A Light in the Mist is the sixth and final book in the seventh Warrior Cats series, The Broken Code.
The prologue, picking up immediately where The Place of No Stars ended (with Snowtuft and Rootspring fighting in the Dark Forest), from Ashfur's POV. He thinks back to how he'd cut off the existing barrier between StarClan and the Dark Forest and created his own secret tunnel between them - which also blocked StarClan's connection to the living Clans - before taking over Bramblestar's body. He thinks about how Squirrelflight still wouldn't be his mate, and decides that he wants to destroy everything - StarClan, the living Clans, and the Dark Forest - and orders Snowtuft to kill Rootspring.
Rootspring fights the gathered Dark Forest cats, and suddenly Bristlefrost arrives to help him. Shadowsight joins them, trying to break Ashfur's concentration. Snowtuft attacks Ashfur, giving them a chance to escape, though Ashfur kills him afterward. The trio is joined by a few spirits who are free of Ashfur's control - Stemleaf, Spiresight, and Willowshine - and they find the barrier to StarClan. They're not able to clear it - though they find that having hope grants them a little progress - but they do talk to Leafpool, who is on the other side. She assures them that StarClan is still on the Clans' side. As Ashfur draws near again, they all split up, hoping that it'll make them harder to catch.
Rootspring watches Ashfur and his cats for a bit, and hears a voice in his head that he ignores, but is found by Mapleshade. Meanwhile, Shadowsight finds the way out to the Moonpool, explains to the leaders what has been happening, and convinces them to send more cats to the Dark Forest so that they can help break Ashfur's hold on the trapped spirits and clear the barrier. Bristlefrost is cornered by three Dark Forest cats - Redwillow, Sparrowfeather, and Maggottail - who intend to take over her body but have no idea how to actually do it. She encourages them to help her so that they can be free of Ashfur and the shrinking Dark Forest.
Rootspring is brought to Ashfur, who rants for a bit, and then the voice in Rootspring's head instructs him to tell Ashfur that StarClan was wrong to trust him. This makes Ashfur run away to check on the barrier. In the living world, the leaders argue for a bit on what to do, and eventually agree to send volunteers into the Dark Forest. In ShadowClan, Shadowsight's sister Lightleap volunteers, and the Clan supports her choice. Bristlefrost and her three Dark Forest allies work at the barrier to StarClan and make a hole big enough for the StarClan cat Needletail to squeeze through, but then Ashfur arrives.
Rootspring is being guarded by several of Ashfur's Dark Forest warriors. The voice in his head gives him words to rile up Darkstripe, and the four Dark Forest cats are about to attack him when the voice asks permission to take over his body. The voice reveals himself to be Firestar, and Rootspring allows him to take over. Firestar ends up killing Darkstripe; two of the other Dark Forest cats (Mapleshade and Rushtooth) flee, while the third, Silverhawk, agrees to help the living Clans and StarClan. Firestar gives Rootspring his body back. Ashfur and his controlled spirit-cats fight Bristlefrost and her allies. As they run, Redwillow slips and falls into the dark water, lost forever. They manage to give Ashfur the slip, and then Rootspring and Silverhawk find Bristlefrost and her party.
The living volunteers meet at the Moonpool so that the Sisters can help send them to the Dark Forest; Shadowsight escorts his sister there. Mistystar is the volunteer for RiverClan, Violetshine for SkyClan, Crowfeather for WindClan, and Graystripe for ThunderClan. Turns out that Lightleap's fear is too strong to allow the ritual to work and bring her into the Dark Forest, so since the sun is rising and they don't have time, Shadowsight decides to take her place.
Bristlefrost and Rootspring's group return to the barrier and find that several StarClan cats are able to cross through the barrier: Onestar, Silverstream, Feathertail, Redtail, Larksong, and Firestar himself. The spirits who'd been controlled by Ashfur now have the chance to move on to StarClan, but they decide not to do so yet, choosing to instead risk themselves for the sake of the Clans. They're joined by yet another Dark Forest warrior - Juniperclaw, who'd died in The Raging Storm after poisoning SkyClan's fresh-kill pile.
The living volunteers enter the Dark Forest and are met by Bristlefrost and Rootspring's large group. After a touching reunion between several of the StarClanners and living cats, they decide to take the fight to Ashfur. They find him, and at first it seems like he's alone... but then he reveals that he still has controlled spirits, and Darktail and a large group of rogues arrive, meaning that there's enough cats to outnumber the Clan patrol.
