TL;DR

• Krenzi and Tulasa extract Shaghira’s record from the Invader, and Krenzi punishes the unruly demon.
• Chaser and Ghanna encounter a patrol on the ridge of Caer Hyvel while traveling to Hichtepunt with a mixed scouting party of Hounds and Skaalruters. The patrol mistakes them for Ruprekt Fan Hyvel’s gang and attacks, but Chaser’s scouting party defeats the patrol.
• Duke and the Baachus crew welcome more Klavs to the ruins of Fan Hyvel’s fort, and learn about Fan Hyvel’s spear.

In the Infinite Stacks

As Krenzi tells his tale about summoning the Invader, scribes appear to take down the record and the Stacks are sated. Krenzi then orders the Invader to retreive the book that it took from the Infinite Stacks, and the demon yields it to its master with a page missing.

Krenzi punishes the Invader, and the demon howls with torment, finally disgorging the crumpled page, covered in gummy, sap-like mucus.

Tulasa and Krenzi discuss their next steps, laying plans to travel to Heksepunt to gather Skunkblum for Krenzi’s demon.

Ghanna’s Test

After making camp, Ghanna quietly asks Pinaka why she aimed an arrow at Chaser. Pinaka says the man scared her and she doesn’t want to talk about it.

The next morning Ghanna speaks with Chaser as they ride together toward the ridgeline of Caer Hyvel. When Chaser reveals that he knows about her sorcerous scar and demon, she portrays herself as a victim of the necromancers in Adûn. Ghanna probes him to find out how he knows so much, but he stonewalls her.

As they mount the ridge, other riders come into view, and their captain identifies Chaser’s scouting party as deserters and outlaws led by Ruprekt Fan Hyvel. The Skaalruters and Hounds pull back in order to draw their enemies onto the narrow ridge, and they exchange volleys. With decisive support from Pinaka and Lily, the patrol is routed and unhorsed, leaving only skeletal remains that blow away like snow in the wind.

Fan Hyvel’s Fort

In the morning, Armentad and Sidney help themselves to milk from the Hinnemûs ox Posy, drawing ire of Nolduske. Sietske arrives with her husband Troché Twiling, along with a dozen children of all ages, and a mixed group of young adults. Sietske embraces her mother Nolduske, who is alarmed that they did not meet Renke, who went out to fetch them. Sietske and Troché look grim.

Troché argues that the Klavs must fight, in order to drive out the invaders who brought war to their valley. He brings up the legend of Ruprekt Fan Hyvel, who first settled this vale with fighting men and women, from whom the Klavs trace their ancestry; and he hopes that they might uncover Fan Hyvel’s spear here at the ruined fort, as a symbol to rally the Klau folk to arms.

Nolduske spurns such dangerous talk, but Siliona asks Duke if she and he might help Troché “find” the spear, summoning a power that might help the Klavs truly drive out their oppressors. Duke takes it to Armentad and Sidney for a vote, and they agree to assist the Klavs in their fight in exchange for the gold they gave to Renke.

The young adults gather around Nolduske’s campfire and they sing a few hymns in remembrance of their dead. They then recount how all of this came to pass, starting with the arrival of a golden-eyed woman who rode through the Klau without speaking with or answering anyone, driving straight toward Caer Hyvel.

It begins as a jumbled exchange with many disagreements and corrections as they piece it all together, talking about the arrival of the Felkiezers, the abduction of the Lupitz family, and the fire on Heksepunt. They blame Eldara Vergonha, Pryster Jurryt’s wife, for informing Adacius about Niehege’s farm, and they believed that all the Lupitzes were dead until Adacius returned with the Hudbeklaaid mercenaries.