23. Where the Wicked Roost

From a cloud-ship, Kinch surveys Erydon: terraced vineyards on Thumos’s Throne, towering walls, glittering aqueducts, and the black-stone arena known as the Bone Palace. The city’s alchemical lights signal power and wealth, while Kinch and Galva fear their fates as potential gladiators.

The ship docks at the royal palace’s airdock at dusk. Escorted into a tower garden and then a caged ascender, they descend past opulent floors, catching a child’s curiosity and distant music. As they near the underground level, Kinch hears heavy breathing from something immense nearby.

At the base, they meet the palace slavemistress, Sylvae Mar Mexes, who orders them to address her as Ponira. She notices Kinch’s reaction to her height-boosting shoes and instantly strikes his injured lip with a blackglass baton, demonstrating absolute authority. Kinch complies verbally; Galva’s silence earns her a stinging slap.

Ponira announces that Galva will spend only one night there before transfer to King Agraias’s ludus, making Galva the sandmaster’s problem. The declaration confirms their imminent separation and Galva’s likely path into the arena.

Led past the ascender’s recess, they discover the source of the breathing: an enormous, aged geigon named Pulhu, blind and rust-stained, straining on a massive chain to power the lift. Ponira addresses him familiarly, revealing a routine of exhausting labor. The sight embodies Erydon’s refined cruelty—elegant surfaces sustained by enslaved strength.

The chapter closes with Kinch and Galva being taken to quarters, their parting assured by morning. Kinch notes that Galva will become famous in Erydon, foreshadowing her rise even as both remain trapped within the city’s merciless order.