Tear Jerker / Cradle Series

aka: Blackflame

Book 1 - Unsouled

• Lindon being told that he's Unsouled and won't accomplish anything in life.
• Lindon seeing his mother's head in the bag Li Markuth tossed to the floor.
  • And then deciding to do a suicidal attack against Li Markuth in the hope that he might help even a little.
• Lindon barely holding in tears before going to the Heaven's Glory school. His parents are thinking that he will be expelled in a week, but he knows that he probably won't see them for decades.
• Lindon being forced to betray the one person in the entire Heaven's Glory school who was kind to him—one of the first people to ever appreciate his accomplishments—just so that he has a shot at escaping the Valley.

Book 2 - Soulsmith

• Yerin's constant fear of being left alone.

Book 3 - Blackflame

• Sandviper Goken's reaction to hearing his son being killed. Jai Long thought he would spit on his name for the dishonor of dying to an Iron. He doesn't care though, and is simply broken because his boy is dead.
  Somehow, he had pictured a man of Gokren's power and dignity standing over his son's body with arms folded, demanding recompense from those responsible. Maybe a single tear would roll down his face, or his commanding voice would catch for an instant, as a brief acknowledgement of human grief.
  He had never expected Gokren to weep as though an enemy had torn out his own heart.
• Yerin's revelation to Lindon that she was never taught how to read. No matter how badly the Wei Clan treated Lindon for being an unsouled, at least his family had provided basic education and was there for him.

Book 4 - Skysworn

• Lindon understands the necessity, he even accepts it, but the fact of the matter is that Jai Long cut off his arm and it's all Eithan's fault. He gets over it a little bit after obtaining a Badass Transplant, but it's not something that just goes away. Even Eithan admits that he screwed up and is seriously contrite. He tries to tell himself that it will push Lindon to advance harder (and he's right), but he knows he's just trying to make himself feel better.

Book 5 - Ghostwater

• The casual way that Akura Harmony kills Renfei. She wasn't the nicest person that Lindon interacted with but she at least tried to see him for more than just the monster she'd been told that all Blackflame Path practitioners were.
• The way that Akura Mercy is treated by her family members. They have been given a decree that she can receive no support from members of the family. They take this to mean any support and won't even invite her into their cloud ship for food and water.
• Just how broken Ziel is. You can tell by how he protected Lindon without even knowing him against the combined might of the other Ghostwater Truegolds and how much he helps Lindon in regards to his own advancement that he was a nice person before being crippled. But now he goes through life a shell of his former self and only seems to enjoy putting himself in situations in the hope that someone will finally put him out of his misery.

Book 6 - Underlord

• Orthos leaving the party to search for his path forward, what he will choose to be when he reaches Underlord.
  Orthos: Until only days ago, I convinced myself I could make this journey alongside you. But you move so quickly, and I am, after all...a turtle.
• Both Yerin and Lindon's Underlord Revelations show how deeply traumatized they are.
  • Lindon's is that he doesn't want people to think that he's useless. It doesn't matter that at this point he is a Truegold, something that just two years prior he didn't even realize existed, much less was possible for him to attain. It doesn't matter that he is easily more powerful than the whole of his homeland combined even though they thought he would never amount to anything. Lindon believes in his very soul that he is useless. That is how broken his upbringing has made him.
  • Yerin's is that she doesn't want to be hurt any more. She has suffered so much in her life, from being forced to host the parasite that murdered her entire family and village, to being put through Training from Hell by her Master/Father Figure, to watching that same Master/Father Figure being murdered before her eyes. Yerin desperately just wants to be safe from pain down to the core of her soul.
• Lindon's realisation that he could have saved Yerin if he had bottled any water from the life well but he didn't at the time because it wasn't helpful to him.

Lindon: How much would she have needed?
Dross: [One spoonful.]

• When Lindon discovers his Underlord Revelation, Yerin realises that the way she had treated Lindon subconsciously supported the mindset that their advancement was the most important thing about them both. This shakes her to the point where she can't even find the right words to apologise.

