Chapter Twenty-Three: Fresh Flesh[edit | edit source]

Eliles, frustrated by her fruitless search for Skywatch’s elusive priestess, stumbles upon Jinbin and Deleu in a compromising tryst in the island’s garden, revealing their reckless plan to conceive a child despite the garden’s unpredictable Elemental energies. Their argument is cut short when Deleu discovers Wilu’s murdered body, stabbed and left in the garden with her gate key missing. Eliles, noting the raked soil obscuring tracks, suspects a calculated killer, possibly linked to the earlier salt-buried boy’s murder. Sending Jinbin to fetch Artus and Wilu’s sons, she deduces the garden’s delayed decay—unique due to Elemental energies—may hide the time of death, a fact known to few, including Wilu, her sons, Jinbin, and possibly Seden. Reinus accuses Niktir, a Skywatch priest, but High Oracle Temeru denies his involvement, prompting Eliles to demand answers about the garden’s keys. Temeru reveals a master key from the temple, distinct from a Choerkin skeleton key, fueling Eliles’s suspicion of the Lord Priest’s Face, a shapeshifter possibly posing as Wilu. With Artus, Eliles investigates the Shrine of the Undersky, recalling the Touched’s cryptic mention of “keys” (Ch. 12). They find a key in Elimwoth’s skeleton, unlocking a hidden compartment in the dais, but it’s empty. Artus’s discovery of a garnet eye stone leads to a second lock, revealing a golden crown with seven jeweled points and twelve sapphires, identified as a king priest’s crown from the God Wars. Convinced the Face orchestrated the murders to taunt her, Eliles hides the crown, vowing to protect it with her life, suspecting the killer’s game is far from over as the Sliver of Star’s power and the Face’s motives intertwine.

WoG Chapter 22 — Click Stick
WoG Chapter 24 — Slippery Thoughts
Whispers of Ghosts — Main Chapter Listing