Chapter Twelve: Living Bones

Eliles, alone in Skywatch’s starry realm, manipulates time to pinpoint the Great Forgetting on the eleventh of Velôbrâ, 505 years ago, confirming the Spear of Bontore’s shift from arched to broken, validating historical tales. The Touched interrupts, revealing he sought her to confess a mistake: he wrongly told Solineus that “Almost” would never revisit a Celestial Gate, prompting an unknown listener to ensure Almost’s return to the gate’s “eye.” Cryptically urging Eliles to relay this to Solineus—whom he calls the “smudge”—the Touched challenges her to uncover a unique discovery. She reveals the Shrine of the Undersky, housing the Snakebite Skeleton of Elimwoth, uniquely left when other sacrificial priests were removed from Kaludor’s shrines. The Touched, momentarily stumped, suggests a deliberate purpose behind Elimwoth’s preservation, but their conversation is cut short by a fiery vision of a great eye, warning the Touched to silence his “flapping tongue.” He vanishes, cryptically advising Eliles to beware a “lion of white” without naming it. Returning to the present, where the Spear remains bent, Eliles is joined by Jinbin, who reports the reappearance of a mysterious wing in her Fire wall, unseen for two years. Unsurprised but wary, Eliles resolves to investigate, suspecting connections to the Touched, the eye, and Skywatch’s secrets, determined to uncover why these phenomena—linked to the shrine and her past encounters—resurface now.

WoG Chapter 11 — Archiver's Work
WoG Chapter 13 — Blow Holes
Whispers of Ghosts — Main Chapter Listing