Book 7 - Uncrowned

• Lindon's mental state without Yerin and to a lesser extent Eithan. He is a physical wreck that only lives to spar, train, study, and meditate. Even Akura Charity feels bad for him in that moment and decides to throw him a bone by giving him one hour a day to talk with Yerin. The change in him is night and day.
• The death of Naian Blackflame. Lindon, along with Lil Blue, were able to drag him out of the Blackflame Path induced madness so that for the first time in potentially years he was lucid. After this Hope Spot Sophara kills Naian just to spite Lindon.
  Northstrider: They always do, Dragons are beings of destruction, they would rather see a field reduced to ash than see someone else have a bite to eat. Your opponent asked for his last words to be delivered to you(Lindon). He said: "The dragon advances."

Book 8 - Wintersteel

• The Sage of the Endless Sword's desperation to keep Yerin safe during the attack from the Heaven's Glory school and his last dying thoughts as he is killed are about his absolute faith that Yerin will succeed him
• It's barely discussed but Mercy still has PTSD from the time that Sophara burned her face when Mercy was stuck as a Lowgold. Charity has tried to help but it's still there.
• Mercy's chastisement in front of her entire family due to her loss to Sophara. Malice lived up to her name and delivered one hell of a "The Reason You Suck" Speech. This comes two books after we find out that Mercy's Underlord Revelation, her driving force, is to make her mother proud of her.
• It's a punch to the gut for Yerin to realize that her Overlord Revelation is that she is not The Sword Sage reborn and doesn't want to be.
• Poor Ruby. She definitely loved Lindon, but unfortunately for her Lindon's heart only has room in it for Yerin. Thankfully this gets a bit better after her Fusion Dance with Yerin. She may not get Lindon all to herself, but as the combined being they became she does.
• The deaths of the majority of Lindon's team in the ambush by the enemy Uncrowned. Akura Grace had been given a decent amount of characterization in this book and even had multiple Ship Tease moments with Lindon, but in the face of Underlords in the top 8 she didn't stand a chance. With the exception of the two who weren't included in the ambush, the rest of the team is either dead or crippled, potentially for life.
• While she very much deserved it and much of it was of her own making, it's hard not to feel at least a little sorrow to Sophara in the end for her fall and death. She's utterly failed her Monarch, got trashed by Yerin, has her cultivation doomed to never progress after that failure and her lifespan set at less than 10 years, and then finished by Lindon in the same way as her sister was, which she begged him to do while hitting her Despair Event Horizon. Now the remnant of her sister doesn't have her to look after it anymore and is in Lindon's hands, her Monarch is dead, and she's failed utterly. Only the dragoness being grade-A Jerkass keeps this from being the height of tragedy and instead just kinda sad.
  • She was so broken at the end she briefly considered turning on Reigan Shen's Assassination Squad if only to get Yerin to not use Penance on Sesh, sadly she decided to join them and at least make the Akura suffer with her. The worst part? She was right, it's entirely possible that Yerin wouldn't have used it on Sesh since she only decided to after she saw Sophara fighting Lindon.

Book 9 - Bloodline

• When Fury ascends to the heavens, Mercy is punched in the gut with the fact that she'll never see him again. As the heir of a Monarch, she is going to have to stay on Cradle for the rest of her life, but most of the people she is close to are almost certainly going to leave. Lindon and Yerin, especially, she describes as by far her closest friends, but at the rate they're going they'll be gone in a matter of years.
• Lindon's reunion with his family. He is happy to see them, but state he finds them makes him feel guilty. Combine that with his already complicated relationship with them, it creates some mental stress for him. His parents keep assuming that he got help from powerful friends (they assume Yerin is his master, for example) and just constantly think the least of his achievements. When they hear that he placed sixteenth in the Uncrowned King tournament—which they have already been told is the most important tournament in the world—they immediately ask "out of how many?" Lindon doesn't answer, clearly thinking that he's sixteenth out of sixteen, but the fact of the matter is that he's probably ranked as the sixteenth most powerful person in the world at this point, not counting Monarchs. But his parents can't even consider the possibility that he's actually powerful and useful.
  This had been a mistake.
  He should have saved his family without meeting them.
  What had he expected? His family argued with each other as though he wasn't present. If he opened the door to leave, Kelsa would notice and include him in the conversation. His parents would halfheartedly loop him in, but they would continue making decisions without him.
  It was as though he'd never left.
• The Wei clan betraying Lindon, when he was trying to save them, despite them turning over his family to Heaven's Glory. The worst part might be the fact that they genuinely think they're striking first before he can kill the clan. They cannot understand why he would want to save them after everything they did to him during his childhood, and assume it's all just a revenge plot.
• Ziel's backstory of not being able to protect his sect. It likely broke him more than his damaged core.

