Chapter 11

Arpix reflects on Livira’s arrival in the library years ago, how her fearless rule-breaking exposed his limits and galvanized their circle. He recalls the inferno that consumed the library and their last-second rescue by two assistants, a mercy he still cannot explain. The portal they used deposited them not at the Exchange but on Arthran Plateau, where the door soon faded.

Unsure of where or when they were, Salamonda recognized the distant peak above Crath, and Jella’s remembered maps identified the ruins as Arthran. The group—reduced to ten—survived four years by coaxing beans from the Dust. Hardship and danger became routine: wanderers stole from them, Giles was murdered, and Radmelk was taken by a creature beneath the dust. Authority structures eroded; Jost clung to rank while Meelan accepted loss as a rough freedom.

Spotting a fast-moving dust trail from the mountains, Arpix, Meelan, and Jella debate whether to set a signal fire. Jost protests, fearing thieves and killers, but Arpix argues that any future hope must arrive in strangers’ hands. Jella lights the perforated fire bowl under twin moons as a vast skeer cloud glows on the horizon, confirming a large pursuit.

Five skeer fliers close on three astonishingly swift runners. As the figures crest the plateau, Jella identifies them as canith. With the fliers nearly upon them, the smallest canith produces a moon-bright blade while the others brace with a small weapon and a rock. In a blur, the sword-wielder shatters one flier, bisects another, and decapitates a third, while the trio maneuvers to protect an injured tall companion.

In heartbeats the fliers are reduced to twitching wreckage. The canith reform and drive toward the humans, the sword-wielder guarding their rear. Arpix’s gamble to beacon strangers appears vindicated, and the isolated librarians face a moment that could finally alter their stagnant, perilous existence.