Chapter 78

The narrator returns to the hideout after a grueling hunt, finding Essi asleep at her worktable with suspicious blood-stained runes etched into stone. Tending to Gruffin the creature's voracious appetite and worrying about the prolonged absence of Raeve and Kaan, the narrator collapses into exhausted sleep after minimal preparation.

The narrator hauls a sack of rodents through a glamour-hidden entry into a warm refuge, nearly blown off the wall by a dangerous gust of wind—possibly caused by Clode. Inside, Essi is found asleep at her worktable after days of continuous work since the aurora's cycles. The narrator discovers Essi has injured her hand and etched minuscule blood-soaked runes into stone, the purpose of which troubles them. Gruffin, a young winged creature with iridescent feathers, is nesting at Essi's feet; the narrator feeds him the skinned rodents from the hunt, a task growing increasingly arduous as Gruffin's appetite expands. The narrator reflects on the world's collapse and the unknown fate of Raeve and Kaan, regretting not having asked which direction they departed. Exhausted from hunting small game and haunted by visions of fae corpses in the Ditch being consumed by vermin, the narrator briefly attempts rest, managing only twenty-two counts before falling fully asleep.