Edgar brainwashed his family EXCEPT, we find out, his mother. She was sent off to their fief it seems. His mother used another black magic user to break her brainwashing. The mother is now trying to kidnap Valrose to use against Edgar. I think she is also plotting to kill someone in the family, but not sure how that fits into her plan. Edgar also thinks that Val is under his brainwashing, so he won't ever call her by her real name, I guess. I don't think she is? There's the weird part in this chap about Val and Bornaine arguing about timeline, but IDK what that's about.
Valrose is trying to keep everyone safe while staying away from Edgar, but she doesn't know why Edgar is obsessin' over her. At the moment, Val is just checking up on Bornaine or whatever to see if she is ok from the long lasting brainwashing that Edgar did, but that's not important AT ALL to the story. In prev chaps, she took a memory thing that let her remember more of the end of the book, when she realizes Edgar is a bad guy and she fucked up. Other than that, I don't understand her overall goal.
Alice and Aaron are in love from the days Alice met a "mysterious man" in the village she used to live in, but only Aaron seems to realize it so far. Alice is only sus about it. Alice has dreams about the future, cool. Aaron is currently at Edgar's place to talk about Val and see if Edgar is crazy crazy or just crazy about her.