The battle begins. During the fight, a rogue fighting Rootspring falls into the water. Rootspring goes to help Needletail, who's fighting Darktail, and then Violetshine helps the pair of them. Together they overpower Darktail, and Needletail gives the killing bite. As the fight continues, Rootspring realizes that Bristlefrost is more important to him than anything else, and decides that if they get out of the Dark Forest, he will leave his Clan to join hers.
Shadowsight - who'd fled up a tree due to having no fighting skills - witnesses Graystripe confronting Ashfur, passing along a message from Squirrelflight about how she never could have loved Ashfur. The two fight, and Graystripe is injured. Shadowsight's branch breaks and he falls, badly hurt. Ashfur enters his mind and tries to convince Shadowsight that if he kills Bristlefrost, the battle will end, and he and Shadowsight's connection means that Shadowsight will live. Meanwhile, Bristlefrost sees that Ashfur is dragging Shadowsight's unconscious body toward the dark water. She fights her way through and arrives in just enough time to tackle Ashfur, and both of them fall into the dark water. Ashfur tries to swim to the surface, but Bristlefrost holds him under until he disappears. At this point, she has no strength left, and is unable to make it to the surface. Her last thoughts are of how they defeated Ashfur, and of how much she loves Rootspring: her last impression is that of warmth and peace.
Rootspring is horrified as Bristlefrost doesn't resurface, and is only held back from diving in by his mother Violetshine. As the cats realize that Ashfur is gone, the battle breaks up: his grip on the spirit cats is gone, and the Dark Forest cats flee. Leafpool of StarClan arrives and reports that the barrier between StarClan and the Dark Forest is gone, and that the connection to the living Clans is returning as well. Rootspring tries to sense for Bristlefrost, but can't feel her spirit, and knows that she's gone forever, that she'd even given up her place in StarClan. Shadowsight, too, feels too wretched to feel that it's a victory, since he blames himself for the loss of Bristlefrost.
Everyone returns to the border with StarClan. Leafpool tells Shadowsight that he'd never had a connection with StarClan, just with shadow (which is now gone since Ashfur's dead), but that he can continue to heal his Clanmates even without the StarClan connection. StarClan allows the living cats as well as Juniperclaw to visit StarClan's hunting grounds briefly. Rootspring looks hopefully for Bristlefrost, but is reminded that since she'd died in the Dark Forest, she's gone.
Juniperclaw asks if StarClan can ever change their minds, and that gets them to talking about the warrior code. Violetshine suggests that since the warrior code caused a lot of trouble with Ashfur, they should think about what's most important in it. StarClan decides to rearrange the rules in order of importance: it's not explicity mentioned what the new order is, but they do mention that the rule about boundaries between the Clans comes last. They bring up the idea that it should be possible for a Clan to challenge a leader that loses their Clan's trust, and discuss that they should re-think the rules about relationships with cats from other Clans. Firestar decides that the Clans should think about it, and make their decision about it in three moons. As for Juniperclaw, when StarClan discusses the tunnel between their territory and the Dark Forest, Juniperclaw volunteers to guard it and make sure that no cat crosses between them. Graystripe suddenly collapses, and it turns out that he was hiding an injury he'd received from Ashfur. He assures everyone that he's had a good life, and that he just wants to tell his living Clanmates goodbye.
The living cats emerge from the Moonpool. They explain what happened - Ivypool is especially grief-stricken to learn of her daughter's death - and then Graystripe joins StarClan. The following night, the medicine cats go to the Moonpool (Mothwing has returned to RiverClan). They share with StarClan, and Shadowsight tries, but is unsuccessful: after the others awaken with their own stories, Shadowsight admits that he doesn't have that connection with them. The others reassure him that he's still a true medicine cat, and Shadowsight finally feels accepted.
A half moon later is the Gathering. Bramblestar praises everyone for their role in opposing Ashfur, and then finally decides to honor everyone who went to fight in the Dark Forest with a new title: they will be known as "Lights in the Mist". Rootspring speaks up about his love for Bristlefrost and explains that the Clans' rules shouldn't keep cats in love apart like it had for the two of them. Finally, the five Clans hold a vigil in honor of those who have died. Ivypool and Spotfur speak to Rootspring and ask if he can make Bristlefrost and Stemleaf appear; he cannot since Stemleaf is now in StarClan and Bristlefrost is gone. He does try, though, and sees the future (and kits) he should have had with Bristlefrost. Rootspring and Bristlefrost's parents accept that even if Bristlefrost's spirit is gone, she will always live on in their hearts, and this brings Rootspring comfort as he heads home.
Tropes appearing in this book:
- Action Prologue: The prologue features Ashfur watching Rootspring and Snowtuft fight each other.
