Alagarthas found himself with only one way to get home: a path that, according to Endelyn, is visible “only in the light of the eight beacons.” The simple goal of lighting the beacons has been repeatedly thwarted by the perytons, who revel in Alagarthas’s despair. Each time he lights a beacon, the perytons snuff it out, yet Alagarthas is too stubborn and determined to give up.