Starside by Alex Aster Book Summary

Starside Chapter 29

Aris wakes in the Traveling City, the hidden home of the faelings, where two sisters named Este and Gallie have been caring for her and Raker. Both have been healed. The woman who guided them was the Astral Queen, an ancient being older than the gods. The Elders warn this is a sign the gods are working against Arisr, and that she and Raker must leave by first light.

Too restless to sleep, Aris finds Este beside a golden tree at the heart of the city. Este warns that revenge corrupts. When Aris says her quest will end in death, it unnerves Este, who makes an excuse and slips away.

Raker finds Aris and challenges her to a duel. Her sword is with the blacksmith, so she tries calling it from a distance. A name comes to her unbidden: Stellaris. Aris speaks it, and the blade flies into her hand.

Aris and Raker fight through the city center, and she holds her own. Raker admits he’s never had a fair rival. He pins her against a tree with his blade at her throat, and without his mask, a charged moment passes between them before he steps back and walks away.

Starside Chapter 30

Before Aris and Raker leave, Aris visits the blacksmith. He tells her that her sword isn’t a skylark but a godsword, a blade that once belonged to one of the original gods and still carries their power. He can’t identify which god, but says the Great Betrayer, a blacksmith from the same ancient line who left the faelings to serve one of the Great Houses, might. The metal is called paladian, found only in the realm of the gods.

The bounty, the cavalry, all of it makes sense now. The gods won’t stop pursuing Aris as long as she carries the godsword.

The Eldress places her own necklace around Aris’s neck, a strand of tiny orbs each holding a flicker of starlight. It will keep night creatures away and allow travel after dark, which could make the difference in reaching the Land of the Gods in time.

At the gates, Este tells Aris that light always finds a way through the dark and that if Aris ever needs help, she should reach for it. Este glances at the necklace without explaining further.

Aris and Raker step through the gates, and the Traveling City disappears.

Starside Chapter 31

Traveling through the forest at night, Aris and Raker come across a large group of immortals searching for the Traveling City. Against Raker’s wishes, Aris accepts their invitation to join, reasoning that the group will help them blend in and navigate the woods more safely.

Aris and Raker travel with the immortals for two days. During a rest stop, Aris watches in disbelief as Raker joins several immortal children in a mock duel. Afterward, she asks if he has siblings. He says only that he did, then walks away.

Everything falls apart when one child shatters the glowing orb that had been shielding the group. Demons flood in and tear them apart. With Aris’s necklace now the only light source, panicked survivors turn on her and try to rip it free. An immortal named Daphne pulls one attacker off Aris but is killed almost immediately after.

Raker hauls Aris up a cliff to a narrow ledge and holds her there by force. She rages at him through the night while the sounds below slowly die out. He doesn’t move until sunrise.

When Raker turns to leave, Aris tries to drive her sword into his back. He blocks it without turning, then wheels on her and provokes her into a fight. They spar until grief overtakes her and she breaks down, beating her fists against his armor until she has nothing left. He takes hold of her hands, says enough, and carries her out of the carnage.

Starside Chapter 32

Raker carries Aris until she eventually apologizes for attacking him. He drops her on her feet and tells her to try again. They spar, and for the first time, she gets her blade to his throat. He guides her hand until the edge draws blood, marking it as a genuine win.

One night near the edge of the forest, Aris and Raker argue about mercy, coldness, and what the massacre revealed about him. A storm rolls in before it resolves, then the sound of approaching cavalry cuts it short. Raker takes Aris’s necklace, tells her to shelter in a nearby cave, and runs the other way to draw the soldiers off.

Aris waits, falls asleep, and wakes to a demon inside the cave reaching for her. She fights it but ends up pinned against the wall with its claws at her throat. Raker arrives in time and kills it.

