Warning! All spoilers for previous books in the Cradle Series are UNMARKED!
"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."
— Wei Shi Lindon Arelius
It is time for everything to end.
As both Monarchs and Dreadgods prepare to destroy them, Lindon and his team withdraw to a pocket of accelerated time where they can train months in hours. With any luck, they can become strong enough to fight before their enemies arrive. Their goal? To kill the remaining Dreadgods, one by one, and fashion their bindings into weapons to force the Monarchs to ascend.
But it is not quite so simple. The Dreadgods become stronger every time one of them dies, and Lindon barely managed to kill the weakest of the Dreadgods with the help of the Monarchs. Even if everything goes perfectly, they will need every trick and tool to survive, much less win. If they make a single mistake, then they will be either dead or forced off the planet early, and the Dreadgods will be free to rampage stronger than ever.
The Monarchs have also not been idle, and have done their best to turn the world against Lindon's team. Without direct proof of the crimes of Monarchs, the people will not be willing to join the fight to save the soul of the world.
And above Cradle, in the Heavens themselves, the fate of the Abidan comes down to a duel. Makiel, the Hound, has seen that if Ozriel survives Makiel will instead be punished for his own crimes. He has allowed the Mad King to corner Ozriel and Suriel in a fight that is very likely to end with one of them, if not both of them, dead.
It is possible that Lindon will succeed in his every goal, only to ascend to the Heavens and find that both his sponsor and his friend are gone. It is possible that he will lose friends as he fights.
It is even possible that Lindon himself will fall.
In the end, it is down to fate.
Waybound is the twelfth and final novel in the Cradle Series by Will Wight.
This novel provides examples of:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Mercy tells Malice that she sounds evil. Not as a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, just that she sounds silly. Malice can't help but laugh and admit she went overboard.Mercy: Are you listening to yourself? "I should have taught you a more lasting lesson," "You should have begged for my forgiveness," talking about how no one should stand up to you... Mother, I feel like you're going to toss me into an active volcano. I'm afraid the next words out of your mouth are going to be "Guards, seize her!"
- Babies Ever After: In the epilogue, Lirin is the 7 year old son of Yerin and Lindon.
- Bookends: Lindon's journey outside of The Sacred Valley started with him fighting and dying to Li Markuth at the Seven-Year Festival, before being resurrected by Suriel. His journey to leave Cradle itself starts with him again fighting Li Markuth and utterly destroying him at the very next Seven-Year Festival, and when Lindon does ascend, Suriel takes a moment to finally have a proper conversation with him without the pressure of saving the world hovering over them.
- The Bus Came Back: Ekerinatoth, of all people - a minor antagonist who died several books ago and was barely mentioned since - returns near the end of the story as a remnant, having undergone a Face–Heel Turn and being reconstructed by Lindon.
- Card-Carrying Villain: The Dark Lord Zyrellon, Lord of the Broken, spends his brief time onscreen shouting that "I AM THE END OF THE WORLD! I AM THE DARKNESS UNENDING!" after Yerin tells him she's trying to figure out who the world-threatening villain on his world is.
- Egopolis: Dross' suggestion for the pocket world's name is "Drosswater." His justifications aren't bad, but they still decide against it.
- Empathic Weapon: The difference between Ozriel's Scythe and the copy is immediately apparent. The true Scythe is at least slightly intelligent, and violently refuses to be used by anyone besides Ozriel or those Ozriel has expressly lent it to. It takes great effort for Suriel to lend it to Makiel. Until she does that, he is genuinely worried that it will kill him if he touches it.
- Giver of Lame Names:
- Most of the suggested names for the new pocket world aren't great. Special mention goes to Dross suggesting "Drosswater" and Zeil suggesting "Training Chamber Number One."
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Word of Will says that this extends to Lirin as his name is just Lindon and Yerin's names smashed together.
- The Heart:
- It's emphasized again that Suriel, more than any other Judge or indeed any other Phoenix, works to unite the Judges and heal the rifts between them. She gives Makiel the Scythe so that they can rescue Ozriel together, trying to heal that ancient wound.