Book 10 - Reaper

• The recordings manage to make Ozriel's meteoric rise to power into a series of tearjerkers. He had no friends because he constantly outpaced everyone. He focused purely on the power of destruction because he wanted to clean the world of Dreadbeasts, but all that did was make him more powerful. When he intentionally manifested the Broom Icon as a fun way to demonstrate his mastery of soulfire, three scholars committed suicide out of embarrassment. He accidentally manifested the Death Icon when he made a machine to kill and revive him; by implication, he was trying to manifest some sort of healing Icon. When he ascended, he discovered that he was a perfect heir of any Judge—except for Suriel, the Healer, the only one he actually wanted. And then he spent countless centuries killing worlds to clean up the cosmos.
• Dross is still broken and no matter what Lindon does he might never get him back as he was.
• Subject One gets a moment: It was originally just a researcher who refused to let anyone else sacrifice themselves to test out the newly forged Hunger Aura Binding, and for this kindness they have spent eons in a living nightmare while its "children" have taken countless lives. All of this because the Monarchs refuse to Ascend.
• Even after how hard she worked to reach Overlady, and all the good she did for her mother's court, Mercy is still lectured and shamed by Malice for not measuring up to Lindon and Yerin. This is a reminder of many real life families who's parents will never consider certain children up to snuff and will constantly measure them against their siblings.
• Shortly after Malice lambastes Mercy, the Mad King arrives. Malice's immediate reaction is to realize burning up her children for the sake of the future is completely worthless since there is now no future. She pulls Mercy into a tender hug and wishes her other children were here. She also regrets that her last conversation with Fury was another fight.
• When The Mad King shows up to Cradle, Lindon realizes that Eithan's not sitting with the others on the hill. He finds him broken down, crying. Lindon thanks Eithan for everything he's done, and Eithan's response is shock.
  Eithan was still there, on his hands and knees, heedless of the dirt on his clothes. His fingers tightened on the soil, and his back shook. It took Lindon a long moment to realize that Eithan was quietly sobbing. Tears plopped to the ground one at a time. Lindon placed a gentle hand on his back, but Eithan didn’t respond.
  “Thank you, Eithan,” Lindon said quietly. “For everything.”
  Eithan looked at Lindon in shock. His expression slowly softened, and he rose to his feet. He placed his hands on Lindon’s shoulders and met his eyes. “I’m proud of you, Lindon,” Eithan said.
  • At first, we think Eithan's breakdown is because it's the end of the world, but just a few pages later, we learn that that's not a problem he can't deal with. He's crying because he knows the jig is up, and he'll have to leave his friends and his life as Eithan behind.
• Eithan's fear that his friends would abandon him either out of fear or a sense of betrayal at being lied to. You can feel his heart breaking when he comes back to Cradle after driving The Mad King away.
  Eithan: My power was restricted, but I was still...me. It was real, I promise! I-
• Eithan, who we now know is Ozriel, is taken away by the Judges of the Abidan to be tried in the Abidan Court. This may be the last time we see him.

