Chapter 4

The Bishop of Runedolf

Blessed by the four elements, Isaac can finally open the sealed gates, and Trista commands them to let the keeper of the Light through. Runedolf seems empty: Trista senses people, but no one comes out in daylight.

They hear voices. A man begs the Bishop of the White Night: they have nothing more to give. The Bishop answers that there is no value in keeping such people alive. Isaac stops him and recognizes his father, who asks whether the boy too stands against his rule, and attacks him.

Leonard's last lesson

Isaac wakes up with Parakeru and Trista: Leonard saved him. Isaac either insists his father was a kind man and that this was not the father he knows, or says his father has sold his soul, unlike the General of the Gravel Stone, who sealed himself away rather than hurt anyone.

Leonard asks whether he will stop trusting his father just like that, after vowing never to give up hope. The truth does not always lie where everyone can see it. He tells Isaac to go back to Runedolf, where he will teach him to see the truth: his final lesson.

Isaac's mother

Back in Runedolf, Leonard wonders whether the Diva has some use for these people, though he cannot see why she would go to such lengths. Then Isaac recognizes a woman: his mother. She knows what his father has become, a pawn of the Diva who rules the town, but she still believes in him, even if everyone else calls him a traitor.

After a battle she sees how strong Isaac has grown. Isaac says he will see his father again and try to trust him. She gives him what his father left for him in case anything happened: the Rune of Light, the power his father protected. She asks Isaac to bring him back safely, and Isaac promises they will both return.

The Jester of the Prime Moon

On the way, the Diva of the Twilight appears: she cannot afford to lose more pawns and has come to wipe them out. She reveals that Leonard is the Jester of the Prime Moon, keeper of the Wand of Dark, and that she can now take the last two Wands at once. The Bishop of the White Night offers to fight in her place, father against son.

Isaac cannot win. When the Bishop is about to finish him, Leonard steps in, and secretly tells Isaac the truth: his father is not being controlled. He is doing what he must to keep as many people alive as possible. Leonard and the Bishop will stage a fight so that Isaac and Trista can escape. Isaac must go to the ruins west of Runedolf, where Leonard hid something to help him.

Localization note: English calls Leonard the Jester of the Prime Moon; Spanish, el bufón de la luna nueva.

The City of Ruins

In the City of Ruins, Trista feels the sadness of many people. If the Bishop is not controlled, she says, then he dominates Runedolf of his own free will, and she does not know why.

Isaac asks about the monsters. Long ago, Trista explains, humans fought a long war over the power of the Wands, and created monsters to kill other humans: they are hatred made flesh. After the war the monsters were sealed in the Monster Realm, and the Sages' role is to keep that sin from happening again and the Wands out of the wrong hands.

This city, she adds during a battle, was a great city of the old kingdom, destroyed in a single night. The king wanted the power of the Wands for himself. That is why the Sages have guarded the Wands for thousands of years: protecting people from monsters is not their only duty; guarding the Wands from people is the most important one.

The Bishop's plan

Among the ruins an Evil Mage delights in the grief of the dying and lets his monsters feed. Were it not for the Bishop of the White Night, he says, the people hiding in Runedolf would be his too. He dares Isaac to hate him: hatred breeds more monsters.

After the battle Isaac understands his father's plan. Mages like that one prey on the weak but avoid anyone stronger, so by claiming Runedolf as his own, his father protects it from a far worse fate. What remains unclear is why the Diva would want to keep those people alive.

The Lost Magic of Dark

On a wall Trista reads a text in the Sages' secret alphabet, from Leonard's long study of monsters: monsters are made of humans. Mages can still create them by boosting their magic with human hatred. Monsters will fight until all the humans they hate are gone, and once humans are gone, the monsters will vanish too. That is why the Diva keeps the people of Runedolf alive.

Leonard arrives, but something is wrong. Torn between being hated as a child of monsters and being a Sage who must protect humans, he attacks. After the battle he admits he envies Isaac's strength; Isaac answers that he is not alone, and that is his secret. Leonard confesses he has been testing him all along, and gives him the Final Rune that each Sage passes to the one who carries the world's fate: the Lost Magic of Dark.

Localization note: in English Leonard was hated as a child of monsters; in Spanish he says he was the son of a monster. The reading describes it as his origin.

The wall of Light

A wall of Light blocks the way to the Temple, but with the Lost Magic of Dark it opens: someone wants them inside. Trista says it is time to meet Isaac's father, and the Diva.

Isaac makes a promise. He can vow to defeat the Diva and avenge his Master, and Trista agrees, though she hesitates. Or he can vow to stop the Diva and save her from despair, and Trista thanks him without saying why.

The promise to save the Diva also changes a value the game keeps; this reading does not cover its later effect.

Father and son

After three more battles, Isaac faces his father, who calls him a fool for refusing to fight. Isaac says he wants to save him, as he promised his mother, or that he carries the world's last hope, the one his father entrusted to him. The Bishop asks him to show his resolve through magic.

Defeated, his father admits he was testing whether Isaac was worthy of the Wand of Light, apologizes for the pain he caused his mother, and gives him the Lost Magic of Light: with it Isaac will truly be the Sage of Light.

Then the Diva appears. She always knew the Bishop was not under her control, and enjoyed watching him protect Runedolf. Now she will not allow a new Sage of Light. Trista begs her to stop: the Diva of the Twilight is her sister, whom she loves. The Diva answers that nothing about humans is worth protecting. The Bishop tells Isaac to run: he cannot defeat her yet, and must first gather the rest of the Lost Magic.

Isaac's reply to his father changes only his lines.

Seneka

Ambushes block the escape, and Leonard urges Isaac to smash through. Trista keeps begging her sister to stop.

Leonard tells Trista that the Diva, Seneka, is a victim of her own loneliness and needs her help: the Wind can blow away confusion and evil and cleanse her sister's heart. Isaac promises to save Trista's sister. Trista, seeing how much she relies on Isaac, resolves to become stronger.

The Wand or Trista

They hide to wait for the Bishop, but the Diva finds them. When she took the Wand of Wind she put a spell on Trista that lets her see whatever Trista sees. That is how she followed Isaac and found Leonard, and how Trista's visit to the forest led to the Master's sacrifice. Trista breaks down: the Master died because of her.

Now the Diva controls Trista and demands the Wand of Light in exchange for her life. Leonard warns that giving up the Wand would end any chance of defeating her: Isaac has to decide, and if he is not sure, Leonard asks him to think it over again.

If Isaac keeps the Wand, the Diva turns on Trista and then on Leonard, and tells Isaac that it was his decision, that he killed her. If he hands it over to save Trista, the Diva mocks him and takes the Wand of Light to become the new Creator. The story continues differently after each answer, beyond this reading.