There he is finally given a discipline, the repair of small objects (minor mendings), and spends his spare time studying an ancient spell found in his travels through the Neitherlands, the magical space between worlds.

Needing money, Quentin and Plum independently join a gang of magician thieves led by a talking bird intent on stealing a mysterious suitcase.

Quentin, Plum, Eliot, and Alice travel to the Neitherlands, where they encounter their former classmate Penny, now a powerful librarian with new, translucent golden hands that some of his subordinates have emulated.

They meet Janet, Josh, and Poppy escaping the end of Fillory, but Quentin and Alice refuse to give up, travelling back to the dying world.

When the job is finished, he relinquishes the divine power and Julia, now a demigoddess and queen of the dryads, rewards him with a brief tour of the Far Side of Fillory, where he is given a seed pod from the Drowned Garden and informed that Asmodeus was successful in killing Reynard.

It not only offers a satisfying conclusion to Quentin Coldwater's quests, earthly and otherwise, but also considers complex questions about identity and selfhood as profound as they are entertaining.