Summary:Tress of the Emerald Sea
This page contains a chapter by chapter summary of Tress of the Emerald Sea. We hope this summary will make it easier to find specific areas of the book, as well as providing a quick plot refresher for anyone who doesn't want to take the time to reread the entire book.
Part 1
Chapter 1: The Girl
- Characters
- Tress (point of view)
- Plot Summary
Chapter 2: The Groundskeeper
- Characters
- Tress (point of view)
- Charlie
- Snagu
- Lead
- Charlie's father (mentioned only)
- Plot Summary
Chapter 3: The Duke
- Characters
- Tress (point of view)
- Charlie
- Charlie's father
- Plot Summary
Chapter 4: The Son
- Characters
- Tress (point of view)
- Charlie
- Charlie's father
- Hoid
- Lem (mentioned only)
- Plot Summary
Chapter 5: The Bride
- Characters
- Tress (point of view)
- Ulba
- Charlie's father
- Dirk
- Princess of Dormancy
- Flik
- Charlie (mentioned only)
- Lem (mentioned only)
- The Sorceress (mentioned only)
- Plot Summary
Part 2
Chapter 6: The Inspector
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 7: The Father
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 8: The Stowaway
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 9: The Rat
- Characters
- Tress (point of view)
- Huck
- The Sorceress (mentioned only)
- Plot Summary
Chapter 10: The Sprouter
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 11: The Thief
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 12: The Crow
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Tress, with Huck, walks cautiously across the stilled spores to the Crow's Song. Other sailors from the doomed ship also try, but fail due to haste or being shot by the attacking Captain. Tress gets a vine to grow by the Crow's Song and clings to the side until crew members throw her a rope and pull her aboard. Captain Crow declares there's no use for an inspector, so Tress makes herself useful scrubbing the deck, where she falls asleep.
Part 3
Chapter 13: The Cabin Boy
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 14: The Dougs
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 15: The Quartermaster
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 16: The Corpse
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 17: The Carpenter
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 18: The Other Corpse
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 19: The Cannonmaster
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 20: The Helmswoman
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 21: The Pirate
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Part 4
Chapter 22: The Idiot
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 23: The Assistant Cannonmaster
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 24: The Cursed Man
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 25: The Prey
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 26: The Sharpshooter
- Characters
- Plot Summary
The Crow's Song crew scramble to respond to the strike from the pursued ship. Crow is able to sniper the man loading the cannon, and commands Ann and Tress to get below and repair the hull. Tress has to locate her rose spores and the iron/steel tools (which through experimentation she learns pull/push the roseite crystals.) She is able to plug the hole adequately when the seethe returns. They report back to the deck.
Chapter 27: The Spore Eater
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Crow has shot two more of the enemy crew members and orders sabres out for the boarding crew. Salay confronts Crow over this order, claiming the right to engage the enemy, and pointing out there were in this for Freedom, not murder. After a tense moment, Crow assents. A companion of one of those Crow killed raises a weapon toward her. Crow responds by shooting herself in the head, and green vines emerge from her face, stopping her own bullet. She boasts of the sinking of Oot's Dream. The other crew tackles the man who threatened her, and she heads belowdeck.
Chapter 28: The Extra Good Listener
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Tress asks Dr. Ulaam how Crow was protected by the vines, and if that's why the crew is so afraid of her. He theorizes that as a spore eater, Crow is host to a rogue verdant essence which protects her, but should have killed her some time ago. He guesses she only has weeks left based on how much water she drinks. Tress puzzles over how this fits in with the plot to become deadrunners. She then asks Ulaam (contrary to her presumed nature) about midnight essence, which Hoid gave to Weev. She tries to ask Hoid about the sorceress, and the is able to decode that a familiar or talking animal might be able to mediate a discussion of the curse.
Chapter 29: The Familiar
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Tress interrogates Huck about being a familiar and the Sorceress. He tells her he is kind of but not exactly a familiar, and gives tips on finding loopholes on the secrecy surrounding curses by the Sorceress. He points out that Crow's interest in Tress is likely not good. Tress asks him to spy on Crow again, but the closure of his previous access point and the cat indicate Crow is on to them. Tress recalls Ulaam saying the midnight essence can be used for spying. Just then, Salay enters and says they must discuss who Tress really is.
