WoG Chapter 08
Chapter Eight: Bones Forgotten edit
Eliles, enjoying the sweet grapes of a bountiful harvest on Herald's Watch, grapples with the community’s tensions over gardening duties and the mysterious priests of Skywatch, who claim food but shun labor, hinting at a looming reckoning. Jinbin, a monk and brewer, excitedly leads Eliles and Artus Choerkin to a hidden cave on the eastern shore, claiming it houses the buried shrine of Bontore, which Kotin concealed after Peneluple’s death. Using her Fire Elemental powers, Eliles confirms the cave’s depth, and the trio clears rubble to reveal a tunnel leading to a circular, man-made cavern adorned with glowing yellow garnets. At its center, a sandglass-shaped dais stands empty, and a kneeling skeleton in tattered robes, preserved by fused bones, shocks them. Eliles identifies it as a sacrificial priest from the Age of God Wars, killed with a snake-bite dagger to ensure passage to the Seven Heavens, a practice later banned by Lord Priest Elemeru. The cavern’s walls bear silver inlays depicting Bontore’s Broken Spear constellation, suggesting the shrine was built post-Great Forgetting, when Bontore’s celestial symbol shifted to the Bent Spear, reflecting his altered communication with mortals. Recognizing the shrine’s secrecy—unknown even to most Skywatch priests—Eliles insists on keeping it hidden from Skywatch, suspecting a connection between the shrine, Bontore’s legacy, and the island’s cloistered holies. As Jinbin and Artus agree to share the discovery only with trusted Salty Frog denizens, Eliles resolves to uncover the truth behind the shrine’s purpose and its link to Skywatch, possibly through the island’s constellations, before the priests can obscure it with lies.
- WoG Chapter 07 — Council of Highs
- WoG Chapter 09 — Tethered Silks
- Whispers of Ghosts — Main Chapter Listing