Midnight Tides/Chapter 3

Face to the Light
betrayed by the Dark
Father Shadow
lies bleeding
Unseen and unseeing
lost
until his Children
take the final path
and in the solitude
of strangers
Awaken once more

Tiste Edur Prayer

Calach Bay

An Edur corpse, that of a Beneda warrior killed by Letherii sorcery, is washed up on the beach of Calach Bay.

Turning Tides by Lauren Saint-Onge (Official Image)

Shortly after, four K'orthan longboats set out carrying Hannan Mosag, his K'risnan, and around four hundred warriors. The Edur longboats are concealed by a bank of magical fog and the Letherii ships are unable to move because the Warlock King has ensured there is no wind to power their sails.

Trull Sengar and his brother Fear are among the Edur warriors in the Warlock King's boat along with more shadow wraiths than Trull has ever seen before. But the Warlock King has summoned something else to deal with the Letherii. At a signal from Hanan Mosag, a dark presence emerges from the water to attack the ships, and the Edur are forced to cover their ears at the Letherii screams. When the fog clears the Letherii ships are burned out and wallowing. The Edur approach the ships and the shadow wraiths board, turning them and sailing the ships back to Lether. The Edur return to their own homes. Trull and Fear are both shaken.

Hiroth village

Udinaas is the slave chosen to help six Edur widows prepare the body of the Beneda warrior for burial, a long drawn out process involving hot coins and wax. After spending the entire day working on the body, Udinaas leaves the burial hut in time to see the Edur longboats return. He notes that not one Edur has been hurt in the raid.

On his return, Trull is approached by his father and mother who wish to know what happened. Uruth protests that the Warlock King made a demonic summoning and is distressed that he did not use Kurald Emurlahn. She wishes Fear to take his brothers Trull and Rhulad to a place called the Stone Bowl but is over-ruled by Tomad Sengar. As they walk off, Fear questions Trull's concerns over his betrothed Mayen and her relationship with their brother Rhulad.

Udinaas' dream

Menandore and Udinaas by PLUGO

Udinaas dreams of fire...of being dragged along by a dead, black-skinned warrior talking of the Lady, who then appears. Menandore, Daughter Dawn, blinding white and gold and riding a blazing skeletal horse, cuts through Udinaas' captor with her sword and axe. She dismounts to place a boot on his head and asks him to choose between following his own human path and the path of the Wyval. In the face of her taunts he chooses Wyval...and she uses him. In his dream he soon finds Feather Witch beside him, asking him to explain where they are and what happened to him. Udinaas tries to tell her of the rape, but Feather Witch thinks it is just the blood of the Wyval poisoning his mind and making him hallucinate. She tells him that if the Edur discover his condition, they will kill him.

Hiroth village

Trull Sengar is standing guard over the body of the Beneda warrior as it awaits burial when he spots Rhulad walking off into the dark where Mayen keeps vigil. He considers abandoning his post to determine if Fear has been betrayed when a tall, thin figure with red glowing eyes emerges from the forest and speaks to him. He recognises the figure and is gripped by fear, but calls it 'Betrayer' and tells it to leave. As it turns away, Trull asks how it can be here if Father Shadow has imprisoned it. The figure, clearly that of Silchas Ruin, answers that it is Mother Dark's gift that allows him to wander freely in his dreams. Then Ruin muses on broken shards scattered across a battlefield and on who could want them, before it turns away and re-enters the forest.

Udinaas wakes in the night and realises he does indeed carry the Wyval inside himself. Terrified his condition will be discovered, he wanders the Sengar home and comes face to face with Uruth. But she detects nothing, asking him to prepare food, drink, and clothing for the three Sengar brothers who will be travelling that night.

Stone Bowl

The Stone Bowl by Puck

Trull and Rhulad are being taken by Fear to a place known as the Stone Bowl at Uruth’s command. They walk all night to the Kaschan Trench, a vast gorge, and take turns descending by rope. Fear heads down first, and when Rhulad and Trull are alone Rhulad taunts his brother regarding his intentions for Mayen.

At the gorge's bottom is the Stone Bowl, a broad depression marked by towering standing stones. Fear tells them the Elder warren of Kaschan produces the light emanating from the Stone Bowl even though its children are long dead. At the bottom of the bowl are thousands and thousands of bones, from Kaschan, Tiste, and Wyval, as well as the crushed skull of an Eleint.

Fear tells his brothers about the secret knowledge carried by the Edur widows and passed on to him and Binadas by Uruth. It concerns Kaschan sorcery and the consequences of Scabandari's victory when the Tiste first invaded this world. As revenge, the dying Kaschan race sent their magic into Kurald Galain like a devouring plague. The Warren of Darkness was cut off from the other realms and Mother Dark was driven into the Abyss. There, she would ultimately die consuming Light, Shadow, Darkness, and the Abyss itself. All life was now locked into mortality and faced an end. The Elder Gods and Eleint were angered because the Tiste invasion had driven the Kaschan to their last act. They hunted down Father Shadow and the Elder god, Kilmandaros, slew him. Then Scabandari's spirit was placed into a prison of eternal pain to last until the end of the world.

Fear reveals that the Eleint skull lying in the bottom of the gorge is that of Scabandari and that Hannan Mosag means to avenge him. Somehow the Warlock King had found his way to the Stone Bowl and discovered its secrets for himself. Uruth knows that Hannan Mosag is drawing on deadly powers unknown to the Edur and fears the Warlock King is stained. Fear warns his brothers that they must keep their eyes open when they retrieve the "gift" Hannan Mosag is sending them to obtain. After all, who is the one who has sent it?