ToP Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve: Adopted into Blood

Kinesee and Alu sneak out to breakfast with the Ravinrins, where Kinesee receives a steel-set pearl necklace from Ilpen, promising to tend his donkeys in return. Noticing a Hidreng army on the southern ridge, Kinesee seeks Solineus, finding him at the Choerkin tent amid heated clan discussions. The group debates evacuating vulnerable Silone by ship to the Blooded Plain to avoid Hidreng missionary conversions, with Tedeu proposing Solineus adopt Kinesee and Alu as Emudar clan-blood for protection, to be warded by the Ravinrins during his absence. Kinesee, distraught at losing another father figure, reluctantly agrees to a pretend adoption, fearing it complicates her feelings for Solineus. Meliu, revealing herself as a priestess, enters with the Codex of Sol, admitting Ulrikt tasked her to deliver it, suggesting it holds clues to the Shadows of Man disaster. Despite Polus’s skepticism, Roplin agrees Meliu should translate the ciphered text, and Ivin welcomes her to join the Sin Medor negotiations for her Hidreng fluency. As plans form to manage the Hidreng threat and evacuation, Kinesee grapples with her new identity as a Mikjehemlut, torn between loyalty to her late father and the safety Solineus’s name offers, all while the camp braces for an uncertain future.

• ToP Chapter 11 — Windbreak on the Rise
• ToP Chapter 13 — Conversations with History
• Trail of Pyres - Main Chapter Listing