royal way.
The next day, Timmins was apprehended by Reaver and the royal guard while he and other men were hiding weapons in the village of Blackholm, an act that was enough suspicious alone, and Reaver announced the Queen had condemned him to death. Page in the other hand, was informed by one of her street friends that the royal guard wanted her, and she tried to escape and meet Laylah directly to ask what the hell was happening, but she was also apprehended as soon as she exited one of the secret sewers’ passages underneath Bowerstone and the guards announced she was condemned to spend life in prison.
Page was escorted peacefully to the underground cells of Bowestone Castle where she would remain until she was sent to Ravenscar Keep. Page was locked in the same cell block as Timmins, who had been harshly beaten by the soldiers and whom was being held there until his public execution.
Later that day Laylah herself went to the prison so she could take one last look on her old friend. Page tried to claim she was innocent and that Reaver had set them up, that they never wanted to cause any harm on her and that the weapons being hidden in the villages was a measure that Reaver had opposed in the council but was meant to help defend such places in case the Darkness tried to invade Albion once again, for which Laylah responded by showing Page the intercepted letters. Page realized that Reaver’s minions had managed to intercept ordinary letters from her to Timmins. He had used her own phrases, so that these falsified letters would truly sound like her, but had added to them and twisted them. Page tried to reason with the Queen but she remained unconvinced and when she turned to leave Page knocked her out.
The Queen had been a fool to demand the guards to leave so she could talk with Page alone in the cell, and although Page was indeed innocent, she needed to escape. Page undressed Laylah and wore up the Queen’s clothes and veil so she wouldn’t be recognized and freed herself and Timmins with the cell keys the warden had given Laylah. The two then set out to escape the castle.
Back in Samarkand the King was riding Percival’s back as the dragon flown through the skies taKing the Hero to Garth. During the ride the Hero was able to talk with Percival and discuss about the Darkness nature, as something purely evil and corrupt.
Finally, the King and Percy reached a monastery in the eastern mountains of Samarkand, where Garth was living among the monks there. The Hero was glad the Darkness nor the Empress seemed to have tried to corrupt such location. Once on the ground, the Hero and Percival were surrounded by the warrior monks of the monastery until Garth appeared and prevented any conflict.
Garth took the Hero to his room and after the situation was explained, the will user decided to aid the King in his quest and also train him while Percival was sent to bring the rest of the royal army to the monastery.
In Bowesrtone, it had already passed two days since Page and Timmins escaped from the castle, the guards thought she was Laylah thanks to her disguise, and Timmins was just wrapped in robes as it was deep winter. They spent the days hiding in side roads and sleeping in barns until they finally reached Blackholm where they thought they would get some help.
However, due to the fact that most of the town’s men were off with the army in Samarkand and many others had been imprisoned alongside Timmins for helping him hide the weapons, the village was left unprotected and thus evil nymphs from the woods had invaded the town, killed all its adults and turned the children into hobbes.
Page and Timmins were devasted with this and were forced to go deeper in the countryside of Albion in order to finally get aid.
In Bowerstone, Laylah was livid, now truly convinced Page and Timmins were traitors, she ordered a curfew in Bowerstone but was still unwilling to held mass public executions of the men accused to help the two, much to Reaver’s displease. Reaver was also trying to manipulate Laylah into thinKing that Sabine and the Dwellers were also off to overthrow her, but Laylah was utterly unconvinced as Sabine was too prideful to become a betrayer.
Reaver than tried to have Laylah sign a new decree but she was able to realize such was meant to enforce child labor back in Albion and remove all the progressive laws her husband had implemented years before. Laylah tried to deny Reaver’s demands, for what he responded by taKing both the Queen and the castle’s staff as hostages.
Reaver revealed many members of the staff in the castle were worKing for him for years already, such as the head butler that had been servicing the Queen particularly. Realizing Page and Timmins were indeed set up by Reaver, and that the later had been manipulating her for as long as they have known each other so he could rule the country through her, Laylah had no option but to give in to Reaver’s orders in order to try to keep the country safe, as he wouldn’t kill her as he needed her authority figure to pass his laws.
