Chapter 44

Veya, gravely wounded and fevered on the Ergor Plains, extracts a black stone splinter from her cauterized shoulder wound, then flees from circling predators into an ancient cave entrance. She seals the cave shut using magic but loses consciousness from blood loss.

Veya stands alone on the frozen Ergor Plains, sheltering behind a rock as predators circle in the distance. She inspects a cauterized wound on her shoulder from four days prior, suspecting something remains embedded inside. Determined to atone for past wrongs and deliver a message to her brother Kaan about his daughter, she steels herself despite her fever and weakened state. She cuts open the wound with her dagger, then digs through the ravaged flesh with her fingers until she extracts a black stone splinter, which brings immediate relief. However, the Mists—her intended destination to contact Kaan through waifs—have drifted far away, and the howls of predators grow closer. She cauterizes the wound again with Kaan's weald (a magical light source) and prepares to fight off whatever hunts her. Spotting a dark cave entrance at the foot of the mountains, she recognizes it as an ancient labyrinth passage and limps toward it for shelter. As three large crowls—skeletal predators with jagged teeth—gallop across the snow in pursuit, she hurls herself into the cave and seals it shut using a magic word, "Gerg-agh tah vú," which causes the entrance to snap closed like a dragon's jaw. Exhausted and having lost significant blood, she drops Kaan's weald and loses consciousness in the darkness.