EoS Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven: Lesser Evils

Tokodin, a monk of Istinjoln, awakens bound and in pain in a dark cave, twelve days before the Eve of Snows, days after a Colok ambush. Mecum, a grizzled bearer presumed dead from a prior attack, tends him, revealing it’s the twelfth of Yistole and they’re high in the Estertok Range as Colok “guests.” Mecum, captured in the Treaty Lands, evades Tokodin’s questions about his mission, focusing on his “nice” funeral. Grolkan, the Colok chieftain who beheaded Loepus, frees Tokodin, demanding he facilitate talks with the Choerkin within three days, denying Colok ate their victims. Torn between aiding the killers of his friends or condemning another to capture, Tokodin sips vile tea, wrestling with defiance and the weight of his choice as Mecum predicts a swift death for refusal.

• EoS Chapter 10 — Afloat in an Ephemeral Sea
• EoS Chapter 12 — Caution in the Tend Winds