Contents
Chapter 16
Overview
After the skirmish with shipwrecked goblins, Galva and her squad bathe and are celebrated, but she feels untested and shaken. Pressured to celebrate with a hired lover, Galva refuses, provoking Vega Charnat. The bathhouse’s leveling custom prevents violence, and Rovain redirects Vega. Galva’s lingering trauma surfaces, hinting at deeper trials ahead.
Summary
Galva recounts that neither she nor her two fellow dams were injured in the fight with the short shipwrecked goblins; the war corvids bore most of the danger. A bolt in Richu’s wing and one lodged in Galva’s shield prove the enemy’s light arms, reinforcing her sense that they have not truly been tested.
That evening, they visit a newly converted bathhouse, where Espalle’s townspeople court Ispanthian favor with services, food, and wine. Galva prefers the hot water and quiet over celebration, uneasy after what she saw at sea and unsettled by her trembling hands.
Her comrades try to gift her the blind whore Rovain as a reward for her first kill. Galva refuses on principle, wary of bondage behind such work, and asks that he be paid and released instead. Vega Charnat taunts her about class and desire, needling her in front of the others.
Invoking the bathhouse’s leveling custom, Galva answers with a cutting quip but avoids escalation. Vega restrains herself, and Rovain deftly leads Vega away, defusing the standoff without breaking the sanctity of the place.
Left alone, Galva suffers intrusive flashes of the goblin’s eye and teeth and the feel of its hook in her mail. She steadies herself by recalling homely comforts and an old brown mare, ending in quiet, unresolved calm and the conviction that sterner trials are coming.
Who Appears
- Galva DagueraProtagonist; shaken after the skirmish, declines a hired lover, parries Vega’s insult, and wrestles with intrusive memories.
- Vega CharnatStreet boxer and fellow dam; publicly taunts Galva in the bathhouse but is defused without a fight.
- RovainBlind male sex worker offered to Galva; instead leads Vega away, easing the confrontation.
- InocentaGalva’s close comrade; celebrates Galva being ‘blooded’ and nearly intervenes during Vega’s taunt.
- RichuWar corvid with a wing bolt; emblem of the corvids’ dominance in the skirmish.