CHAPTER THREE Wood and Word

In the quiet inn, Graham delivers a charcoal-dark mounting board engraved “Folly.” Kote overpays him, learning the exotic wood resists burning. Bast joins Kote, and they debate the wisdom of displaying the weapon. Despite Bast’s unease, Kote hangs Folly above the bar, briefly regaining a spark of vitality through the act.

A sizable traveling group arrives with guards and a tinker, filling the Waystone with warmth and noise. Kote smoothly tends the room and leads a song. Amid the merriment, a sandy-haired traveler drunkenly insists Kote is Kvothe the Bloodless, recalling a performance in Imre and shattered stones by a fountain.

Kote deflects by grinning and claiming coincidence, then stages a fall and blames an old arrow wound. Upstairs, he admits to Bast that the man suspects the truth and orders Bast to dose him with mhenka and seed a precise cover story: a licensed escort from Ralien wounded three summers ago and bankrolled by a Cealdish merchant named Deolan. Bast complies while Kote withdraws, eating mechanically and sitting motionless before the dying fire; flickering light reveals many silver scars.

At dawn the travelers depart, the sandy-haired man groggy and harmless. Kote emerges later, asks after news, and visits the smith Caleb. He hears of Orrison sheep found shredded and a family shorthanded by taxes and conscription. Kote buys a rod of iron and old forge leathers, citing plans to tear out brambles and quoting his granda that autumn is the time to uproot lingering troubles.

Back at the empty inn, Kote drifts through small chores, acutely aware of the thin custom of late autumn and the long winter ahead. He closes early for the first time, leaving only Bast to notice how far his master has dimmed again.