48. The Bitterns

Kinch, Galva, Norrigal, and Yorbez hire a sail-raft from Grevitsa to Rastiva, spending Galva’s Edth windfall to bring the donkeys. They reach Molrova’s capital quickly, resupply amid its blue-painted hills, and endure Yorbez’s noisy night with a boy-whore. At dawn they depart west on the first of Vintners, bound for the Bittern Mountains and, beyond them, giant-ravaged Oustrim.

The march grows colder and heavier with the looming threat of giants. Kinch grieves Malk and steadies himself with imagined banter. That night, under a full Lūnday moon, Kinch and Norrigal make love in a playful rite, briefly easing their mourning while acknowledging the uncertainty of their future together.

As the moon wanes and the Bitterns near, Galva reveals a crucial plan: before crossing into Oustrim, they will visit Fulvir—the powerful, unaffiliated magicker who created her tattooed battle-birds, Dalgatha and the late Bellu. The revelation raises both hope for aid and the peril of approaching a figure famed as the Father of Abominations.

The party chooses a narrow, treacherous shortcut toward Fulvir’s bonegarden. Norrigal, fighting exhaustion, chews fast-leaf, chattering animatedly. A dim fog settles prematurely, and Kinch, lulled by her voice and distracted by thoughts of Fulvir’s library, spots a tempting coin and drifts slightly from the group.

Kinch realizes too late that hostile magic is at work: the fog thickens, Norrigal’s voice leads him yet never lets him close, and the presence feels old, dry, and animal—unlike Norrigal’s warm signature. Abandoning his donkey, he lunges toward the talking silhouette that has replaced her, confronting the decoy as the chapter ends.