Heartwarming / Cradle Series

Book 1 - Unsouled

• Kelsa speaks up to their parents to make sure Lindon gets half of the spirit fruit he earned when their parents had dismissed him as irrelevant.
• The First Elder, despite the scorn he heaps on Lindon, does care for him. He is painfully aware that any random person could kill Lindon at any moment with no consequence and keeps trying to convince him to stay in the library where it's safe.
• Towards the end of the book, the Heavens Glory school is still on Lindon and Yerin’s tail. They know that they won’t survive, but Yerin still wants to fight anyway, so that her master can be fully avenged. During this moment, Lindon does his typical thing of trying to trick, leverage or bargain with her. However, he ends up showing something rare for him in the first book: sincerity and honesty. Yerin is visibly shocked by the display and decides to leave with him.
  Lindon: Please don’t leave me to die.

Book 2 - Soulsmith

• Something stands out about Eithan's introduction: He constantly uses his nigh-omniscient ability to make the lives of everyone around him better. He keeps a ladder from falling, gives a flower to a depressed woman, and floats away without anyone even realizing he did it.
• Eithan notes that Gesha will take Lindon as an apprentice because she's just a big softy in the end.
• Yerin gets antsy when she thinks Lindon is planning to leave and feels much better when he assures her that he wants to continue to travel together.
• Jai Long is a disgraced member of the Jai family with a Nightmare Face, and everyone in the Sandviper Sect is terrified of him. Everyone except Kral, the heir, who genuinely sees him as a close friend and often involves him in Sandviper parties and rituals as he would any other high-ranking member of the sect.

Book 3 - Blackflame

• Jai Long is shocked when Gokren turns on the Jai clan for Jai Long's sake. Multiple times, Gokren could turn on Jai Long and steal all his hard work, but he never does.
• Orthos is an old dragon turtle driven mad by his own power. Eithan has spent an absurd amount of time and money trying to cure him, and when his subordinates gently say it's time for a Mercy Kill, Eithan says he has one last thing to try. He brought Lindon because he knows his twin cores and pure madra will help him soothe Orthos.
• Lindon and Yerin share a talk and then hold hands while they watch the rain.
• Lindon curing Jai Chen. Yes, it was a tactical move since he knew it would make Jai Long think well of him, but he still cured a young girl who could barely breathe and freed her of her oppressive family in the process.
  • It is also heavily implied that Jai Chen was fated to marry Lindon before Suriel interfered with fate. Lindon vaguely recognises her face from somewhere and she and her brother do eventually make their way to Sacred Valley.

Book 4 - Skysworn

• Fisher Gesha, who has repeatedly been demonstrated to be terrified of Eithan, stands up to Eithan to tell him that he's pushing Lindon too hard. Eithan is shocked, and respectfully calls her "Honored Grandmother" when he tells her he will keep her words in mind.
  Eithan: You know, I don't believe I've paid enough attention to her.
• In a world where everyone is an asshole, Mercy stands out. Her first act is to share a rare healing item with some random idiot who got himself hurt, she's always unfailingly nice to Lindon and Yerin despite being told they're just insane murderers, and she joined the Skysworn purely to help people.
• After Lindon’s fight with Jai Long, he has a talk with Yerin about his missing arm. Usually, this is the part where Yerin talks about the hardships and sacrifices of Sacred Arts, but here she shows actual empathy towards him, saying that she knows what he’s going through and that it sucks.
• For the past three books, Lindon has always looked for actions that could benefit him. He has shown concern for others, but never enough to take real action. However, that all changes when Yerin decides to join the Skysworn. Lindon tries to talk her out of it, but her minds made up. Despite there being not much benefit, he decided to join anyway, because when he thought about it he ultimately wanted to be with her.

