The Exile's Litany

While clearing an unnamed village three days after Greyhollow, Callum notices boneglass formations in the church follow pre-existing geometric channels.

The army launches a full assault on Greyhollow, a larger demon-occupied market town. Ren observes ninety minutes from a drainage culvert, then assists perimeter security while the branded vanguard dismantles forty-plus demons in twenty minutes.

The advance scouts discover the demon-occupied village of Ashford. A hunter-class demon attacks Ren; he survives using flash powder to exploit its light-sensitive crystalline eyes and a belt knife to draw first blood—an amber fluid.

The army begins its massive march south on the Pilgrim Road, thirty thousand strong with Hierophant Lethane blazing a divine beacon at the column's head to inspire soldiers.

Ren encounters the three surviving members of the Kellmar guild at an army processing station—fence Corvin, lockpick Alessi, and runner Danne. Corvin gives Ren the late Kellmar guildmaster's bronze token, entrusting him with carrying forward the dying continental guild tradition.

The fall of Kellmar brings five to six thousand refugees to the army camp and Ren spends fourteen hours at the processing station gathering intelligence.

Ren investigates the Dimming at the army western outpost, a supernatural phenomenon where light simply ceases at the western horizon. Walking the gradient boundary with Nella he documents its eerie properties including stepped light reduction, independently moving shadows, compass failure, and...

Branded Sergeant Volsk confronts Ren at the water station over his private audience with the Hierophant, exposing the deep caste contempt the branded hierarchy holds for unbranded outsiders.

Ren is summoned to a private midnight meeting with the Hierophant Lethane Ashara, who reviews his demon village intelligence report and recognizes his unique value as an interpreter rather than a standard scout.