Chapter Nine: Seasoned Mummy[edit | edit source]

Eliles grapples with boredom and Herald Watch's unnatural timelessness, where her tower’s blaze obscures day and night. The small community adapts, with Artus distilling spirits, Jinbin brewing ale and claiming the temple, Seden cooking at the Salty Frog, and others like Poluk milling grain, but Eliles feels purposeless, avoiding holy sites tied to painful memories. Artus alerts her to a troubling anomaly: gardens neither grow nor wilt, as if time is stalled, defying her attempts to coax life into plants. Their investigation is interrupted when Seden discovers a child’s body—Joslin, a boy from Kotin’s poisoning—hidden in a cellar, preserved in salt with a broken neck, suggesting murder tied to past events like Meris’ supposed suicide. Suspecting Joslin saw something incriminating, Eliles organizes a thorough search of the keep, but from the First Tower, she and Artus spot two living figures skulking in the streets, unseen before despite prior searches. Rallying the group, Eliles confirms no one was near Januel’s Way, revealing hidden inhabitants on the island. To avoid alerting the strangers, she orders paired travel and group sleeping at the Frog, except for Jinbin, who’s tasked with preparing Joslin’s pyre. Haunted by the possibility that these lurkers connect to Joslin’s death and fearing Shadows or worse, Eliles longs for the mundane, as the island’s mysteries deepen.

ToP Chapter 08 — Naked the Dark
ToP Chapter 10 — Clothed in Dark
Trail of Pyres - Main Chapter Listing