Reaver revealed he knew about the Sanctuary used by both the Hero of Bowerstone and the Hero of Brightwall and that Laylah had access to it, and demanded that the Queen took him there. Laylah, held at gunpoint lead Reaver to the catacombs and showed him the Guild Seal, but as she touched it, she sent a voice message to Jasper, who was living inside the Sanctuary, saying that she was coming to visit him without his favorite beverage, which was their secret code informing that things were bad, and so, Jasper was able to gather his things and teleport to the Dweller’s Camp where he sought shelter with Sabine.
Laylah bought enough time for Jasper to escape by taunting Reaver saying that he would not be able to use the guild seal as a way into the Sanctuary as he was not in good terms with the King, but Reaver pompously dismissed this claim saying that the guild seal would respond to anyone who possessed Heroic blood, and by grabbing the seal, he showed he was indeed able to travel to the Sanctuary.
Realizing Jasper had been able to escape thanks to Laylah, Reaver forced the Queen to choose one of the castle’s staff to be executed by him, for what Laylah cleverly responded that she had chosen the head butler, Barrows, who had been secretly working for Reaver, and Reaver promptly shot him.
In the next days, Laylah was held inside the castle, without any way of communicating with the outside world, and Reaver had been replacing the staff with his men while keeping enough people to serve as hostages to manipulate the Queen. Laylah was forced to make an announcement placing thousands of gold coins as a reward for whoever captured or killed Page and Timmins. Laylah was also forced to cut all trade relations with Aurora until the war in Samarkand was over.
However, Laylah had been able to convince Reaver to let her take a walk in the Castle Grounds, where, although she was being escorted by Reaver himself, she was able to let Rex sniff her glove, which had once belonged to Page, and then set him free to go find her. Although Reaver realized what was happening he was no able to shot the dog as Laylah knocked his arm, for what made him furious.
Laylah then promised her husband in her prayers that she would thwart Reaver’s plans in any way she could until he returned to her and his country.
In the monastery, the King spent days training with Garth learning new ways of using will and being introduced to the monk’s culture and ways of meditation until the arrival of Percival and the rest of the army, for which Garth and the monks announced they would join the Albion forces to end the Darkness. They would then spend the next days planning their attack.
In Albion ground, Page and Timmins had ventured all the way north until they reached the forest of Thorndeep. Such place had been abandoned and inhabited by wild creatures for centuries, but thanks to the King’s efforts it had become a prosperous community.
Inside of a bakery they met a young couple, Fergus and Peg, and learned that although the community had been thriving in the last years, each day more and more people left the region heading to the cities of the south, and balverine attacks in the town in the surrounding forest were increasing each day.
Before they could properly rest, one of such attacks happened but they were able to kill the four balverines that had just charged into town. Suddenly a different bark caught their attention and they were surprised by Rex arrival, who had followed their tracks since Laylah freed him, carrying a hidden scroll with the Queen’s message that she came to realize the truth and that she was unharmed while also asKing them for forgiveness.
In Samarkand, the King and his army had just made their journey to the surrounding terrain of Samarkand. In their way they were joined by villagers of the towns they passed by and so the army grew over five hundred members.
They would soon start their attack. The plan was simple, while the King and some of his most skilled men would enter the down by swimming under the waters of the river Zaha that crossed the city, and then Garth would lead the army in a direct attack to the gates and walls so the King group could sneak within the city until they reached the source of the Darkness: the Empress.
In the next morning the assault began. The Albion troops clashed against the Samarkandian human forces that the Empress had positioned outside of the city walls to protect it. Garth flew over the battlefield in Percival’s back throwing all his magical spells in the enemy and the gates while Ben commanded the sharpshooters in the ground.
Sooner than they thought the Samarkandian forces were overpowered and the gates to the city were busted open by Garth, allowing the Albion army to enter the town. The King and his group were busy enough running through the desperate crowds of Zahadar trying to reach the royal palace, at the center of the city in the chaos. They dived once more into the tunnels of the water system and emerged at the royal garden, known as the Pleasure Gardens.