Book 5 - Ghostwater

• Lindon knows Yerin well enough that when he sees the look on her face from the other side of the portal, he knows that she's going to try to follow and help him even though she has no idea about the multiple Truegolds on the other side and he knows if she did know she would only run faster.
  Sometimes it felt like it had been a lifetime since he'd left Sacred Valley. Other times, he felt like a child who had just left home. The reality was, he had been outside the Valley for a year and a half. He was overwhelmed by the weight of so much time. Surely it couldn't have been that long. But at the same time, he wasn't sure how he'd crammed so much into such a short time.
  But through all of it, he'd been with Yerin. By now, he knew her as well as he knew anyone. Seeing her face as she ran, he knew in a split-second what she was thinking. In that moment, he understood her thoughts better than he understood his own.
  She was coming for him.
  Whether she had sensed something from the other side or whether she'd heard Renfei's report to Bai Rou, she knew something was wrong. She was headed into the hands of these Truegolds, and she didn't even know it.
  But if she did know, she would only run faster.
  Ever since Lindon had adopted the Path of Black Flame, he'd lamented how long it took him to gather dragon's breath. Never had every fraction of a second burned him like they did now, as he shoved his hand of flesh in front of him and poured madra into it.
  Yerin kicked off from the stone floor. Lindon scorched his madra channels, pushing power in a loop through his soul with every breath, Blackflame burning his body and his soul as he forced it to move faster.
  The world darkened. Shadow flickered.
  And a bar of Blackflame madra tore through the thin, green metal frame of the portal.
• Orthos laughing like a kid after drinking from the life well, restoring his youth.
• Yerin and Lindon are on edge for the entire book because they hate being separated. When they meet back up at the end, they can't help but laugh.
• Despite only meeting recently, Ziel decides to help Lindon out with his path and even saves his life. He also shows actual concern for Lindon’s future beyond being good at Sacred Arts.
• Ziel is able to tell that despite there being many benefits to staying in Ghostwater that Lindon wants to leave. Lindon admits it, saying that though he loves it in Gostwater, he has a friend he wants to see. This friend is, of course, Yerin.
• When Dross is stolen by Akura Harmony, Lindon goes to fight him to get Dross back, not only because Dross is instrumental in getting them out of Ghostwater but also just because he refuses to abandon an ally.
• When Lindon and Yerin reunite, she hugs him so hard that Lindon is pretty sure if he hadn't just advanced to Truegold his ribs would have broken.
  Yerin: You're solid. You made it.
  Lindon: Forgiveness. It took me too long.

Book 6 - Underlord

• Lindon—after some initial missteps—tells Yerin that he wouldn't know what to do without her, and that he can face whatever the future holds as long as she is with him and that if she wants they can take their advancement slow from now on while wandering the land. In return, Yerin tells him that she would like to go back to his home and meet his family but that they still have to compete in the tournament.
  • This gets even more shocking the longer you consider it. Lindon knows that he has to advance to the level of Monarch or higher to even have a chance at stopping the Dreadgods thanks to Suriel's visions but he still offers to stop with Yerin at Underlord and go wander the world. This means that Yerin's injury scared Lindon to the point that he was willing to forgo his home, let everyone in Scared Valley, besides his family, die and forsake his entire mission and life's goal up to this point just to prevent her from getting injured like that ever again.

Book 7 - Uncrowned

• Akura Charity breaks from her normal stoicism to gift Lindon with a Communication Construct so that he can talk with Yerin after he started to break down without her. He eventually over-uses the construct to the point where it cracks and breaks. Dross then reveals that the construct would have been treated as a legendary treasure, Lindon does not care.
  Dross: [There are sects that would have considered that a legendary treasure, handing it down to their descendants to call for help in times of dire need, I just thought you ought to feel guiltier.]
  Lindon: The Sage can afford it.
• Yerin claims that the Winter Sage blames Yerin for the Sword Sage's death; a later scene from the Winter Sage's perspective confirms this. But she never says so aloud (despite otherwise being very open with her emotions) and tearfully asks why Yerin didn't come home to her. She clearly sees Yerin as a daughter.
• When the Blackflame Empire team is delayed due to an attack by Sophara, Lindon spends the whole intermediate period before the tournament worrying about her.
• When Yerin expresses disappointment at being unable to live up to the record the Sword Sage set in the first round of the tournament, Lindon comforts her, unintentionally reassuring her that he won't leave after the tournament.
  Lindon: If it was about where you started I would never have caught up to you. The only thing that matters is where you end up. And our paths don't end with this tournament.
• Lindon suggests that he and Yerin combine their cloudships. Then he realizes that he just asked her to build a home with him. While they're both blushing furiously, she does agree.