- Agonizing Stomach Wound: This is the type of wound that kills Graystripe.
- Almost Dead Guy: Graystripe returns to the living world just long enough to give a calm, peaceful farewell to everyone before he passes.
- And I Must Scream: Some of the spirits being controlled by Ashfur seem to be aware that they're being controlled, but unable to do anything about it.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: After Bristlefrost arrives to help Rootspring fight against the Dark Forest cats, they fight together this way.
- Best Friend: Firestar tells Graystripe that he always has been, and always will be, his best friend.
- Big Damn Heroes: Bristlefrost shows up twice just in time to save her friends: after entering the Dark Forest she rushes to Rootspring's side to help him fight, and toward the end she sacrifices herself to kill Ashfur and save Shadowsight.
- Bittersweet Ending: Ashfur is defeated, everyone's at peace, and the connection between StarClan and the living Clans is restored once more. However, many cats have died recently, and Bristlefrost not only gave up her life but the very existence of her spirit in order to finish Ashfur, leaving behind her grieving parents, as well as Shadowsight, who blames himself, and Rootspring, who loved her but never got a chance to tell her that he was going to leave his Clan for her.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Ashfur is able to control other spirits, even to make them attack their friends and Clanmates.
- Bring Help Back: Shadowsight returns to the living world to bring others back to help fight Ashfur.
- Cessation of Existence: Happens to Redwillow, Snowtuft, Darktail, Ashfur, and sadly, Bristlefrost when they're killed in the Dark Forest.
- Chase Scene: As in the last book, there are several chase scenes involving Ashfur and his minions chasing the protagonists.
- Cryptic Conversation: Spiresight speaks this way, such as when he opens a conversation with Shadowsight by saying "The shadows are dispersing." Shadowsight thinks that Spiresight will make an excellent StarClan cat because he's already hard to understand.
- Darkest Hour: Both the Dark Forest and StarClan are fading to nothing as a result of Ashfur blocking the connection between them, and this also apparently may effect the living world.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Shadowsight always had a connection to "shadow" rather than StarClan, but he is a good cat.
- Deader than Dead: Several Dark Forest cats' spirits are killed, making them disappear completely.
- Dead Guy Junior: It's mentioned that Shadowsight is named after Spiresight, and Violetshine tells Needletail that she'd named her daughter Needlekit after her.
- Death Is Dramatic: The death of Bristlefrost, one of the protagonists of the series. She sees Ashfur trying to kill Shadowsight, fights her way through to them, and at the last second before Ashfur can throw the unconscious Shadowsight in the deadly water, Bristlefrost tackles Ashfur and knocks him in. She holds him under until he's gone, but cannot return to the surface herself, meaning her own spirit fades away with her death.
- Decapitated Army: Ashfur's army is defeated when he's killed, since he no longer is controlling his imprisoned spirits, and the remaining rogues and Dark Forest cats flee.
- Due to the Dead: The Clans hold a vigil for those who have died after the Gathering at the end.
- Ear Notch: Bristlefrost notices that most of Darktail's rogues have torn ears and similar scars, showing that they're experienced fighters.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The struggle against Ashfur caused lots of conflict while he was controlling Bramblestar's body, and then a dangerous fight in the Dark Forest itself wherein Bristlefrost died, but now he's defeated and the Clans are at peace.
- Ensemble Cast: The Broken Code features three main protagonists: Bristlefrost, Rootspring, and Shadowsight.
- Evil Is Deathly Cold: In the prologue, Ashfur's fury is described as being cold and hard, like granite in his belly.
- Fighting from the Inside: As Ashfur's concentration wavers, his controlled spirits are able to make an attempt to fight his commands.
- Final Battle: There is one against Ashfur, consisting of living and deceased Clan cats and some friendly Dark Forest cats, against Ashfur, his controlled minions, and allied Dark Forest warriors and rogues.
- Fisticuff-Provoking Comment: When Graystripe tells Ashfur that Squirrelflight will never love him, Ashfur flies into a rage and attacks him.
- Gender Bender: Berryheart is a she-cat, but gets called male in one scene."Lightleap!" Berryheart called out his denmate's name.
- Ghost Reunion Ending: In the later part of this final book of the Broken Code arc, the connection between StarClan and the living Clans is restored, so the volunteers who went into the Dark Forest have a touching reunion with their StarClan friends and family, and the medicine cats are also able to share with StarClan once more.
- Grand Theft Me: Ashfur has promised other Dark Forest cats that he'll help them take over bodies of living cats. A couple of them attempt to do this to Bristlefrost, but are unsuccessful.