The elite soldiers and the King cautiously made their way up the ascending garden system which was suspiciously not being patrolled by guards at all. Upon reaching the doors of the pavilion of the place that leaded to the garden, the King noticed a table draped with an intricately embroidered cloth and a single chair with half eaten meal in front of it. The King made a sign to the soldiers and they pretended to enter the building, maKing sounds with their feet, and soon enough a veiled figure crawled from under the table. When the King grabbed her and the veil covering her face fell and looked at her face, he blacked out.
The King awakened an unknown amount of time later, imprisoned in a deep underground solitary cell, with no ways out. His head full with confusion and fear for his allies as he didn’t know what has happened. He was then summoned to the Empress presence and was escorted by her guards to her presence.
Once at her presence, in the main hall of the palace, her unnatural beauty and perfume stroke him like lightning. Although the King was a Hero, he was still a man and she was the most beautiful thing he had never seen. The Empress proceeded to taint his mind with sweet words and touches, seducing the King and expressing her will of uniting Albion with Samarkand. The King tried to resist her enchantments and advances but fell on his knees when she informed him that his closest friends, Ben, Kalin and Shan were killed in the confront and his army, led by Garth and Percival, had abandoned him, fleeing when he was captured.
The Empress ordered her guards to bring the spoils gathered from the corpses in the battlefield, and indeed there they were, Ben’s rifle “Vanessa”, one of Kalin’s bracelets and the whole corpse of Shan. The Empress tried to charm the King even more, turning his grief against him. But the King ultimately resisted upon remembering the one thing he thought he still had: Laylah.
The memory of his beloved wife, waiting for his return in Albion gave the King strength enough to break out of the Empress charm and confront her verbally. In the midst of her words the Hero realized she was actually a puppet, worKing in behalf of someone much more powerful than they. The Empress then broke off of her own gaming with his mind and full of rage ordered the Hero to be imprisoned underground for the rest of his life, taunting him as he was the last hero left and now no one would be able to defend Albion.
It is then revealed that hours before, while the attack on Zahadar was on full steam, that Kalin was rescued by Percival from an ambush in the streets and in the process, she lost her bracelet.
Garth noticed how strange it was that the Darkness that they had come destroy was nowhere to be found although they were already within the city. Suddenly, at the right moment that the King was captured by the Temptress forces in the garden, the Darkness arose from the water system of the town, launching its tendrils everywhere, spreading its corruption goo and releasing shadow creatures while also possessing anyone that came to be infected by it.
Shan, paralyzed due to his trauma, was the first to fell to the Darkness which completely infected his body. In a last moment of clarity he signed to Ben who shot him out of his misery.
Garth and Ben were then rescued from the Darkness by Percival, but in the process Ben dropped Vanessa (his rifle). The Albion forces were being forced out of the city and in minutes the survivors were all out of the walls, Shalia among them. They couldn’t abandon their leader, the Hero and King must be saved, but for the moment there was nothing left to do.
Back in his cell, the King was visited by a vision of Theresa, who eased his anguish by telling him that although the Darkness had indeed returned, hope was not yet to be lost as when heroes wouldn’t be born, they should be made. The Hero then realized: there were still heroes in Albion.
Forty years later, Gabriel was dreaming of heroes…
Trivia[]
- The kannat water system that turned the soldiers into jakalas is a real irrigation mechanism also known as “qanat”.
- Some of the choices made during the Weight of the World questline in Fable III are directly mentioned in the novel. According to the novel, the choices cannonly made by the Hero of Brightwall include:
- Preserve Bower Lake as a scenic spot instead of mining it.
- Re-open the Brightwall Academy with no fees for the students.
- Take Aurora as a dignified part of Albion.
- Other choices are not directly mentioned but are implied by some factors:
- It is also revealed that, although the Hero had most often chosen the “moral good” option, he had indeed sided with Reaver in some of the choices, although they were not revealed which.