Book 8 - Wintersteel

• Yerin's internal thoughts in previous books portray her teacher, the Sage of the Endless Sword, as harsh and having high expectations of her to master the Path of the Endless Sword. However, his perspective in the prologue shows that he genuinely cares a lot for her. His motivation for going to Scared Valley in the first place was to find a place to help her separate from her blood shadow.
  • Yerin's total willingness to fight the entire Heaven's Glory school when she finds out her teacher was being poisoned.
• Lindon tries to ask out Yerin on a date. He doesn't even finish the question before she says yes.
• Mixes elements with Creepy Cute, Yerin wakes up in her room to find her Blood Shadow has slipped its leash and come out of its own accord. Yerin thinks that it came out to feed on the items in her room but instead, it changed the bandages on a wounded juvenile Horned Snow Rabbit and spent the time afterwards cuddling with it.
  Blood Shadow: You...got to...hold it.
• About halfway through Wintersteel Lindon is surprised when Akura Charity, in an effort to further tie Lindon to the Akura clan, offers to let Lindon marry Akura Grace who is the spitting image of Akura Malice when she was younger. He is even more surprised to find that Grace herself is the one who asked Charity to approach him with the offer.
• When Lindon does not accept the marriage offer above immediately Akura Charity asks him to be honest with her and knowing that Charity would know if he withheld the truth he admits that the only one he cares about romantically is Yerin. Charity admits that she knew they waited too long when she found out that Lindon had taken Yerin to the Sundown Palace.
• Lindon and Mercy sharing their grief together over their losses in the Uncrowned King Tournament. Mercy, as the true heir to the Akura family cannot be seen to cry in public, but in Lindon, she has a friend that she can cry with and experience no judgement from.
• When Malice decided to publicly humiliate Mercy, she opened windows in space to broadcast it to the rest of her family. When she opened one for Fury, he took one look and closed it; he didn't want to hurt his niece by watching.
• Wintersteel proves that not all Dragons are the same when Lindon comes across a Black Dragon who is not only a vocal opponent of the Dragon King's anti-human stance but goes out of his way to adopt several human children just to keep them safe.
• After 8 books and several in-universe years together Yerin and Lindon share a romantic kiss right before boarding the shared cloudship that they designed together as their home.

Book 9 - Bloodline

• Mercy taking care of Pride after their fight with Sophara in the previous book.
• Mercy's internal dialogue suggesting that Fury would not have ascended if his immediate family had not been able to follow, showing that despite his battle hungry nature he really does love his family above all.
• While Lindon blames himself for Grace’s death, and fears her parents will share the sentiment, they are nothing but gratefully to him for avenging her death.
• While overshadowed by him meeting his family again, Orthos and Lindon meeting again was touching.
• When meeting Lindon’s family, Yerin is indirectly asked what she sees in him. She doesn’t hesitate to go into his determination and loyalty. Lindon is embarrassed by her statements and feels that he doesn’t deserve them, but she makes him want to live up to them.
• Crosses slightly with funny but after repeatedly witnessing the people of Scared valley betray them while jockeying for power like children, Yerin makes an offhanded remark that speaks deeply about how highly she views Lindon, in her typical manner:
  Yerin: Did you get the only spine in your whole clan?
• Lindon still considers the Wei clan his family, despite all the horrible things they put him through. When Dross reminds him of that fact, he simply responds that it doesn't matter anymore and focuses on saving them.
• Lindon shows extreme restraint when he interacts with the inhabitants of Sacred Valley, despite their untrusting and suspicious nature causing multiple betrayals and ambushes, he always responds proportionally. The only time this restraint breaks is when his "family" the Wei clan attempts to murder Yerin.
• Lindon and Yerin's hyper-protectiveness for each other all through their journey through Scared Valley. Well justified because Lindon is worried about Yerin's new body reacting badly to the suppression field around the entire valley and well … Yerin's not about to let another loved one die here.
• Lindon and Yerin's entire interaction with the Shi family on Windfall:
  • Yerin and Lindon explaining each other's accomplishments in the Uncrowned King tournament.
  • Yerin being embarrassed when Lindon explained that Malice arrived due to her calling a favour in but also wanting to impress his family.
  • Lindon and Yerin being embarrassed when Jarran assumed Lindon was her student, then struggling to explain their relationship.
  • Finally, Yerin's response to Seisha's question of what Lindon's like now. Due to merging with Ruby and becoming more emotionally open, she finally shares how she really views Lindon and lists his good points, ending with how he came back to Sacred Valley to save the people despite them treating him so badly.
• When the Bleeding Phoenix fixes its will onto Windfall to get Ruby back, Yerin and Ruby are willing to jump out using the Moonlight Bridge to prevent anyone else from being hurt, despite them both being absolutely terrified.
  • Lindon's reaction counts too.
  "I'm so sorry," Lindon whispered into her hair. "Yerin, I... I'm just... I'm so sorry."
  She gave a dry laugh. "Sorry for dragging us along?" Yerin tapped the side of her head. "Mostly, there's only one in here. For a blink there, we had two again. Both of us about to ruin our robes, and curled up like we're looking to die."
  Lindon squeezed tighter. That wasn't what had scared him.
  She hadn't frozen up. She'd tried to leave. He had seen the Moonlight Bridge begin to activate.
  If she could have, she would have tossed herself to the Bleeding Phoenix.

