81 South

Tunuva and Wulf, riding the ichneumon Ninuru, hurry along the Spindles toward Lasia, sheltered when possible from passing wyrms. The Ersyr shows fewer wyrms but wide ruin and red-armed, screaming wanderers; Wulf, steady-eyed, shoots the sufferers to end their pain. Near the Lasian Basin, scents stir Wulf’s fragile memories of childhood.

They enter the Priory via the fig-root tunnel. Siyu rushes to Tunuva, hardened by months of battle, and Tunuva introduces Wulf as her birthson, known in Inys as Wulfert. Siyu, briefly afraid she has been replaced or shamed, is reassured that she remains Tunuva’s daughter in name and love.

Tunuva asks after Esbar and learns the hunters have been rotating through campaigns. Siyu settles Wulf to rest. In Tunuva’s sunroom, Esbar arrives, scarred and exhausted by leadership. They confront the long absence: Tunuva confirms she found her son and reports a dire discovery—Easterners are aiding wyrms, even riding a wyrm equipped with a saddle, and that wyrm’s magic resembled Canthe’s, repelled by Tunuva’s red flame.

Esbar postpones strategic conclusions, describing the overwhelming fights in the Ersyr and fearing eventual annihilation. The conversation turns intimate and fraught: Esbar admits she had feared Tunuva dead—or gone for good—and that caution once stifled Tunuva’s hope. Tunuva asserts her love has not changed.

Esbar welcomes Wulf as a part of Tunuva, and the two women seek forgiveness and renewal. They pledge to stand together and continue their duty, sitting with foreheads joined, breathing in shared resolve as war encroaches.