Chapter IV: Ember-Wing
Ember-Wing lies on the seal at the bottom of the castle, and two very different things can happen here.
- Fight it. Beating Ember-Wing ends the book there, at Chapter IV of twelve. That is a real ending, not a mistake: the book counts as finished, its free roam opens, and it counts towards the fourth book. But chapters V to XII never happen.
- Hold the seal with it. Talk to Ember-Wing once you know enough, and it offers to share the weight: choose Then we hold it together. It only offers once you have all four of these: the truth worked out in the Wardens' Crypt, the Forgemaster's testimony, Vane's confession in the cells, and the verse on the vault floor read. Until then it won't ask.
If you want to see the whole book, hold the seal.
Chapter XII: the seal at the summit
At the summit, the stone asks what you will do with the weight:
- Lie down on the stone yourself. Take the oath.
- Break the seal. End the line, and the thing, and the duty.
- Neither. Share it. Only offered once you have met everyone who could share it. The one most often missed is Colonel Vane, at The Watchtower in Chapter VII: talk to him there.
- Not yet. I have not met everyone who should have a say. The stone waits, and asks again when you come back.
Seeing another ending
Every ending finishes the book, opens its free roam and counts towards the fourth book. Free roam has no story in it, so to see another ending you need to read the book again: in another save slot, after a New Game, or with New Game + once you have finished every book.