Welcome back to the final day of our book club read-along for OwlCrate's September book, Lakesedge by Lyndall Clipstone!
Just a reminder that this will be a SPOILER discussion for Chapters 25 - 28 of Lakesedge, so make sure you read are finished this section before continuing.
Discussion questions are listed below, and anyone who participates in the comments will be entered to win a free OwlCrate box! I'll be selecting our winner early next week to give people time to catch up!
The story concludes...
Leta enters the world Below with the Lord Under and it isn’t what she expected. It’s full of trees and following the Lord Under she starts to hear voices. He shows her that inside the trees are the souls of the dead.
The Lord Under takes her to a clearing with a grove of four trees that she discovers hold the souls of Rowan’s lost family. The trees beyond are hurt, and the souls inside are gone. This is what the Corruption does to the Below and its dark tangled heart is in the air above the clearing. Leta rushed to the center of the clearing and prepares to do the ritual again, but she tells the Lord Under she wants him to do it with her. He agrees and hands entwined the perform the ritual, sending magic up deep into the Corruption. Leta realizes that the creatures they saw Above the last time they did the ritual are within it, and she calls for them to enter her. She calls for all of the darkness and poison to enter her body, and it does. The earth around her turns soft and bright and once all of the darkness is gone beyond her body she asks the Lord Under to let her go home.
Leta awakes floating in the lake where Rowan finds her. He pulls her from the water and carries her into the woods where he lays her on the ground. She slowly comes back to herself and expels dark water onto the ground. She tells Arien and Clover that it’s safe now to perform the ritual and heal the lake and darkness around them. Rowan helps Leta back up to the house, but it is then the Corruption and darkness that she let in start to truly consume her. She asks Rowan to take her to the parlor, and although he begs her to stay it is of no use. The Corruption has her. She wipes her blood across the altar to summon the Lord Under and he tells her there is one last step for getting rid of the Corruption for good. She must let it consume her. She tells Rowan she loves him and then asks the Lord Under to take her to the Below, alive.
Once Below the Lord Under tells her to give into the Corruption, but Leta asks him if now that the Corruption is entirely within her if his magic could heal it. He says it could, but he would need something in return. She offers him power. For the rest of her days she would love him and worship him. Although he doesn’t outright accept, he carries her to a different part of the forest where he walks her into the depth of an enormous tree. She asks her where he is taking her, and he says he is going to heal her, then he is going to take her home.
Questions:
- When the Lord Under said Leta will be able to go home once she is healed, do you think he means Lakesedge or somewhere else?
- What do you think the human-like shapers were that Leta say that the Lord Under apparently had no knowledge of?
- How do you think Leta's new bargain with the Lord Under is going to play out?
- What do you hope comes in book two?
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