- Green-Eyed Monster:
- Ashfur continues to show jealously towards Bramblestar, revealing that he never forgave him for "taking what was his."
- Despite the fact that in previous books, Silverstream and Feathertail gave their blessing for Graystripe/Millie and Crowfeather/Leafpool's relationships, they're noted as looking jealous - Silverstream is even noted as glaring at Graystripe, Millie, and Briarlight.
- Hazardous Water: The water in the Dark Forest, which in the previous book rapidly sapped the strength and will of the cats who fell into it: succumbing to it destroys a cat's spirit forever. In this book, it's rising fairly rapidly - the island in the center of the lake no longer exists - and is a major hazard to avoid throughout the book. It also ends up being how Ashfur is defeated.
- Heel–Face Turn: A handful of Dark Forest cats turn against Ashfur and decide to help the Clan cats: Redwillow, Sparrowfeather, Maggottail, Silverhawk, and Juniperclaw. Juniperclaw even volunteers for the role of guarding the boundary between StarClan and the Dark Forest.
- Hell: The Clans' hell, the Dark Forest, is the main setting of the book.
- The Hero Dies: Bristlefrost dies toward the end of the book, sacrificing herself to kill Ashfur.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Bristlefrost gives up her life and place in StarClan to ensure Ashfur's defeat.
- Hiss Before Fleeing: Mapleshade does this at the end of the battle when Ashfur's side has lost.
- Howl of Sorrow: When Graystripe dies, Bramblestar and Squirrelflight yowl aloud "until every stone rang with their grief".
- Immediate Sequel: A Light in the Mist begins at the same moment where The Place of No Stars ended, with Rootspring and Snowtuft surrounded by Dark Forest cats and being forced to fight.
- It's All About Me:
- Ashfur doesn't give a damn how many cats suffer or die so long as he can have Squirrelflight for himself.
- At the end of the book, Mothwing admits that the real reason she was so hard on Shadowsight in Darkness Within was not because she believed he needed to improve as a medicine cat, but because she'd chosen to blame him for her losing her place in RiverClan by helped Ashfur take over Bramblestar's body, despite being well-aware of the fact that Shadowsight was an Unwitting Pawn in the evil tom's plans. However, she does apologize for it.
- It's All My Fault: Shadowsight blames himself for Bristlefrost's death, since he was a liability in the battle and she'd done it to save his life.
- Just Between You and Me: When Ashfur has Rootspring captured, he whispers to him his plan to destroy StarClan and the Dark Forest, then return to the lake to make cats suffer until Squirrelflight agrees to be his mate.
- Killed Off for Real: Several cats' spirits are killed, making them gone forever.
- Killed Offscreen: Snowtuft. He fights Ashfur to give the protagonists a chance to escape. At one point they hear a wail and wonder if it's him, and Willowshine later reports that Snowtuft had been killed by Ashfur.
- Killer Finale: A Light in the Mist is the final book of The Broken Code and features more deaths than the other books in the arc, including notably the villain and one of the protagonists.
- The Load: Ashfur tries to convince Shadowsight that he's just a liability to the others.
- Mass Hypnosis: Ashfur is able to mind-control numerous nearby spirits all at the same time.
- Mind-Control Eyes: Cats who are being controlled by Ashfur have an unusual look in their eyes. When Firestar controls Rootspring, it also makes Rootspring's eyes look like Firestar's, which makes Darkstripe freak out.
- No Body Left Behind: When Bristlefrost dies in the Dark Forest, her body disappears in the living world. It's tragic enough for her mother that Bristlefrost is dead, but even harder that they can't hold a burial to say a proper goodbye.
- Official Couple Ordeal Syndrome: Bristlefrost and Rootspring have spent the last few books angsting about the fact that they're from separate Clans and can't see how they can be together because of this. Now in the Dark Forest their lives are constantly in danger, and finally Rootspring decides that he'll leave SkyClan to join Bristlefrost, but then Bristlefrost dies and her spirit vanishes, so they can never be together again.
- Old Master: Graystripe may be an elder and the oldest cat in ThunderClan, but he's the one who volunteers to go into the Dark Forest for his Clan, and puts up a good fight while he's there.
- Playing Possum: Bristlefrost does this briefly while fighting Mapleshade.
- Prepare to Die: During the final battle, Mapleshade says to Bristlefrost, "Are you ready to die?", and then strikes a blow on her that could have been fatal even if Bristlefrost hadn't leaped into the water with Ashfur.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Ashfur receives two of these; one from Shadowsight, who berates Ashfur for trying to destroy everything Squirrelflight cares about despite claming to love her, and one from Graystripe, who gives one to Ashfur as a message from Squirrelflight.