Chapter 30: The King's Mask
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Tress has also been grappling with who she really is, but lets Salay in to talk. Salay says she knows Crow meant for Tress to leave at the last port but Tress chose not to. Tress decides to trust Salay with the facts, such as how she swapped Laggart's ordnance. But the more she says, the more convinced Salay is that Tress is some kind of elite and secretive royal assassin (King's Mask). Salay reveals that Fort and Ann are meeting later that night, then ascribes this revelation to Tress' wily skills. After Salay exits, Huck offers to spy on Crow, but Tress feels bad since he said it would be dangerous. She retrieves the midnight spores and prepares to water them.
Chapter 31: The Midnight Essence
- Characters
- Plot Summary
The narrator offers an overview of the Luhel bond. Midnight spores differ from other colors of Lumar's rogue aethers in utilizing a the Luhel bond, which is close to how aethers are supposed to work, symbiotically. It is not like the Nahel bond, which exchanges "consciousness and anchoring to reality" rather there is an exchange of physical matter.
Tress feels water leaving her body as the midnight essence grows and coalesces into a face which requests more water. Tress agrees and the midnight essence adopts a simulacrum of Huck from her mind. Giving it more water, she controls and then inhabits the midnight essence. In Crow's quarters, they read Crow's research about possible cures from the verdant aether spores by something or someone named Xisis. She uncovers that Crow had secret meetings with Weev about locating Xisis, but he turned to blackmail which is why she killed him. Further reading reveals Xisis to be a dragon living under the Crimson sea, though reports are apocryphal due to the dangers of the Crimson. The midnight essence fights Tress on reading further, and then approaching footsteps coincide with Huck severing the tie to the midnight essence. He had acted on Tress' increasing dehydration. She recuperates and plans to meet with the other officers.
Chapter 32: The Liberator
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 33: The Liar
- Characters
- Tress (point of view)
- Crow
- Ulaam
- The Sorceress (mentioned only)
- Plot Summary
Chapter 34: The Tosher
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Part 5
Chapter 35: The Lover of Tea
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 36: The Explorer
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 37: The Scholar
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 38: The Apprentice
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 39: The Chicken Keeper
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 40: The Chef
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 41: The Philosopher
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 42: The Guide
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 43: The Musician
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 44: The Fallen
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 45: The Protector
- Characters
- Tress (point of view)
- Salay
- Crow (mentioned only)
- Charlie (mentioned only)
- Fort (mentioned only)
- Pakson (mentioned only)
- Xisisrefliel (mentioned only)
- Ulaam (mentioned only)
- The Sorceress (mentioned only)
- Plot Summary
Chapter 46: The Informant
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 47: The Poet
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 48: The Nightmare
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 49: The Martyr
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 50: The Murderer
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 51: The Dragon
- Characters
- Tress (point of view)
- Crow
- Xisisrefliel
- Charlie (mentioned only)
- Plot Summary
Chapter 52: The Sacrifice
- Characters
- Tress (point of view)
- Xisisrefliel
- Crow
- The Sorceress (mentioned only)
- Lili (mentioned only)
- Hoid (mentioned only)
- Plot Summary
Chapter 53: The Survivor
- Characters
- Tress (point of view)
- Laggart
- Ann
- Ulaam
- Fort
- Salay
- Crow (mentioned only)
- Salay's father (mentioned only)
- The Sorceress (mentioned only)
- Marsh (mentioned only)
- Plot Summary
Part 6
Chapter 54: The Valet
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 55: The Hypocrite
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 56: The Traitor
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 57: The Maligned Fashion Expert
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 58: The Monster
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 59: The Prisoner
- Characters
- Tress (point of view)
- Huck
- The Sorceress (mentioned only)
- Salay (mentioned only)
- Plot Summary
Chapter 60: The Sorceress
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 61: The Man
- Characters
- Tress (point of view)
- Charlie
- The Sorceress
- Plot Summary
Chapter 62: The Hunter
- Characters
- Plot Summary
Chapter 63: The Pilot
- Characters
- Hoid (point of view)
- The Sorceress
- Salay
- Ann
- Laggart
- Tress (mentioned only)
- Kelsier (mentioned only)
- Salay's father (mentioned only)
- Plot Summary
Chapter 64: The Hero
- Characters
- Tress (point of view)
- Riina
- Charlie
- Hoid
- Fort
- Ann
- Salay
- Xisisrefliel (mentioned only)
- Salay's father (mentioned only)
- Plot Summary
Epilogue
- Characters
- Tress (point of view)
- Salay's father
- Salay
- Charlie
- Lem
- Ulba
- Charlie's father
- Fort (mentioned only)
- Riina (mentioned only)
- Laggart (mentioned only)
- Plot Summary