- Codified in Mercy when she obtains the Joy Icon upon advancing to Monarch.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- In an odd case Suu, Mercy's bow, is excited at the prospect of firing the arrow with the Penance prototype attached to it at Malice, even though it knows that it will die. It is fulfilling its purpose by defending Mercy and testing itself to the very limit by attacking its creator.
- Makiel, who's real name is Tommess, sacrifices himself to bring Ozriel back to life after he was destroyed by The Mad King. In a darkly comedic twist he did this as a bit of revenge because he knew that Ozriel would hate that he was saved in such a way.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: Ozriel hid his Scythe in Oversight, Makiel's personal planet, under Makiel's fortress.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: Reigan Shen has flaunted his ability to get around soul oaths a little too much. He finds that none of his own allies trust him any more, and he has absolutely no way to prove he's actually being honest this time.
- Loophole Abuse: It's difficult to do this with soul oaths, but it comes up.
- First, Lindon manages to do this in his duel with Northstrider. It's a duel to death or surrender, and Malice swore not to interfere until the duel is over. Lindon knocks Northstrider unconscious, but he's not dead, and he didn't surrender. Malice might have been able to get out of the oath if she thought Northstrider had no chance, but he genuinely could recover, and Lindon is genuinely weakened, so the duel is still ongoing. Which means Malice can't hurt Lindon, but he can hurt her, because he swore no oath preventing it.
- The secret behind Reigan Shen violating soul oaths is revealed. Turns out it's less a loophole and more flat-out cheating. His Slave Collar on Tiberian's Remnant lets him transfer the consequences of the oaths to Tiberian. As a Remnant, the damage is less severe for him, and Reigan Shen can repair it without too much trouble.
- Mirror Boss: Using the Labyrinth's memories of them, Lindon creates shadow copies of the monarchs to fight them.
- Never My Fault:
- Makiel manages to do this even when taking responsibility. When listing his own crimes, clearly the one he feels is his worst was allowing Ozriel to live and operate for centuries. He figures that sacrificing himself to kill a weakened Ozriel or Mad King (whichever one survives their duel) is his best penance; even if he does survive, he will give up his mantle.
- Reigan Shen blames all his problems on Eithan, not his own backstabbing, selfishness, and oath breaking.
- The Power of Creation: The first thing that Lindon does is create a pocket world, a training space for the team to advance as fast as possible, before the Weeping Dragon arrives.
- At the end of the book, he also gains the Hammer Icon, which is used to create things.
- Summon Everyman Hero: Parodied near the end. With the worlds within the Way collapsing, there's a lot of worlds summoning heroes to save them. But instead of some random schmuck like your average isekai, they get Yerin, Mercy and Ziel, who are all new-minted Abidan who've just taken their first steps past Monarch level. The only thing that slows them down is deciding how to solve the various problems, since any Evil Overlord they'd have to face is like an insect beneath their boots.
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- Othkameth escapes the duel with Makiel, leaving Daruman to die. Suriel didn't see it in the Void, leaving it unclear where it went.
- Northstrider is convinced to ascend, but no information is given on what happens after.
- Only a few characters are specifically noted to have come with the ascendants or stayed behind. Kelsa and Charity specifically stayed behind while Pride and Min Shuei ascended, but Jai Chen, Fisher Gesha, and most of the Eight-Man Empire are unaccounted for. Especially since with the disruption in the Way, people who ascend apparently just end up in a random world, so the Abidan might not even be able to find them.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside:
- Lindon cranks up the time dilation effect as far as it will go in Ghostwind Hall. He notes that this is an inefficient use of resources and is burning an entire fortune for minimal extra benefit... but he stole it all anyway, so he doesn't care.
- This is ratcheted up another notch by Ziel's Grand Oath Array formation while inside of Ghostwind Hall, allowing them to experience days, months, to a year of elixir cultivation while already inside of another time bubble.