Book 10 - Reaper

• Wei Shi Kelsa doesn't hide her romantic intentions for Jai Long a single bit, but since he's so used to having his Nightmare Face he doesn't know how to respond at first. It doesn't help that his sister Jai Chen keeps trying to play The Matchmaker. He's figuring it out by the end of the book though.
• After 9 books of constant movement, training, and fighting. Yerin and Lindon get a little time to settle down and just live together. It doesn't last very long considering the setting, but it's enough for them.
• Ziel being dubbed The Master of The Training Hall by the new members of the Sect of the Twin Stars. He has to be goaded into it but in the end he's willing to do everything from teaching scripting classes to settling roommate disputes.
• In a call back to statements by Naru Saeya back in Wintersteel, Yerin really does love when Lindon drops his polite façade and starts taking charge.
  "Two and a half seconds."
  She said into his outer robe. Then she reached up, red eyes blazing, and dragged his head down for a kiss.
  She released him and he took a breath.
  "Two and a half more."
• When it looks like The Mad King is about to destroy Cradle, Akura Malice finally realizes how horribly she's treated her daughter Mercy, and she acts like the mother that Mercy wishes she'd been by comforting her sobbing daughter with a hug.
  • Slightly Subverted since she goes back to her scheming ways the second it looks like the coast is clear.
• Dross still recalls his request to Lindon and how he kept it, so even if it is the end of the world, he's not scared.
  Dross: You did not abandon me, so I have nothing left to fear.
• Eithan's fears of his disciples/friends abandoning him when they find out that he is really Ozriel turn out to be completely unfounded. Not only are they completely on board but they tell him that they're going to do their best to try and reach his level as soon as they can.
  "Did you really...you...bleed and bury me, you let me think were finally going to catch up to you."
  Eithan tried not to smile. It was a serious moment. "It's not too late."
  Lindon struggled with himself for a moment, then he stepped forward...and extended his Dreadgod arm.
  "See you soon."
  Eithan clasped Lindon's hand in his, and they shook. A handshake wasn't a tradition from the Ashwind continent, but from the Rosegold. Where Eithan had been born.

Book 11 - Dreadgod

• Lindon's desire not to leave anyone behind anymore. You can see the concern and care he shows his teammates, acting more like a mother hen than a Sage before sending them off so they can improve.
• Though Lindon gained the surname "Arelius" at the end of the second book, and people have used it when referring to him all the time, he's rarely used it himself. Now, he finally consistently introduces himself as Wei Shi Lindon Arelius.
  He wasn't certain if he should still use the name "Arelius" now that Eithan was gone, but he supposed Eithan had more right to hand out the title than anyone.
• Yerin having her headache treated by Lindon while he's giving her a lap pillow.
• Orthos' brief memories of his mother say a lot about how he became who he is today—and why he's so different from actual dragons.
  Orthos had barely crawled from his egg when he first heard the stories of the black dragons.
  There were holes in his memories now, eroded by time and the damage caused by the Path of Black Flame, but these were still pristine. When he would shove around his smaller siblings, his mother would stop him.
  Would a black dragon do that? They were the kings of the continent; far too proud to bully the young.
  When he struck down prey larger than he was and dragged it back to their cave, she would praise him. That was a hunt worthy of a dragon.