Book 11 - Dreadgod

• A small one early on: Ozmanthus' echo mockingly tells Lindon it should be possible to use the Void Icon to restore Dross... at least, for Lindon. Lindon knows Eithan well enough to realize that he's mocking himself, not Lindon. Ozmanthus just wants to be able to fix things, and Lindon reminds him that he can't, not even using the same tools.
• Charity's heart breaks when she finds out the secret of the Dreadgods, and she nearly ascends right then and there. The main reason she doesn't is because her grandmother gives her a warm hug... which just makes it worse, because we can tell it's a clear manipulation.
• Jai Long dying, not long after turning his life around and finding love. Worse, if Lindon had just thought to include him in the protections of the constructs he left for Kelsa and Jai Chen, he would have survived.
• Malice manipulates Mercy into thinking that Lindon and co are so obsessed with advancement that they killed the Silent King out of pure selfish greed. Mercy sends the team a tearful message begging them to ascend.
  With every word, Lindon's fury grew. He felt as though he could hear Malice's laughter echoing in the background.
• During the final fight, Malice deliberately starts the fight over Moongrave, holding the entire city hostage. It gets worse when Charity arrives, still fighting for Malice. Lindon tries to talk her down.
  Charity's cold mask slipped. "I can't let you continue fighting over the city."
  "Then give us Mercy."
  "We can't allow a hostage—"
  Lindon's temper flared, and the Burning Cloak burst involuntarily around him. "You think I'm taking Mercy hostage?"
  Charity's mask slipped further.
• At the end, after Malice has been driven from Moongrave, Lindon and Yerin arrive to find Mercy unconscious, surrounded by most of the remaining powerful Akura. Charity is clearly a broken woman who has no idea what to do, and barely puts up a protest when they take her.

Book 12: Waybound

• Lindon fixes Mercy's spiritual damage. He can do nothing for the emotional damage of being betrayed by her mother.
  Clarity returned to Mercy's gaze. She looked from Yerin to Lindon, and Lindon saw the memory hit her. Then tears welled up and she threw her arms around Yerin and began to sob.
  The only phrase Lindon caught was "my mother." He wasn't sure the rest were even words. Yerin softened and held Mercy as she cried.
• Mercy was never particularly close to her father, and he died senselessly in a random battle when she was young. She never saw her mother react, and so often wondered if Malice didn't care, and if she would care if Mercy died. Through the memories in the Book of Eternal Night, Mercy discovers that Charity and Fury had to physically restrain Malice from destroying the entire region in a blind rage. Mercy wishes that Malice had instead felt nothing, as it would be easier to hate her if she was an unfeeling monster.
• Lindon confronts Northstrider with a Hunger echo of himself from when he was a Sage exploring the Labyrinth. It turns out that the reason he was so obsessed with becoming stronger was because he wanted to force the Abidan to get rid of the Dreadgods. The echo hates his future self for being part of that exact problem. Lindon forces Northstrider to consume his own echo, re-absorbing the memories, and the experience breaks Northstrider, to the point that he finally shows real emotion. From there, it takes little effort to convince him to ascend.
  He leaned forward and put his head in his hands. "If you wanted to shame me before sending me off in defeat, you've succeeded. Do what you will."
• Mercy and Charity both try to convince Malice that she's lost and needs to ascend, for the good of the family. Malice rages against them and makes it clear she's willing to kill her entire family to stay in control and on Cradle. In the end, Mercy must kill Malice. Yerin insists on taking the blame (even though Mercy struck the killing blow) to give Mercy some relief from the pain.
  Mercy tried to fly around, but Yerin caught her.
  "Take a rest, Mercy."
  Mercy blubbered something. She wasn't even sure what.
  "You can put that weight down," Yerin replied. "Wasn't you that did it. Hey." Yerin snapped her fingers in front of Mercy's nose.
  Blinking, Mercy looked into red eyes.
  Yerin gave a half-smile. "Pin this one to my account, all right? I can carry it, true and certain."
• Due to being partially a Dreadgod, so spiritually "dense", and tied to Hunger Madra, Lindon is forced to stay on Cradle for two years after all of his friends and Yerin ascend to The Way. The only thing that tempers this somewhat is that Orthos, Dross, and Little Blue remain behind with him and it gives him time to expand on his Twin-Stars Sect and further repair the relationships with his family.