meanwhile, two silent, orange-eyed children, named sky and crow, have arrived on a raft. while artimé seems to continue along normally, eva fathom, a supposed restorer, is spying on quill, and passing along information to sean ranger, an unwanted teenager. plus, mr. today starts to teach alex how to be a head mage, and devises a plan to trick aaron. but, the plan backfires. aaron confronts mr. today, and kills him using five heart-attack spells that alex invented, thus depriving artimé of its magic and leaving all magical components useless. meanwhile, alex and simber, one of mr. today's statues, go out on a search for three of alex's missing friends, meghan ranger, samheed burkesh, and lani haluki. they rescue meghan and discover that samheed and lani have been captured by a neighboring, silent island, called warbler. on the way back, simber freezes, and crashes into the sea, because of mr. today's death. alex and meghan barely avoid death. at the same time, the restorers attack artimé, and causing mass hysteria.