How does The Stone Sky end?
Essun and Nassun face each other at Corepoint in a deadlocked struggle for control of the Obelisk Gate. When Essun feels her daughter beginning to petrify, she chooses to let go rather than see another of her children die, and her own body turns nearly all the way to stone. Her mother's tears and sacrifice break through to Nassun, who changes her mind at the last instant and with the onyx catches the Moon, setting it back in orbit and ending the Fifth Seasons for good. Hoa afterward remakes Essun's petrified body as a stone eater, and the two leave together to keep trying to better the world.
Does Essun die at the end of The Stone Sky?
Essun petrifies almost completely in the fight over the Gate, weeping and smiling at how strong Nassun has grown. Hoa then carries her stone body into the mountain under Corepoint and slowly rebuilds her as a stone eater, telling her the story of her own life so her memory of her human self survives. She emerges from a geode still recognizably Essun, says she still wants a better world, and sets off with Hoa to try.
Why does Nassun catch the Moon instead of destroying the world?
For most of the novel Nassun plans to pull the Moon down onto the world, convinced that ending everything is the only mercy left; Schaffa's agony and the Earth's cruelty have hardened that resolve. In the final confrontation she watches her mother stop fighting, smile at her through tears, and give herself up while still hoping to mend the world. Seeing that, Nassun finally understands that she is loved. At the last moment she redirects the Gate's power and returns the Moon to orbit instead.
What happens to Schaffa at the end of The Stone Sky?
At Corepoint, Schaffa descends into Warrant, the catacomb of hibernating Guardians, where a machine pulls the corestone out of him. Free of pain for the first time in ages, he becomes his old, genuine self, but the silver within him is running out, meaning he has little time left. Father Earth arranged the release deliberately, betting that a Schaffa at peace would soften Nassun; instead it hardened her determination to save him by making every living person an undying stone eater. Once the Moon is caught, Schaffa dies peacefully.
What deal do the stone eaters make with Father Earth?
After the Moon is caught, Hoa reconciles with the two other surviving tuners, Gaewha and Remwha, the stone eater who has been acting as Steel. Together the stone eaters descend to bargain with Father Earth, offering the Moon's return along with the dismantling of the obelisks in trade for an end to the Seasons. The Earth accepts after several days; the obelisks dematerialize and the onyx sinks into the sea.
Who is the narrator of The Stone Sky and the Broken Earth trilogy?
The narrator is Hoa, an ancient stone eater who began forty thousand years ago as the tuner Houwha in the civilization of Syl Anagist. The ending finally explains the second-person voice of Essun's chapters. Hoa has been telling Essun the story of her own life while remaking her petrified body as a stone eater, keeping her connected to the human self she once was.