- Ritual Magic: Ashfur claims to his Dark Forest allies that in order to be able to take over a living cat's body, they need to perform a ritual where they pull out three of their whiskers and then close their eyes while he buries the whiskers at the barrier blocking StarClan and the Dark Forest. To their dismay, this isn't how possession actually works, and he'd only told them that for his own amusement.
- Running Gag: Several StarClan cats mention that Graystripe - who has been known to be a Big Eater in previous books - has put on weight. He asks why everyone keeps saying that.
- Secret Stab Wound: After Ashfur is defeated, the characters are happily visiting their loved ones in StarClan before returning to the waking world, when all of a sudden Graystripe stumbles and it's revealed that he has a fatal belly wound. He explains that he hid it because didn't want to worry everyone else, and that it doesn't bother him that he's dying since he's lived a good long life. He survives long enough to wake up and say goodbye to his family before passing on.
- Series Continuity Error:
- It mentions that Spiresight had saved Shadowsight's life as they returned to the lake. He had saved both of Shadowsight's littermates at different points, not Shadowsight himself.
- At one point, Berrynose "whisked his tail in agreement". Berrynose only has a stump after losing his tail as a kit in Sunset.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Rootspring and Bristlefrost are from different Clans but are in love. Rootspring finally decides to leave his Clan to join Bristlefrost, but she ends up dying and her spirit disappearing, so they won't be able to be together even in StarClan.
- Strong Family Resemblance: When Rootspring meets his grandmother Pebbleshine in StarClan, he notices how similar she looks to both his mother Violetshine and aunt Twigbranch.
- Switching P.O.V.: Bristlefrost, Rootspring, and Shadowsight. Firestar also gets a brief POV scene while taking over Rootspring's body.
- Taking You with Me: Bristlefrost knocks Ashfur into the dark water and holds him under, knowing that it'll result in her own death.
- These Hands Have Killed: Rootspring gives Firestar permission to take over his body temporarily, and Firestar ends up fighting and killing The Dragon Darkstripe. When Rootspring is given control again, he doesn't remember the fight, but he shivers uneasily at the taste of blood in his mouth and the realization that his claws have killed a cat. He gets over it pretty quickly, though: shortly afterward, he thinks about how his paws defeated one of the strongest Dark Forest warriors and is eager to see more of what they're capable of.
- Title Drop: The cats who went to the Dark Forest to save the Clans are given the title "Lights in the Mist".
- Together in Death:
- Graystripe mentions that he doesn't mind dying because he'll be with loved ones again that he had lost, and he promises that when his remaining kits pass on he'll see them again when they join him.
- Painfully averted with Bristlefrost and Rootspring. Bristlefrost dying in the Dark Forest means that her spirit's gone, so Rootspring won't be able to be with her even in StarClan.
- Too Injured to Save: The medicine cats have to accept that Graystripe's wound is too bad to treat.
- Use Your Head: Redwillow thinks he'll be able to take over Bristlefrost's body by headbutting her after having performed a "ritual". That's not how possession works, so it just results in a very confused Bristlefrost seeing stars.
- Villain Has a Point: For all his delusions and excessive and unjustifiable cruelty, Ashfur makes some pretty good points in this book:
- In the prologue, he mentally denounces StarClan as "fools" for trusting him and letting him in. He's not wrong because while he did pretend to be sorry for the crimes he comitted in life, StarClan choosing to trust a cat like him is a glaring example of a Horrible Judge of Character.
- In the final battle, Ashfur goes on a massive rant about StarClan's pretentiousness, Small Name, Big Ego, hypocrisy, and flawed judgments. His rant is actually quite accurate because StarClan display double standards in their decisions of who they let in, injustice in their condemnation of Leafpool and Squirrelflight for following their orders in Squirrelflight's Hope, and place too much importance on the warrior code as an infallible, inflexible thing when it was created by fallible, flexible cats. All of these factors mean Ashfur, while fully responsible for his actions, had the opportunity to take them at all, and the book ends with several living cats questioning their ancestor's wisdom and discussing reformations.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: After Ashfur is defeated, his allies Mapleshade and Thistleclaw just flee.
- Villain Opening Scene: The prologue is from Ashfur's POV.
- You Fool!: Juniperclaw calls Shadowsight a fool after he claims he deserves to stay in the Dark Forest, explaining that the Dark Forest is getting inside his head.
