Chapter Thirty-Three: Empty Climb[edit | edit source]

Meliu, Polus Broldun, and Bîdorik Gorshtim lead 4,000 Silone and Helmveliner warriors through the rain-soaked Southern Forest, renamed Roemhien Forest by Polus, toward Green Mountain to find missing clansmen (Ch. 10, 17, 27). The three-week march, slowed by cautious footing, allows Meliu to ponder trivialities like the forest’s name, bantering with Polus. Reaching Green Mountain, they find its fortified pyramid eerily deserted, with no signs of battle despite intact gates, furniture, and supplies like whale oil and arrows. Meliu’s prayers detect no life, and a cold campfire suggests abandonment days ago. Over ten days, the army clears the surrounding ruins, exposing ancient arches and building a low stone wall, but encounters only snakes and minor injuries, heightening Meliu’s unease. Discovering claw-like scratches and puncture marks on the pyramid’s northern palisade, unlike ax scars, Meliu suspects an animal or demon climbed the wall, possibly opening the gate to abduct the clansmen. Polus, wary of Shadows-like marks (Ch. 20), orders increased nighttime fires, guards, and priests, while Meliu suggests fortifying walls with dagger-vine and bramble fences inspired by goat herders. As riders head to the Bluffs to report, Meliu grapples with the Codex of Sol’s weight and fears of demonic forces, urging vigilance for any clue to the clansmen’s fate, bracing for an unseen threat in the Roemhien Forest.

WoG Chapter 32 — Final Foundation
WoG Chapter 34 — Seeking the Mountain
Whispers of Ghosts — Main Chapter Listing