Book 12: Waybound

• Lindon is able to borrow the authority of the Monarchs to heal Mercy. But what really helps him is, just briefly, being able to touch on part of Suriel's power to restore her.
• Lindon summons the Sword Sage's Hunger echo to speak with Yerin. Yerin has, for years, been worried about what he would think of her now, of how he would feel about her stepping off the Path of the Endless Sword and using the blood shadow. He is nothing but proud.
• Mercy's Underlord and Overlord revelations were uncomfortable personal truths about her relationship with her mother. But the Archlord revelation is something you choose. At first, she thinks maybe she should choose "to help my friends," but that's still about other people. Her ultimate choice is simply "to bring light."
• The Sage of a Thousand Eyes tells Mercy that her mother would be proud of her. Mercy is initially unhappy, but she continues.
  Cladia: Not as she is now. That would not be a compliment. But as she was, long ago. If that woman had looked into the future and seen that she would have a daughter like you, she would have bragged to no end.
• The Sage of a Thousand Eyes makes a few comments implying that she knew who Eithan was the entire time (or at the very least, wasn't surprised by the revelation), and just wants to see him again.
  Cladia had closed her eyes and was still breathing hard, but a grin slashed across her tired face that made her look like Eithan. "And when you see Eithan again... tell him he should have said good-bye."
• Throughout the book (with a bit in previous books as well), the Monarchs have disparaged Lindon as nothing but a lucky child who caught the attention of a Judge. Northstrider tells him that a random speck of dust could become powerful if a Judge decided to empower it, and he's earned nothing he has. There's a lot of hypocrisy in that statement, but Lindon doesn't respond. Until Mercy is disparaging herself for not being able to measure up despite being the daughter of a Monarch. Lindon shuts that down by pointing out that he's not some random nobody doing better than her, he was personally trained by the Reaper of Worlds.
  Lindon: I have received more help than anyone in the universe. Even most of my power is stolen. There's nothing noble about doing everything yourself. You just have to do your best to honor the help you've gotten.
• Mercy's Herald advancement. Yes, it's played for laughs, but the fact remains that her spirit is ready and willing to help, leading to the easiest Herald advancement anyone has ever heard of. Because, deep down to her literal soul, Mercy is just a nice person.
• When trying to manifest an Icon, Mercy needs to understand how others see her. So Emriss shows her memories of when Malice gave her the traditional Prophetic Name. The Icon Mercy manifests? The Joy Icon.
  Mercy was only a baby, still wailing, when Malice looked into her future. She saw her youngest daughter with a broad smile clear even on the dark statues in the World of Night. She healed, she laughed, and she cried for the sake of others.
  And, in the end, Malice saw her daughter as another light rising over the dark mountains of the Akura clan.
  Malice leaned back, satisfied, and let her World of Night fade. She looked down to the baby in her arms and named her.
  She would be a light to complement the shadows. The Mercy to counterbalance the family's Malice.
  Where the Monarch failed, her daughter would bring joy.
• With all the other Dreadgods dead, Lindon absorbs all the Hunger aura in the world and falls into an endless darkness without even his body. The only thing that makes it through, the only thing that keeps him sane, is Suriel's marble.
• There's something enormously heartwarming about Lindon pulling out his Path of Twin Stars manual to teach his sect his cycling technique.
• Lindon finally makes it out of Cradle and rejoins the rest of the team on Grave. And they all come to greet him.
  • Yerin jumps into his arms and kisses him.
  • Mercy hugs him tightly.
  • Ziel waves.
  • Eithan hugs Lindon, and they both cry.
• After the reunions Suriel herself takes a moment from her duties as the Seventh Judge to finally have a proper conversation with Lindon.
• One name: Lirin. Yerin and Lindon's son in the epilogue who is being raised with all the love and support that Lindon was missing in his early life. With Eithan as a wacky uncle.
  • We also get to see that Lindon's Monarch bloodline is his son having split cores from birth.