The Day of Change
On the Day of Change, Deirdre rushed back to the vault, which she described in “The Shadow.” Using the walking stick and a spell created from The Wishing Jar, Deirdre was able to extinguish the lanterns the Monarchs were using to light the way. In the ensuing chaos, she took the five books needed to unlock The Little Red House and ran. Deirdre grabbed The Little Red House just in time, slamming the door on a Monarch who nearly grabbed her. Deirdre “caterpillowed” herself, growing wings, which she used to fly over to the Storm as the Silver began to regain control. The Little Red House, not being intended to exist in the mundane world, had been reduced to ashes, so Deirdre blew the ashes into the Storm with her wings. Her plan worked, as the Book of Briars from 1998 was brought into the present.
Deirdre cast a new spell as the Storm began to attack her, using The Myth of Elainnor to create translucent armor from the story. She raised Gladitor and struck down the Storm. Having witnessed the event, Lauren Ellsworth named her Deirdre of the Isles, The Mountain’s Will and Stormslayer. The name Stormslayer led to the discovery of Fragment Fifteen on the Book of Briars’ website, which had been newly restored. During the battle, Cole had been wounded and Deirdre stayed by his side as he recovered in “Goodbyes.” Afterward, Deirdre went to the location of Ackerly Green Publishing, which unlocked a final journal entry and a message for the Mountaineers. Sullivan told the Mountaineers that the Book would be confused after traveling through time and they needed to remind it who it was. He told Deirdre to remember that she was her soul’s providence and to forge her own path. Deirdre made the choice not to run Ackerly Green Publishing, believing she would be living in her father’s shadow if she did so, and instead turned her attention to the “next peak to summit.”
After Fragment Sixteen was unlocked and the Book of Briars was awakened, it told recruits to “tell the heir you found the word.” For the first time, Deirdre spoke on the forums. She told the Mountaineers that there was one last message her father had for them, involving the roman numerals on each of the phase’s reward images. Before doing so, Deirdre told recruits that she couldn’t move on with her life after helping them find the final word, so she went to see Orvin Wallace. She asked him all the questions she had about her father, about how he was able to time things so perfectly and succeed on such a risky plan. Orvin listened quietly as she vented her frustrations, telling her afterward that she had too much of her father’s blood in her veins and she couldn’t stop when the road had ended. Suddenly, Deirdre noticed Orvin looking at a bookshelf, and Deirdre cast a spell to reveal one last hidden journal from Sullivan. Sullivan had told Orvin to burn it, but he couldn’t bear to, saying it was the true ending to The Monarch Papers. Sullivan had never wanted her to see it, but Deirdre persisted.
The final journal revealed that Sullivan didn’t die in 2016. Sullivan had become powerful. The Storm realized this and wanted to use him to exchange for something equally powerful that they wanted, from the late 19th century. In order to make sure his plan to stop the Storm worked, he decided to let the Storm take him so that he could make sure his plan would unfold personally. The journal was meant to remind Sullivan who he was, since the Storm’s powers would alter his memories. He lived in Neithernor for decades, watching the events of his life pass by, and became Neithernorian in the process, only being able to leave Neithernor for brief moments, with the door open.
Shocked by the revelation that her father was living in Neithernor, she looked down at her walking stick, which Orvin explained was falling apart because it was made of magiq that wasn’t meant for the mundane world. This made Deirdre realize that the stick wasn’t meant there, and neither was she. Deirdre told recruits that her new purpose was to find the Lost Collection and also return the stick to its rightful owner. Cole volunteered to go with her. Before leaving, Deirdre left Mountaineers with the foreword of The Ant and the Caterpillow, telling them it was the last puzzle for them to unlock.
After solving the final puzzle, recruits were sent to one final page on the Book of Briars website, which had a video. The video took recruits through the vault Deirdre had been to and also showed pages of Deirdre’s journal, where she had painted various scenes within Neithernor.
After The Monarch Papers
After the release of the new Ackerly Green Website, a final post was released, dubbed “The Lost Post of Deirdre Green.” In the post, which was written right before Deirdre joined the forums, Deirdre described her struggles getting Ackerly Green Publishing on social media. She realized that both the Twitter handle and Instagram account were already registered under the name AckerlyGreen. By emailing Instagram, she was able to get the address of the person who registered the account. The man was CJ Bernstein, revealed to be Saberlane, the man who had found the MAGIQ Guide and who had asked to be left alone for the sake of his family. CJ admitted that he found himself strangely drawn to the company and that he was using the accounts to try to find other people who might remember the company. Deirdre and CJ began a friendship over emails and CJ helped Deirdre learn how to resurrect the publishing company. As Deirdre’s interest in running a publishing company waned, she decided to leave it in the hands of CJ.
Currently, Deirdre is still traveling in Neithernor indefinitely with Cole.