1-1: ISHIKK

This chapter introduces the village of FuAbra in the neutral territory of the Pure Lake, as seen through the eyes of a local fisherman named ishikk. Three mysterious foreigners hire ishikk to search for a man named hoid, but after five months of investigation across the region, he reports having found no sign of the target. The foreigners remain dissatisfied with his lack of progress.

ishikk walks through the warm, shallow waters of the Pure Lake toward the village of Fu abra, carrying a meager catch of fish and reflecting on the poor tides. He greets thaspic along the way and learns the foreigners are waiting at maib's house, where maib has been long trying to court ishikk into marriage. The three foreigners—whom ishikk mentally nicknames grump, blunt, and thinker—are an unusual mix: two dark-skinned makabaki men and a light-skinned man with unusual features and a scalp scar. They meet ishikk for his report on a search mission. ishikk has been traveling the pure lake region for five months, visiting fu ralis, fu namir, fu albast, and fu moorin, investigating whether a man matching the description they provided—white hair, clever tongue, arrowlike face—has been spotted. He insists he has found no trace despite using the names they gave him, and suggests they might hire him to catch a special fish that could aid the search. The three men debate briefly (with grump dismissing the idea as superstition and blunt suggesting it might have merit), before thinker intervenes and they switch to a foreign language. They conclude their meeting by giving ishikk instructions and a pouch of spheres as payment, then depart, splashing through the water in their thick boots. grump mutters in frustration about the "roamer" and calls it a fool's quest before following his companions. ishikk, satisfied with his report, heads back out to check his fish traps, contemplating whether he should finally accept maib's marriage proposals.