The Thief's Canticle

Ren settles into the lowest-status cot in the scout barracks and faces a challenge from Breck, a veteran scout. Ren deflects with the word Harrowfeld and earns grudging orientation on Section Three operations.

Nella presents Ren to Captain Drevin for scout corps assessment. Ren opens the armory padlock in under thirty seconds, reveals camp vulnerabilities mapped during third watch, and bypasses two soldiers before going over a branded sentry in the movement test.

Ren uses third-watch guild techniques to map the camp and eavesdrop on a military briefing in the officers mess. He learns Kellmar fell in six hours, the Dimming is advancing at triple speed, southern provinces may be lost, and human-gestated demons can wear dead soldiers faces to infiltrate camps.

The group arrives at the Army of the Immaculate's enormous staging camp, thousands of tents housing eight thousand people. Processing scatters the group: Callum is claimed by the clergy hierarchy, Nella reclassified as a military asset, Harsk sent to engineering, Fossick to general labor, Moth...

A military column from the Army of the Immaculate arrives at the crossroads and processes the group into its ranks. Ren observes branded soldiers closely, noting their inhuman efficiency and emptied expressions.

Six days after the silent town, the exhausted group rests at a crossroads shrine where Callum and Ren have a deep conversation about faith versus institutional certainty.

Something with inhuman footstep patterns follows the group through the night. After setting concentric alarm networks at camp, Ren spots a cracked-porcelain skinned demon at the outer perimeter during his watch.

Ren leads the group into a silent abandoned village where residents have vanished without violence. He discovers boneglass veins glowing in the foundation walls and warm ground beneath the cellars—evidence that the town has been consumed by the boneglass network.

Ren proves his value by advising on the broken wheel repair, stealing food and supplies, gathering military intelligence, and routing the group along a ridgeline to safely bypass a flooded river crossing. Nella formally accepts Ren as the group thief on probation.