Chapter 64

Veya descends into Gore's rubbish chute to retrieve a magical bangle she lost, confronting the velvet trogg who now possesses it. After a tense negotiation, she trades the trogg her stolen málmr (a prized item from her late father King Ostern) in exchange for the bangle's return, discovering in the process that the bangle holds dangerous secrets she'd rather not know.

Veya rappels down a trash chute into a massive cavern beneath Gore, navigating past mountains of meticulously organized refuse illuminated by fluorescent threads the trogg has secreted from her body—threads that form from memories ingested from objects. She locates the velvet trogg, a three-times-larger creature with four arms, bony frame, and glowing holes in her palms, who wears Veya's gem-encrusted bangle like a crown. Rather than risk direct confrontation, Veya sits before the trogg on a salvaged chair and negotiates. The trogg reveals she secretes luminous substance from palm holes proportional to the richness of an object's memories, and she's been reserving the bangle for a special occasion. Veya counters with an offer of trade: a stolen málmr (catch chain with black dragonscale Sabersythe carving) that belonged to her mother Mah and was gifted by her late father King Ostern, which Veya stole from his sleepsuite at seventeen. The trogg, detecting the theft and recognizing the item's greater memory richness, accepts the deal. Upon chewing the catch chain, the trogg reacts with shock and laughter, hinting at dangerous secrets embedded in the bangle that Veya had previously forgotten. Veya retrieves the bangle and departs, leaving the trogg with her new prize, recalling only vaguely that the bangle was originally won from a troubled Mindweft who claimed knowledge of the Book of Voyd and Aether, promising the bangle would serve two painful but necessary purposes.