The struggle with the demon has exposed Aris’s silver markings across her skin. Raker demands to know what they are. She pulls off her shirt and tells him that when she was eight, she pushed her sister out of the path of a lightning strike and took it herself. Her family spent hours reviving her, and when she came back, the scars had turned silver.

Raker traces the markings without a word, then walks out. He refuses to look at or speak to Aris for nearly a full day. She finally stops walking, confronts him, and says the silence feels like being shunned for something she’s hidden her whole life. She tells him she knows little about him and that they were probably “always meant to be enemies.” He says there’s nothing to know, that he’s only rage and violence with no life beyond it, and keeps walking.

Shortly after, a silver snake rises ahead and bites Aris at the base of the neck. She collapses. Raker kills the snake, but she’s already lost consciousness.

Starside Chapter 33

Aris wakes to find Raker slumped against the cave wall, his veins red with venom. He sucked the poison from her neck to save her and is now dying from it.

To hold the fever off, Aris keeps Raker talking. He tells her he became a knight out of necessity, to keep his family fed. She says she lost everyone she loved in a single night and has been living for revenge ever since. When she pushes back his hood, she sees his face for the first time and finds it striking rather than monstrous. The tension loosens briefly, and she catches him smiling. Before he goes under, she tells him she plans to kill the gods.

Raker sleeps through the day. Aris goes into the forest for fever herbs and nearly runs into soldiers. She races back to find a bounty hunter waiting in the cave. He wants her alive and Raker dead. She fights but loses her sword. Raker drags himself awake, kills the man, then tries to push forward despite barely being able to stand. More soldiers close in. Raker orders Aris to run. She refuses, and he collapses.

With no other way out, Aris cuts her palm, drives her sword into the ground, and speaks the name Vander Evren. Vander appears and nearly cuts her down before she tells him Stellan sent her. When she says Stellan is dead, something changes in him. He agrees to take her but refuses to bring Raker inside his castle. Aris refuses to leave without him. Vander gives in, orders his men to carry Raker, draws his godsword, and the forest disappears around them.

Starside Chapter 34

Vander’s godsword opens a portal and drops them at the gates of his estate. Aris follows him inside and immediately asks for medicine for Raker. Vander tells her to dine with him first. They trade blunt words before he agrees to send fever tea to the stables where Raker is staying.

At dinner, Vander tells Aris that Stellan saved his life half a century ago, completed the quest, and gave the magic to Vander’s people rather than keep it. When Aris tears up at the mention of Stellan, Vander draws his sword and demands to know if she killed him. She says she didn’t but that his death was her fault. He puts the sword away. 

When Aris says she intends to kill the gods, Vander’s manner changes. He sends for a healing elixir, passes it to her, and tells her she can’t do it alone, then orders her to stay until he decides otherwise.

Aris brings the elixir to Raker in the stables. He’s chained to the wall and still feverish. She brings him water and food, holds ice to his forehead, and they trade sharp remarks. Raker eventually tells her not to come back.

Starside Chapter 35

Vander tells Aris she needs alliances and brings her to the library, where his godsword produces a living map of Starside. He explains that if an heir of a Great House swears an oath on her blade, her sword can portal her directly to their estate, cutting weeks from the journey.

Heartfall, a courting ball, begins in four days at Vander’s castle and draws heirs from most of the Great Houses. Vander suggests that Aris use it to her advantage.

In the days leading up to Heartfall, Aris researches the Great Houses, practices dancing with Vander, and sneaks food to Raker at night. She begins to wonder whether she still needs him if she can secure enough oaths on her own.

On the morning before the ball, Vander advises Aris on which heirs are worth approaching. He tells her to put House Rodin back on her list despite its long association with the God of Death, because its current heir has been quietly working against that god for centuries.

During a dancing lesson, Vander glimpses the silver markings on Aris’s wrist. She pulls away, but he asks to see them, and she agrees. He tells her she should never hide them and that she ought to show the world exactly what she is.

Calling Aris magnificent, Vander leaves to arrange her dress for the ball.