Chapter Thirteen: The Bloody Scholar[edit | edit source]

Ivin Choerkin and the Estertok Wardens, led by Pikarn, don full armor in Ervinhin and ride to the Omindi Pass, examining a priestly ambush site marked by a red post. Ivin finds Colok claw scratches and hand-sized dents in the cliffs, suggesting an unnatural climber, but Pikarn and Rinold dismiss them as natural. They proceed to the Ihomjo mines, meeting miner Fig Lundin and Meliu, a wounded priestess from the Crack of Burdenis. Meliu describes Shadows—entities from the hidden fifth shrine—possessing bodies as Taken, killing Guntar’s group of twenty, with nineteen dead. She offers to guide them to the Crack for books, demanding death over possession. Ivin sees a chance to ally Choerkin and Istinjoln against the Shadows, but he and Pikarn suspect Meliu’s book motive hides deeper intent, planning to enter the caves despite the eerie threat.

EoS Chapter 12 — Caution in the Ten Winds
EoS Chapter 14 — The Baroque Pearl